DCSRN Responds to $40 million DCPS Budget Cut

Washington, D.C. – Today, a DC public school advocacy group said that if school budgets must be cut due to declining revenues, cuts must be made by the school leaders based on student achievement. DC School Reform Now (DCSRN), a non-profit organization dedicated to reforming the district’s public schools, acknowledged that while the cuts would be difficult in almost every case, it would be tragic if the needs of adults were allowed to trump the needs of the students.

This came in response to a controversy brewing over a DCPS budget cut. Last Thursday, Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee said that DCPS has to cut $40 million from its budget due, in part, to budget cuts made this summer by the D.C. Council. The budget cuts will result in teacher layoffs and individual school leaders will be given discretion on staffing reductions. Last Friday morning, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray responded with a statement explaining the Council’s involvement in the  budget cuts.

“Assuming that the budget cuts are necessary and eminent, we believe that DCPS’s decision to allow school leaders to make difficult decisions on staff is crucial for continuing to increase student achievement in DC,” said Anne Martin, Executive Director of DC School Reform Now.  “Because principals in DCPS are held accountable based on student achievement, it is in their best interest to keep the more effective teachers in their schools.”

A child’s exposure to an excellent teacher makes a significant impact on his or her life. In 2008, the U.S. K-12 Education-Comprehensive Fact Base study found that high-needs students assigned to effective teachers for three years in a row outperformed students assigned to ineffective teachers for those three years by 50 percentile points. This is enough to significantly impact the life path of any student.

However, in DC (and across the country), employment decisions are typically made based on seniority, not performance.  We applaud DCPS for choosing not to make reductions blindly based on years of experience.  DCSRN believes that school leaders are best suited to make difficult staffing decisions based on teacher effectiveness.  School leaders have access to many indicators of student achievement, which include student portfolios, unit assessments, and reading levels. This data varies by school and grade level and because DCPS does not monitor it, they would not be best situated to make these determinations.  DCSRN urges DCPS to monitor all principals and ensure they are using these measurements of student achievement in order to keep the most effective educators in our classrooms, teaching our students.

“Seniority status is not correlated with student achievement gains,” Martin said. “Through a variety of indicators, school leaders know which teachers are making gains based on student achievement and which aren’t.”

Martin continued, “As a city and a nation, we have to make the decisions based on what is best for students, not adults.”

DC School Reform Now is a 501(c)3, volunteer organization of concerned residents who are committed to enacting school reform in the DC Public School System. For more information, or to schedule an interview, please call Anne Martin (202) 315-2421.