OSSE’s 2026 DC Educator Workforce Summit:
Innovating to Develop Excellent Educators

#GrowGreatTeachersDC

 

About the Event

The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) in collaboration with the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) will host the 2026 DC Educator Workforce Summit on Monday, May 11, 2026 at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.

This year’s convening highlights innovations and inventive structures DC’s local education agencies (LEAs) and educator preparation providers (EPPs), teachers, school leaders and workforce development organizations are leveraging to develop and retain excellent educators. Through roundtable discussions, data-driven workshops, panels and networking opportunities attendees will engage in a series of interactive sessions covering the following topics:

• New Teacher Pathways and Induction, highlighting innovative approaches to preparing, supporting, and retaining early career educators.
• Instructional Excellence, emphasizing strategies that deepen teachers’ content expertise and address content-specific workforce needs across DC.
• Leadership Pathways, showcasing staffing and development models that expand leadership opportunities for educators at all stages of their careers.
• Positive Culture and Climate, promoting conditions for teaching and learning through positive, inclusive, safe and supportive school environments.
• Strategic Staffing, uplifting how schools and LEAs strategically organize people, time, and resources to maximize student learning and strengthen school operations.

Summit Resources

To access sign up for sessions, session descriptions, speaker bios, photos, and opportunities to engage with fellow attendees, download the Whova app here.

To access session resources, visit the dashboard here.

Agenda

9-9:50 a.m. | Check-In and Networking Breakfast
Great room

10-10:10 a.m. | Opening Remarks and Summit Goals
Auditorium

10:10-11 a.m. | DC Teacher of the Year Panel: The Journey to Excellence – Structure, Agency, and Impact
Auditorium

11:10 a.m.-12:20 p.m. | Concurrent Roundtables and Workshops
OSSE Guided Data Analysis: Beginner (from Summit 2025)
Conference Room 401-A

Grow Your Own: District-Preparation Partnerships That Build and Retain the Next Generation of Teachers with Dr. Rahesha Amon & Anthony Dorado
Conference Room 401-D

Building Resilient Leadership: Using the 10 Essential Competencies to Foster Personal Leadership and Strengthen Your Leadership Pathways with Greg Moffitt & Shelley Anderson
Conference Room 401-E

From Surviving to Thriving: Building a Culture of Staff Wellness and Belonging with Jessica Hiltabidel & Lisa E. Shaw
Conference Room 401-F

Analyzing the National Teacher Shortage with Justin Rydstrom
Conference Room 401-G

Panel: Building Special Education Expertise from Within: School-Based Models for Developing Intervention and Special Education Teachers with Seema Tejura & Ashley Kobilka
5th Floor Event Space

12:30-1:40 p.m. | Concurrent Roundtables and Workshops

OSSE Guided Data Analysis: Intermediate
Conference Room 401-A

Making Thinking Visible: Coaching Mentor Teachers to Externalize Their Expertise with Ashley Carter & Alison Cross
Conference Room 401-D

"Transformational" Professional Development in Mathematics Instruction with Christine Carrino Gorowara, Ph.D. & Kim Cherry Burnett, Ph.D.
Conference Room 401-E

Building the Bench Before You Need It: Designing Sustainable Internal Leadership Pipelines with Julia Crusor
Conference Room 401-F

Power of the Inside Joke: Know Your People with Dr. Sarah Lewis & Aaron Colston
Conference Room 401-G

Panel: Competency-Based Educator Pathways: Building Intentional Ladders from Paraprofessional to Administrator with Dr. Raymond Ivey, Samantha Thompson & Erica Stevens
5th Floor Event Space

1:40-2:40 p.m. | Lunch
5th Floor

2:40-3:55 p.m. | Concurrent Roundtables and Workshops
Career Lattice Review Session
Conference Room 401-A

Rethinking Who's in the Room: Strategic Staffing for Stronger Schools with Susannah Tsien
Conference Room 401-D

Practice Makes Proficient: Using AI Simulation to Prepare Teachers for Real Classroom Challenges with Berenice Pernalete & Jennifer Kouakeu
Conference Room 401-E

Strategic Staffing in Action: Aligning Talent, Time, and Roles to Maximize Student Learning with O'Kiyyah Lyons
Conference Room 401-F

When Educators Are Well, Students Thrive: Embedding Mindfulness and SEL into School Culture with Ashley Brown & Ayisha Keith
Conference Room 401-G

4:05-4:30 p.m. | Whole Group Debrief and Closing Remarks

5:15-6 p.m. | Elevating Excellent Educators Award Ceremony (This is a ticketed event. Please note interest when registering for the summit.)

