Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Testimony of Michelle Rhee, Chancellor
Meeting of the Council of the District of Columbia
April 30, 2010
The DCPS 2011 Budget
Good afternoon, Chairman Gray and honorable members of the DC Council. Thank you for hearing my
testimony today regarding the 2011 budget for the District of Columbia Public Schools.
Protecting Schools in Challenging Times
We enter the 2011 budget review in an extremely challenging time for the country, and state leaders are
taking a variety of approaches to balancing their budgets in difficult economic times. We understand
that Washington, DC faces the pressures that every city in America confronts, and that the council faces
another difficult year in resolving decreases in revenue while preserving critical city services in 2011.
Yet budgets that enable K‐12 education need protection now more than ever. We are almost three
years into a school reform effort that has resulted in dramatic achievement gains for students, higher
graduation rates, modernized facilities, and stabilized enrollment.
Now we are on the brink of a new collective bargaining agreement that recognizes teachers as the
primary lever of change in DC Public Schools. This innovative contract gives teachers the tools that they
need, and the resources that they deserve.
It was not easy to arrive at this tentative agreement. And—as you well know—we continue to face
challenges. But we got this far because many people stayed at the table and just wouldn’t quit. We all
know that this is ultimately about making sure DC’s children have a right to the best education possible.
That shared commitment kept us going through two years of solving every challenge we faced at the
bargaining table. And it will keep us going as we work together to solve the next set of challenges.
As you consider the 2011 city‐wide budget, I respectfully urge an approach that prioritizes the education
of children as represented in the mayor’s proposed budget. Only if we preserve the resources to
continue education reform, can we continue the tremendous progress the DC Public Schools have
shown over the past two and a half years.
I would like to highlight the results we have achieved with your support in previous budgets, as well as a
few of the priorities the proposed 2011 budget will enable us to achieve with children across the city.
Results Yielded from Prior Budgets
With local and federal funds, our school system has made great strides. Gains in student achievement
have been a collective effort, including everyone from the mayor, the deputy mayor, the city
administrator, the state superintendent, and the council, to the principals, teachers and all DCPS staff, as
well as our community partners, parents, advocates, and most importantly, the students we serve.
Student Achievement
As we reviewed at last month’s hearing:
¾ In 2009 students progressed in reading and math on the DC Comprehensive Assessment
System (DC CAS) and the externally administered National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP). We also found significant progress according to the NAEP Trial Urban
District Assessment (TUDA), which compares students to their counterparts in other urban
districts.
¾ The graduation rate is increasing at a faster rate compared to previous years, and in 2009
more than half of DCPS high schools increased their graduation rates, with 10 out of 16 high
schools increasing by at least 3 percent.
¾ Enrollment has virtually steadied for the first time in more than 50 years, and in secondary
math, students have closed an achievement gap between black and white students by 20
percentage points.
¾ On the NAEP TUDA in 2003 in math, 40 percent of Hispanic fourth graders were at the basic
level or above. By 2009, 69 percent were basic or above. At the eighth grade level, the
percentage of Hispanic students at basic or above increased more than 20 percentage
points from 2007 to 2009, closing the achievement gap between our students and their
urban and suburban peers nationally.
¾ On the DC CAS, African American students have seen gains in every tested category. In 2007,
for example, only 24 percent of black elementary students were proficient in math. By 2009,
that had jumped to 42 percent.
If we give schools the resources they need in 2011, they will be in a good position to continue this
progress.
Priorities in 2011
We have multiple critical priorities to continue with 2011 funds, including secondary school
transformation, further improvements in our data systems, and the expansion of improvements in math
and reading to other subject areas. I would like to highlight two critical endeavors today that depend on
2011 funds.
The first is to take the most important steps to ensure that in every classroom in this city, every
student has an excellent teacher. Considering the incredible power of a teacher to shape students’
lives, the budgetary increases for teacher development, support and accountability in 2010 and 2011,
are worth every dime in the results they yield for children. The proposed budget will enable us to
continue building the resources that teachers have been requesting for many years.
Empowering Teachers to Achieve their Greatest Work
After hearing input from teachers, and after more than two years of hard work with the Washington
Teachers Union (WTU) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), we are pleased that we have
concluded contract negotiations. I believe that we have created one of the only contracts in the country
to truly recognize the power of a teacher in the classroom. If ratified and voted “yes” by teachers, it can
do what all of us have wanted for many years, for teachers and students in the District of Columbia.
Funding Teacher Raises Under the New Contract
We regret the recent confusion around the fiscal viability of the contract. We are continuing to work
with the Office of the Chief Financial Officer to move forward. We remain committed to fully funding
the long‐overdue raises that teachers deserve, as well as the performance awards and other supports
included in the pending contract.
Expanding and Improving Early Childhood Education
This year we saw an unprecedented response in our Pre‐School/Pre‐K/Head Start lottery process, with
more parents than ever before applying for a greater number of seats, particularly east of the river. In
2011, we look forward to continuing to progress with your support.
¾ In the past two years, DCPS has increased pre‐kindergarten education seats for three and
four year‐old children by approximately 15 percent (700 children).
¾ Next year we will continue this progress to add 25 more pre‐school and pre‐kindergarten
classrooms at 18 schools, serving an additional 425 students and reaching a total of 900 pre‐
K seats in DCPS. Half of our new seats will be at schools east of the river.
¾ We also are working to improve the quality of education delivered in every one of these
seats through the Teaching and Learning Framework, and providing professional
development focusing on kindergarten readiness standards and authentic child assessment
practices.
A second critical highlight in the 2011 budget is the expansion and improvement in early childhood
education, one of the most important foundations for long‐term success in a student’s life.
Persevering through Challenges to Results
We all can agree that the past three years have included many challenges. Some have been difficult, and
many have more clearly highlighted the role of effective systems, management structures and facilities
in supporting the hardest work of all—teaching and learning in the classroom. I am certain that
challenges will continue in the shared effort to build a system of excellent schools across Washington,
DC. We remain committed to overcoming them with you, and under the proposed budget, I am
confident that we can.
Our 45,000 students need and deserve an excellent school system, and despite the current fiscal
challenges, now is still the time to make that a reality. Due to earlier reforms to drive more resources
away from the central office to schools, we also have a greater portion of funds available at the school
level than we have had historically. In order to prioritize education through a challenging budgeting
period for the city, we believe it is imperative that the proposed DCPS budget be preserved, and that we
work together to make any adjustments necessary to ensure that teachers in Washington, DC are
supported as they should be.
The 2011 budget can enable us to reward and support teachers to achieve their greatest work, and to
continue DCPS’ considerable progress in expanding and improving early childhood education, improving
data and accountability systems, utilizing out‐of‐school time according to best practices, preserving
school resources, and directing all the resources we have to advance student achievement in every
classroom.
Thank you, and I welcome your questions.