SBOE Weekly Ed Links: 09-21-2018

By: Paul Negron, Public Affairs Specialist

Check out this week’s can’t-miss events and education news in the District and around the country!

SBOE IN THE NEWS
D.C. Council members look to curtail mayor’s control of city schools | Washington Post (Ruth)

Unionists elected to political office busy getting more unionists to run | People’s World (Ruth)

Parents, stakeholders still feel distrust in DCPS as search for chancellor and DME continues at town hall | (Laura)

ESSA TASK FORCE
– September Monthly Meeting Video Recording
– September Meeting Twitter Thread
– September Meeting Presentation Slides

SCHOOL REPORT CARD
– OSSE’s Draft Report Card Mock-up (Presented to ESSA Task Force September 11)
– OSSE 2018-19 DC School Report Card and STAR Framework Technical Guide
– OSSE School Report Card Site

DC NEWS
Mayor Bowser alters panel that selects schools chief amid parents’ lawsuit | Washington Post
Facing a court battle, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) moved this week to alter the composition of the panel advising her on finding a schools chief — a decision that underscores the high stakes involved with installing a chancellor.

Thousands of additional students expected in public schools by 2026, new report says | DC Line
DC’s public school system has been plastered across scandal-driven headlines the past year, with city officials dealing with leadership turmoil, subpar graduation returns and allegations of attendance fraud. And, despite ongoing capacity challenges in parts of DC, education officials will likely have to find a way manage substantial enrollment growth over the next decade, according to a new report from the D.C. Policy Center.

D.C. Mayor’s Control Of Schools Under Challenge | WAMU
Members of the D.C. Council are challenging Mayor Muriel Bowser’s control of schools.

D.C. Council holds hearing on independent education research group | Washington Times
Council Chairman Phil Mendelson opened a hearing on the legislation Tuesday, saying he had heard “rumors” the mayor is moving forward with a plan to create her own education research group whose funds and data she would control. But Ahnna Smith, interim deputy mayor for education, dodged lawmakers questions about Miss Bowser’s secretive plan, sticking to what Mr. Mendelson called “careful” talking points throughout the three-hour hearing.

Interactive Map: In Wake of Student’s Death, See Which DC-Area Schools Have Motorized Classroom Partitions | NBC Washington
After a 9-year-old boy was crushed to death by a motorized room partition in his Northern Virginia school this spring, a News4 consumer investigation found that nearly 500 of the partitions are located in schools in the D.C. area.

Mayor Muriel Bowser discusses new proposed legislation on education in the District | Kojo Show
Mayor Muriel Bowser’s oversight of the Office of the State Superintendent of Education is being challenged by new proposed legislation in the Council.

Homeless Ballou HS student back on football field after residency issues | WUSA9
A homeless Ballou High School student is back on the football field after residency concerns pulled him from the game.

Council Challenges Executive Branch, Urban Institute at Contentious Education Research Collaborative Hearing | Washington City Paper
In a contentious hearing on Tuesday, four D.C. councilmembers pressed the mayor’s education deputy and the Urban Institute’s education policy director to not undermine the legislative branch as it works to create a research collaborative for D.C. school.

Why D.C.’s Mayor Has Control Of Schools And What The Council Wants To Do About It | WAMU
It’s been eleven years since the D.C. Council approved a historic transfer of power. Now, some members of the Council are trying to reverse course. But Mayor Muriel Bowser is against the idea, saying the Council shouldn’t “play musical chairs” with leadership.

ESSA NEWS
Past Is Prologue on Common Core Tests | Education Next
The PARCC and Smarter Balanced state testing consortia set in motion significant improvements in state testing systems and substantially improved the quality of student assessments, either directly or indirectly, nationwide. In a recent post we outlined the advances the consortia produced. But in our work we have also identified several priorities for states and districts as they evolve their testing regimes under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

State releases first new scorecard for public schools | WV News
Officials with the state Department of Education released the first results from a new school accountability system required by the federal government. Just 37 percent of students in public schools met or exceeded the state’s standards for math, while 45 percent met the standards for reading, according to the scorecard of data released Thursday.

