Scaling High-Impact Tutoring
To prevent the existing achievement gap from growing even greater, OSSE is leading a three-year, $35 million investment in scaling and supporting high-impact tutoring (HIT) across the
District, with a focus on reaching students designated as at-risk and those who were disproportionately affected by learning disruptions resulting from the pandemic. More than $30 million of grant funding has already been awarded, putting us on track to surpass our 10,000-student goal by the fall of 2024.
Strengthening Supports for Students with Disabilities
OSSE continued to make progress in 2022 on our Roadmap for Accelerating Outcomes for Students with Disabilities. In May 2022, after extensive community engagement, OSSE published updates to Chapter 30 of Title 5A in the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations, more commonly referred to as DC’s local special education regulations, to strengthen services for students with disabilities through clear, robust guidance for
LEAs.
In 2022, OSSE also announced its Special Education Performance Report (SEPR), a tool that evaluates the performance of special education programs in District public schools and suggests targeted supports to improve performance.
The SEPR outlines the steps the District is taking to accelerate outcomes for students with disabilities and pinpoints supports OSSE can provide LEAs, such as teacher training on classroom practices, school leader training on requirements and best practices for addressing key areas of special education
programming, and LEA supports for transparent and meaningful parent engagement.
In partnership with OSSE, the DC Ombudsman launched the DC Special Education Hub through an investment of $1.5 million in ARPA funding. Students and families who are information on special education services can use the DC SpEd Hub to access tools, information and one-on-one phone or in-person assistance. OSSE also expanded educator offerings with the November 2022 launch of our Foundations of Special Education coursework, which trains educators on essential special education skills.
Accelerating Learning for DC Students
Accelerating learning for DC students is a key priority for OSSE and the District. As we move from recovery to restoration, OSSE has implemented several key strategies, to help students
recover lost learning and excel. In 2022, we launched a grant offering DCPS and charter LEAs more than $1.7 million in funding to select, purchase and adopt high-quality instructional
resources and materials (HQIM) to support accelerated learning for more than 12,800 students across the District. The HQIM grant also supported professional development and training for educators who will use the curricula.
In FY22, OSSE launched a grant program for LEAs to engage thousands of students in month-long summer acceleration academies focused on early literacy, middle and high school
writing and upper elementary and high school math. The academies are designed to provide 15,000 students through FY24 with an additional 1,800 minutes, approximately, of instruction and learning outside of the regular school year, to help them move forward on grade level and gain support on required foundational skills.