OSSE Educator Workforce Resources

• 2026 Summit Participant Resources
• OSSE's Directory of Approved Educator Preparation Programs 
• Approved DC EPP Directory and Q&A Booklet
• OSSE Data Navigation Guide - A brand-new resource to support LEA, EPP and school leaders in accessing, understanding and analyzing OSSE’s various data tools and reports.DC Educator Workforce Data DC Educator Workforce Data - Briefs, reports, and spreadsheets of school, LEA, EPP, and city-level workforce data
• District of Columbia Teacher Retention - Snapshots of annual retention metrics, including five-year average rates, retention by sector, and retention by ward.
• Educator Talent and Equity Dashboard [LEA Access Only] - An interactive dashboard with more than 60 data visualizations exploring different cuts of DC’s educator workforce data. LEAs can view data from their organization and compare it to citywide trends. Use your Statewide Longitudinal Education Data (SLED) system credentials to log in. Contact [email protected] if you need SLED credentials or to reset your password.
• 2025 Summit Participation Resources

Featured Speakers

 

State Superintendent of Education Dr. Antoinette Mitchell

 

 

 

Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Ross, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning
 

 

Contact

For any questions regarding this event, please email Dr. Caroline Decaire-Goldin, Director of Teaching and Learning, at [email protected].

For more detailed information about OSSE educator workforce programs, resources, and initiatives, please visit OSSE Educator Pipelines, Preparation and Supports page.

About OSSE’s 2025 DC Educator Workforce Summit

On Monday, June 2, 2025, OSSE hosted its first DC Educator Workforce Summit at University of the District of Columbia Student Center. This special-invitation event convened education leaders from to collaboratively address bolstering the local educator pipeline.

Together, attendees

• Generated data-driven insights using OSSE citywide data to create a shared understanding of DC’s current educator workforce landscape trends and areas of opportunity.
• Elevated preparation and mentorship by analyzing how to evaluate new teacher readiness and provide ongoing, embedded support structures such as mentorship, coaching, and targeted professional development.
• Bolstered the pipeline of locally trained educators by discussing strategies to increase the number of DC EPP completers recruited and selected to teach in DC schools.

Attendees participated in the following interactive sessions:

• Sustaining DC’s Workforce Diversity Through Inquiry, Innovation, and Partnership, focusing on the historical strengths and trends of DC’s educator workforce diversity, recruitment strategies, and opportunities for improvement and innovation.
• Ready to Teach All: Rethinking Special Education Preparation for Today’s Classrooms, focusing on barriers, opportunities, and cooperative strategies for increasing the number of new teachers best prepared to teach students with disabilities in DC.
• Preparing Candidates for Selection Season: Panel and Reflection, focusing on the cadence of hiring season, top priorities of hiring managers when evaluating candidates, and the competencies strong candidates and completers should be prepared to demonstrate.
• What Does a Well-Prepared DC Teacher Know, Do, and Believe? Designing Quality Clinical Experiences, focusing on developing effective first-year DC teachers, growth areas for clinical experience, and opportunities for collaboration among EPPs, LEAs, and OSSE.
• From Learners to Leaders: Building a Mentorship Pipeline Through Coaching and Connection, focusing on building a strong mentorship pipeline by recruiting alumni residents to support current residents.
• From Within: Cultivating a Pipeline from One-on-One Aide to Classroom Leader, focusing on strategies and competency-based structures to support teacher candidates on their journey to becoming lead teachers.
• From Learning to Leading: Empowering Assistant Teachers Through Training, Mentorship, and Collaboration, focusing on supporting assistant teachers’ professional growth toward classroom leadership through classroom training and guidance from lead teachers.
• Building the Pipeline: How One LEA Expands Impact and Retains Top Talent, focusing on innovations to the traditional teaching role to afford the strongest teachers opportunities for increased flexibility and expanded impact beyond the classroom.