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DC PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Dear DCPS Community Members:

Over the past few months, I have had many chances to show you that DCPS is headed in the right direction. Our proficiency rates are at all-‐time highs. Our graduation rate is improving. Fewer students are truant. Our enrollment is increasing. Put very simply, no urban school district in the nation has improved more than DCPS. We still have a lot of work to do, but we are working together to make great improvements in our schools.

Now I want to share with you where we are going. We are working to make sure that every student everywhere receives an excellent education. With your help, I believe we can do it. In the next school year, here are some of the great things that you will see in our schools.

Middle Grades

There is no area where we have come as far, or where we have farther to go, than with our middle grades students. Achievement levels for seventh and eighth grade students have more than doubled since 2007 and our eighth graders have shown the greatest gains in the nation since 2011. Next year, we are going to build on this success by:

Making sure every middle grades student in every school has equal access to challenging classes like algebra and foreign language and enrichment opportunities;
Providing more social and emotional supports for students as they enter their teenage years; and
Extending the school day so students can catch up where they are behind and explore areas where they excel.

Lowest Performing Schools

Our lowest performing schools have seen big gains. We need to continue this pace of improvement until we eliminate our achievement gap. Next year, we will:

Extend the school day in our lowest performing schools;
Bring additional staff and partners to our schools to improve student reading and writing; and
Improve attendance and monitor student progress to provide targeted supports.

Student Satisfaction

We have already announced that we will make a big investment to improve student satisfaction in every one of our schools. Through our Proving What’s Possible Student Satisfaction Awards, we will provide schools with an average of $100 for every student to support enrichment activities, field trips, extracurricular activities, clubs, new athletic teams and anti-‐bullying work.

Other School Based Investments

Drive more funding to our schools than ever before.
Hire dozens of additional educators to account for the 1,200 new students we will have in our schools next year.
Continue our investment in elementary schools to ensure that every student receives weekly art, music, PE, and foreign language and regular library services.
Increase special education staffing to ensure that more of our students with special needs receive a high quality education in their neighborhood school.
Provide more specially trained teachers, aides, and counselors to ensure we meet the needs of our growing English language learner population.
Ensure our schools are safe and clean by supporting the hundreds of millions of dollars we have invested in school construction with increased custodial services.
Establish a true STEM Academy at Woodson High School.
Invest in planning for the reopening of the Van Ness campus, Spingarn High School, and Brookland Middle School and for the creation of a selective middle school east of the river.
Develop a strategic plan to radically improve the success of our young, black men.
Ensure that no school sees a significant reduction in its budget, regardless of enrollment changes.

We have so much work ahead of us. Even as we finish off our current school year, I am already excited for the improvements we will make together next year. I am blessed to have you as a partner in this work, and I am convinced that together we can help every student in every corner of our city receive the excellent education he or she deserves.

Sincerely,

Kaya Henderson
Chancellor, DC Public Schools

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