Media Contact: Fred Lewis, [email protected]; (202) 412-2167

As required by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) must submit a State Education Plan to the US Department of Education that outlines statewide plans for education in the District of Columbia, including how DC will support specific groups of students and define quality schools.

The public comment period on the District of Columbia’s draft State Education Plan opened Jan. 30 and will close March 3. During this time, OSSE will host a series of community engagement sessions in each of DC’s eight wards to gather public feedback on the state plan.

“Public feedback is critical to developing our State Education Plan and ensuring that the educational progress we have seen in DC is not only sustained, but accelerates and deepens to benefit more and more of our students,” said State Superintendent of Education Hanseul Kang.

In December 2015, President Barack Obama signed ESSA into law. The new legislation, which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, builds on key areas of educational progress achieved in recent years with the intention of ensuring that all students have equitable access to a high-quality education. As a requirement of the law, all states must submit a State Education Plan that outlines how its schools will put ESSA’s requirements into action. OSSE is preparing this plan for DC and soliciting public comment prior to final submission to the US Department of Education in early April.

DC’s state plan will include sections on supports for students and schools, teacher and leader training, and statewide student assessment. While DC’s plan will describe continuing efforts and updates in these areas, a major strategy in the new State Education Plan is the design of a new, common system for reporting information about all public schools in DC, including DC Public Schools and public charter schools.

“Providing consistent and clear information about all schools will help meet the needs of families in DC,” said State Superintendent Kang. “Common reporting allows us to learn from successful schools, and provide supports to our struggling schools so we can help them improve. We believe this approach will ensure better outcomes for our students, by accelerating progress for those who are furthest behind.”

Public feedback engagement sessions on DC’s draft State Education Plan will be held on the following dates at the following locations:

To read the draft DC State Education Plan and find more information on the development of DC’s State Education Plan during the last year, visit OSSE’s ESSA webpage at OSSE.dc.gov/essa. Public comment may be submitted by emailing [email protected] or completing the survey available on OSSE.dc.gov/essa by midnight on March 3, 2017.