The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) recently released Part Two in a series of Edsights looking at annual births in Washington, DC. In the latest, a birth to kindergarten ratio is applied to forecast future Kindergarten enrollment. Read the recently released Edsight, Annual Births in DC, Part 2. EdScape can be found at https://edscape.dc.gov/. Edsights can be found at https://dme.dc.gov/page/edsight
Resources for Newcomer students and our full communities
Resources: for new comers and for our whole communities discussed at 1-9-2025 Ward 4 Education Alliance Meeting
This is what is in place with the current legal framework. If this changes, we will revise.
2017 Guidance from Karl Racine still in force: https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/immigration-guidance.
U.S. Department of Education letter includes links to many resources currently available: https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/key-policy-letters/dear-colleague-letter-resources-ensuring-equal-access-education-immigrant-students
United We Dream-- Migra Watch - What to Do and How to Report ICE in your community. https://unitedwedream.org/resources/how-u-s-citizens-can-protect-the-immigrant-community-from-the-deportation-force/
Ayuda provides legal, social, and language services to help low-income immigrants in our neighborhoods access justice and transform their lives. For over 50 years, we have served more than 150,000 low-income immigrants throughout Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia.
KIND We at KIND have intentionally developed a comprehensive approach within our work to address the multi-faceted needs of unaccompanied migrant children once they are in the U.S. Not only do children come to us in need of legal services, but also often with deep traumas caused by the violence and fear experienced during their forced migration
Print the RED CARDS - in Nine Languages- All people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have certain rights and protections under the U.S. Constitution. The ILRC’s Red Cards help people assert their rights and defend themselves in many situations, such as when ICE agents go to a home.
https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards-tarjetas-rojas
ACTION NETWORK- Defend DC- https://actionnetwork.org/forms/get-involved-to-defend-dc
UCLA ed support and research https://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/practitioner(1-8-25).pdf
Raquel Ortiz, DCPS Welcome Center (she/her) 7:18 PM
Raquel Ortiz
Director, Welcome Center
Language Acquisition Division
Office of Teaching and Learning
Social Emotional Academic Development
District of Columbia Public Schools
4400 Iowa Ave. NW Washington, DC. 20011
O 202.868.6509
C 202.365.6391
E raquel.ortiz@k12.dc.gov
Sharona Robinson, DCPS 7:20 PM
Sharona N. Robinson
Manager, Community Affairs and Engagement
Office of External Affairs
District of Columbia Public Schools
1200 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
O 202.671.4550 C 202.423.5091 F 202.535.2703
E sharona.robinson@k12.dc.gov
W https://bit.ly/dcpscommunity-action-team
Twitter @DCPS_Community
Facebook http://bit.ly/Wards7and8
Schedule Meeting https://bit.ly/bookwithSharona
Study on Absenteeism https://www.the74million.org/article/chronic-absenteeism-worst-in-kindergarten-9th-and-12th-grades-state-data-shows/
On integrated schools from Robin Appleberry https://integratedschools.org/chapter/washington-dc/
Information on the proposed new report card - questions; additional information and links to address your questions.
· How is proficiency determined and is it related to the cut scores?
Proficiency is set based on proficiency level scores as voted on by the SBOE when the statewide assessment was approved. The statewide assessment for ELA, Math, Alternate statewide assessment for ELA, Math, DC Science, and Alternate Assessment for Science are all then sent for approval to US Dept of Ed. USED does a thorough review of the assessment to ensure that the assessment as well as the performance levels set align with the federal requirements. Once an assessment has been approved it is permitted to be used for statewide accountability purposes. A state may not use an assessment that has not undergone been approved through that process.
For statewide assessments in ELA and Math the “proficiency” refers to the scale scores associated with Performance Levels 4 and above. For the Alternate Assessment in ELA and Math it is the scale score associated with Performance Level 3 and above.
· What is the current plan for measuring growth for math for high school? Are the tests content specific so that a student completing geometry would take that test and it would be compared with the results of a test on algebra? Also it is not longitudinal for students so this compared to the test scores of a whole group?
Our current plan is to calculate academic growth in HS using Median Growth Percentile (MGP) approach which is calculated based on Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs). This is consistent with one of the academic growth methodologies used currently in ES and MS. It is based on student level scores from one test to another. SGPs are generated to reflect how much a student grew from one test to another based on growth of students who scored similar to them on the first test in the growth measure. See this video at 1:35 – 2:45 section for a great explanation of how Median Growth Percentile is calculated (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzItZvPaGsOlu5y247APXQRhLgo6ZjDEf )
Growth is calculated based on performance from one test to another, this would mean HS growth could be generated by growth of some students from 8th grade ELA to ELA I or ELA I to ELA II. It could be calculated from 8th grade Math to Alg I or from Alg I to Geometry since the HS assessments are end of course assessments and are not grade specific assessments.
· Do excused absences count as absences in the attendance metric?
The way Chronic Absenteeism is defined and required to be reported under federal requirements is as follows: students who are absent 10% or more of their enrolled school days. All measures of chronic absenteeism reflect the percentage of students in grades K-12 with absences on 10 percent or more of instructional days, inclusive of both excused and unexcused absences. Students who are enrolled for fewer than 10 instructional days are excluded.
Attendance Growth metric in the accountability framework is outlined in more detail on page 117 – 122 of the current technical guide