DC Public Education Fund Young Professional Committee Members Support Schools at DCPS Beautification Day

August 21, 2010-- DC Public Education Fund Young Professional Committee (YPC) members and friends joined volunteers across the city in taking part in DCPS Beautification Day 2010. The annual day of service, established in 2005, is the official day for a citywide “spruce up” of all DC Public Schools’ buildings and grounds in preparation for the first day of school. YPC members and volunteers took the lead at Ron Brown Middle School as they partnered with school staff and teachers to plant flowers, pick up trash inside and outside of the school building, paint doors, and landscape around the grounds.

The Young Professionals Committee (YPC), chartered in February of 2010, is committed to supporting strategic education reform within DC Public Schools by increasing the number of people who are knowledgeable about DCPS and education reform, and by raising funds to support efforts to improve public education in Washington, D.C. Thanks to all Young Professional Committee members and friends who helped prepare Ron Brown Middle School to open its doors on the first day of school!

Learn more about the Young Professional Committee and see pictures from DCPS Beautification Day by visiting the YPC Facebook page.

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Washington, DC Selected as Race to the Top Round II Winner

August 24, 2010-- Great news from the federal Department of Education: DC is one of the ten winners of the Round II Race to the Top competition. Through this award, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education will receive $75M over four years to support some of the city’s top education reform priorities, including key teacher quality initiatives within DCPS and at some of the city’s high-performing charters. Other winners were: Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island. Delaware and Tennessee were the two states to win Round I awards.

Several local and national foundations made grants to support the writing of the city’s winning application. These foundations were: The Broad Foundation, CityBridge Foundation, Fight for Children, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation. We are tremendously grateful for their support.

Secretary Duncan’s announcement can be found here.

Further information can be found on DC’s Race to the Top application here, and on Race to the Top here.

2010 DC CAS Preliminary Results Released

July 23, 2010 -- Preliminary results from the annual state assessment, the DC Comprehensive Assessment System (DC CAS), were released last week by DCPS:

  • 44.4% of elementary students scored proficient in reading, down from 48.8% in 2009
  • 43.4% of elementary students scored proficient in math, down from 48.0% in 2009
  • 43.3% of secondary students scored proficient in reading, up from 40.1% in 2009
  • 43.7% of secondary students scored proficient in math, up from 39.6% in 2009

The significant growth in scores at the secondary level (7, 8, 10th grades), after two years of similar gains, is unprecedented. In the past three years, secondary level students’ reading scores have increased by an average of 14 percentage points and their math scores by an average of 17 percentage points. DC is the only major city to see double-digit growth in both its state reading and math scores at this level over the past three years.

While the results overall are mixed, with elementary level (3-6th grades) scores declining this year, there has been an upward trajectory of student achievement at the elementary and secondary levels since 2007. The decline in elementary level scores will motivate DCPS in the upcoming school year and drive support for the high-leverage initiatives in DCPS that DC Public Education Fund supports.

To read more, please see DCPS’ press release.

Target Pledges to Fund the DC Collaborative for Change Libraries

August 2, 2010 -- Target has pledged funds to support classroom libraries for the DC Collaborative for Change (DC3) schools. Target's pledge will support the creation of 25 new classroom libraries and update of 50 existing libraries within the ten DC3 schools.

The DC3 schools work as a team, with the goal of improving student achievement by offering high quality, engaging instruction across ten DCPS elementary schools, and share a curriculum and professional development resources to support this goal. The DC3's shared reading curriculum, known as Reading Workshop, is key to its collaborative efforts to improve reading achievement across the cohort, and through this gift, Target is fulfilling the DC3's need for additional resources to fully support this curriculum.

Washington, DC Selected as Race to the Top Round II Finalist

June 14, 2010 – DC’s Round II Race to the Top application has been submitted!

Race to the Top (RTTT) is the Obama administration’s initiative to invest in education reform through competitive grants made to states. RTTT is designed to reward states that are comprehensively excelling in four key reform areas: standards and assessment, data systems to support instruction, great teachers and leaders, and turning around their low-performing schools. In addition, RTTT is designed to incentivize and spur education reform across the country. A total of $4.35 billion in RTTT funds will be awarded in 2010.

DCPS collaborated with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), DC public charter schools, and the State Board of Education to complete targeted revisions and strengthen the Phase I application. If selected, DC could receive up to $75 million over the course of four years.

DC’s Phase II Race to the Top application, along with background information on the application, is available here on the OSSE website.

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