Here’s how Montana’s Office of Public Instruction proposes changing its school report cards | Billings Gazette
Montana’s schools won’t be getting letter grades on their new report cards. Instead, a series of graphs will show how a school’s students stack up against the rest of the state — mostly on standardized tests.

NATIONAL NEWS
Winners and Losers From Capitol Hill’s School Spending Agreement | EdWeek
We finally have an idea of how much Congress wants to spend on education.

Preparing for Success: Helping High Schoolers Become Better Readers and Writers | WestEd
In California, as in other states, many high school graduates enter college without the skills needed to keep up with demanding reading and writing requirements. Since 2004, university and secondary educators have been working to change those patterns.

A teacher-recruitment program set up to fail | American Enterprise Institute
In 2007, Democrats in Congress enacted a program to recruit teachers in “high-need fields” to schools serving low-income students. Some ten years later, a group of Democratic lawmakers is demanding “answers and action” from Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos regarding problems with this same program.

America’s Education Priorities for the New School Year: 8 Current & Former Education Chiefs Weigh In on How States & Schools Can Drive Innovation in 2019 | 74
In the lead up to the new school year, The 74 interviewed an array of education experts about the current state of America’s schools and the top challenges facing the nation’s education system as states rethink student goals and district accountability under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

5 Things to Know About the Education Funding Compromise Moving Through Congress | 74
A compromise Education Department spending bill, the first year-long funding bill for the department to be passed in nearly a decade, is speeding toward final passage ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline.

A Test to Assess Creativity? It’s in the Works | EdWeek
When teenagers all over the world take the PISA exam in 2021, they could face a new kind of test: one that aims to measure their creativity. And the maker of a major U.S. college-admissions exam—ACT—will build it.

How much do rising test scores tell us about a school? | American Enterprise Institute
Reading and math scores have long been the currency of American schooling, and never more so than in the past two decades since the No Child Left Behind Act. Today, advocates will describe a teacher as “effective” when what they really mean is that the teacher’s students had big increases in reading and math scores.

RESEARCH
Will Children of Current Millennials Become Future Public School Students? | D.C. Policy Center

Work-Based Learning: Model Policy Components | Education Commission of the States

Grade Inflation in High Schools (2005–2016) | Fordham Institute

Second chance or second track? Credit recovery participation in US high schools | American Enterprise Institute

High School & the Future of Work | XQ Institute

Getting to the Core of School Finance | National Association of State Boards of Education

The Extra Mile: Time to School and Student Outcomes in Washington, DC | Urban Institute

Beyond Engagement: Using Technology to Enable New Learning Experiences and Empower Educational Experiences | Project Tomorrow

DISTRICT READINESS TO SUPPORT SCHOOL TURNAROUND | Center on School Turnaround at WestEd

Leading Personalized Learning | Center on Reinventing of Public Education

EVENTS
SEPTEMBER
9/22: DCPS Back to School Block Party
9/23: DC State Fair
9/24: WARD 6 CHANCELLOR SEARCH TOWN HALL
9/24: The Big Idea: Cracking the Code on Chronic Absence
9/25: Achieving a 90 percent Graduation Rate: Relationships and Mindsets that Strengthen School Climate
9/25: US Senate Hearing: The Every Student Succeeds Act: States Leading The Way
9/25: RSVP: OPPORTUNITY MYTH LAUNCH
9/25: Making ESSA’s Equity Promise Real
9/27: America to Me
9/27: DressCoded: Black Girls, Bodies & the Bias Embedded in School Dress Codes
9/27: Education 20/20 Double Standards on Discipline Will Widen the Racial Divide
9/29: OSSE DC Parent and Family Engagement Summit