Race to the Top. District of Columbia Report. Year 4: School Year 2013-2014. [State-Specific Summary Report]
Author: Department of Education (ED)
Date: 2015-04-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Academic Standards,Accountability,Achievement Gap,Administrator Effectiveness,Alignment (Education),Budgets,Career Readiness,Charter Schools,College Readiness,Core Curriculum,Data,Educational Assessment,Educational Change,Educational Improvement,Elementary Secondary Education,Federal Legislation,Federal Aid,Educational Legislation,Federal Programs,Formative Evaluation,Grants,Higher Education,Language Arts,Leadership Effectiveness,Literacy,Low Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Measurement Objectives,Models,Outcomes of Education,Partnerships in Education,Poverty,Principals,Professional Development,Program Effectiveness,Program Implementation,School Districts,School Effectiveness,School Turnaround,State Government,State Standards,STEM Education,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Evaluation,Student Characteristics,National Competency Tests

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of the District of Columbia's annual Race to the Top implementation. The Year 4 report for Phase 2 grantees highlights successes and accomplishments, identifies challenges, and provides lessons learned from implementation from approximately September 2013 through September 2014. Given that Delaware and Tennessee's initial four-year grant periods ended in June and July 2014, respectively, for Phase 1 grantees, the Year 4 report includes the beginning of the no-cost extension year (Year 5). For a majority of Year 4, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) reported that the agency's Race to the Top and content expert positions were fully staffed, including in areas such as data and research, student learning objectives (SLOs), and STEM, enabling OSSE to provide effective oversight and support. During Year 4, OSSE enhanced its resources on transitioning to college- and career-ready standards and assessments. In the area of &quot;Great Teachers and Leaders,&quot; OSSE continued to provide participating LEAs with support to implement educator evaluation systems, OSSE released its SLO guidance in fall 2013 and provided intensive training on developing and implementing SLOs to local educational agencies (LEAs) in spring and summer 2014. The Charter School Teacher Residency (Pipelines) and Professional Learning Communities for Effectiveness (PLaCEs) consortia and one of the Expanded Growth Measures competitive grantees continued to implement their plans with high quality. Although the Pipelines subgrants concluded at the end of school year (SY) 2012-2013, both LEAs opted to continue their respective Pipelines programs with alternate funding sources. During Year 4, OSSE completed another agency staff audit and restructuring which produced new structures and processes for working across OSSE divisions. As a result, OSSE sometimes stalled in decision-making and experienced delays in carrying out certain activities. OSSE continued to support the transition to more rigorous college- and career-ready standards and assessments, but experienced mixed results. OSSE supported LEAs to fully implement educator evaluation systems, but experienced challenges after a contractor error affected the calculation of value-added growth measures (VAM) and Median Growth Percentile (MGP) data for SY 2012-2013. After struggling to develop a comprehensive strategy for PLA school interventions in Years 1-3, OSSE amended its intervention strategy and budget for persistently lowest-achieving (PLA) schools in December 2013. During Year 4, OSSE made significant progress on implementing its activities in STEM, but it still remains delayed in meeting its commitments and performance measures in this area of work. A glossary is included. [For &quot;Race to the Top. District of Columbia Report. Year 3: School Year 2012-2013. [State-Specific Summary Report],&quot; see ED580295.]