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District of Columbia Public Schools: While Early Reform Efforts Tackle Critical Management Issues, a District-Wide Strategic Education Plan Would Help Guide Long-Term Efforts

GAO-08-549T Published: Mar 14, 2008. Publicly Released: Mar 14, 2008.
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Highlights

In response to long-standing problems with student academic performance, the condition of school facilities, and the overall management of the D.C. public school system, the D.C. Council approved the Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007 (Reform Act). The Reform Act made major changes to the operations and governance of the D.C. public school system, including giving the Mayor authority over public schools, including curricula, personnel, and school facilities. While other large urban school districts have transferred governance of schools to their mayors, D.C. is unique because it functions as both local and state offices for many education responsibilities. GAO's testimony focuses on (1) the status of the District's efforts to reform its public school system, and (2) what the District has done to establish accountability for these efforts. To address these issues GAO reviewed documents, interviewed District education officials and interviewed principals from nine D.C. public schools.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Executive Office of the Mayor To help ensure the long-term success of the District's transformation of its public school system, the Mayor should direct the D.C. Department of Education to develop a long-term districtwide education strategic plan. The strategic plan should include certain key elements including a mission or vision statement, long-term goals and priorities, and approaches and time frames for assessing progress and achieving goals. It may also include a description of the relationship between the long-term strategic and annual performance goals. In addition, the strategic plan should describe how coordination is to occur among the District's education offices.
Closed – Implemented
The D.C. Department of Education, more commonly referred to as the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME), is in the process of developing a long-term districtwide education strategic plan to coordinate the work of the District's education agencies and other stakeholders. Throughout 2010, DME, with input from multiple stakeholders, developed the Education and Youth Development Plan, which includes a clearly articulated vision statement for children and youth from birth to 24 years of age; districtwide goals and operational priorities; an assessment of needs; and an operational framework that provides for shared accountability, community involvement, and coordination. The Education and Youth Development Plan identified areas of alignment between the existing strategic plans across the various D.C. government agencies, identified gaps where additional policy or regulation would be helpful, and made appropriate recommendations to the Mayor. DME completed work on the Education and Youth Development plan in December 2010, just as D.C. was transitioning from Mayor Fenty's administration to Mayor Gray's. Under Mayor Gray's administration, DME built on the Education and Youth Development Plan to create Raise DC, a cross-sector collaborative partnership that focuses on aligning districtwide efforts to improve outcomes for young people from birth to age 24, much like Fenty's plan. Launched in Spring 2012, Raise DC includes a mission statement, long-term districtwide goals, and outcome measures to gauge progress toward those goals. Raise DC involves D.C. education agencies (including DME, DCPS, Office of the State Superintendent for Education, and the Public Charter School Board), non-education agencies (including the Child and Family Services Administration and Department of Human Services), community partners, (including United Way and the Casey Foundation) and corporate entities (including Capital One and PNC Bank). These stakeholders serve on Raise DC's Leadership Council, the Executive Team (a subset of the Leadership Council) and five Change Networks (Early Childhood, K-12, Disconnected Youth), Postsecondary, and Youth Employment), as appropriate. In Fall 2012, DME will publish a baseline Raise DC report card showing performance on outcome measures related to each districtwide goal.

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Topics

AccountabilityAid for educationEducation program evaluationEducational facilitiesEducational standardsHuman capital planningPerformance managementPerformance measuresProgram evaluationProgram managementPublic schoolsRisk assessmentStrategic planningProgram goals or objectivesProgram implementation