Welcome to SBOE - Block DWelcome to the D.C. State Board of EducationThe D.C. State Board of Education is an independent agency with three separate offices. Where would you like to go? Please select below. |
The State Board is pleased to announce a series of public engagement sessions to provide the public with opportunities to share their thoughts on the State Board’s work. The first session will be held on Monday, November 15 at the Deanwood Recreation Center from 6–8:30 pm and the second will be held on Saturday, December 4 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library from 10:30 am – 1:00 pm.
| 07/31/2019 The Takeaway | SBOE Education Updates |
| 06/27/2019 The Takeaway | SBOE Education Updates |
| 05/31/2019 The Takeaway | SBOE Education Updates |
| 04/30/2019 The Takeaway | SBOE Education Updates |
| 03/28/2019 The Takeaway | SBOE Education Updates |
| 06/08/2021 FY2022 Budget Oversight Testimony |
| 03/10/2021 FY2020 Performance Oversight Testimony |
| 01/29/2020 FY2019 Performance Oversight Testimony |
| 02/12/2019 FY2018 Performance Oversight Testimony |
| 03/29/2018 FY2019 Budget Hearing Testimony |
The State Board of Education (SBOE) has heard concerns from families and schools about the abrupt end to the mask mandate on Monday, November 22.
Washington, D.C.—The State Board of Education (SBOE) will hold its monthly working session on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. The State Board is taking the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of our members, staff, and public while providing the greatest opportunity for public viewing of our work.
On February 17, 2021, the State Board passed SR21-2, a resolution that established a new committee structure and created new committee assignments. Learn more about the committees in the State Board's bylaws. The schedule of committee meetings can be found in our events page.
The State Board may, from time to time, vote to establish ad hoc committees or task forces to help carry out its responsibilities.
The following members serve as representatives of the State Board on external bodies:
Steering Committee: Zachary Parker, Ward 5
Policy Committee: John-Paul Hayworth, Executive Director
Program Committee: Emily Gasoi, Ward 1
Data Committee: Alexander Jue, Senior Policy Analyst
Task Force: Zachary Parker, Ward 5
Government Affairs Committee: Jessica Sutter, Ward 6
Public Education Positions Committee: Eboni-Rose Thompson, Ward 7
Delegate Assembly: Eboni-Rose Thompson, Ward 7
Administration and Budget: This committee monitored and oversaw the State Board’s budget, personnel, and governance.
Chair: Markus Batchelor, Ward 8
Members: Karen Williams, Ward 7; Emily Gasoi, Ward 1; Ruth Wattenberg, Ward 3
Teacher Retention: This committee worked to better understand the issue of teacher retention and the effects that low rates of retention have on District students, schools, and communities. It has since been absorbed into the Teacher Practice Standing Committee.
Chair: Frazier O'Leary, Ward 4
Members: Emily Gasoi, Ward 1; Zachary Parker, Ward 5; Karen Williams, Ward 7; Markus Batchelor, Ward 8; Ruth Wattenberg, Ward 3
Well-Rounded Education: This committee is conducted research to learn the degree to which D.C. schools are able to ensure students have access to a balanced education, with attention to non-tested subjects including arts, sciences, and social studies.
Co-Chairs: Emily Gasoi, Ward 1; Zachary Parker, Ward 5
Members: Jessica Sutter, Ward 6; Ruth Wattenberg, Ward 3; Markus Batchelor, Ward 8
Social Studies Standards: This committee worked to develop a multi-year plan, including extensive collaboration with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and a diverse group of stakeholders, that would ultimately result in revised state social studies standards that are culturally inclusive and anti-racist, impart important social studies content in the early grades, strengthen student knowledge of democratic principles and values, and promote civic engagement. It has since been absorbed into the Education Standards Standing Committee.
Chair: Jessica Sutter, Ward 6
Co-chair: Karen Williams, Ward 7
Members: Zachary Parker, Ward 5; Ruth Wattenberg, Ward 3; Markus Batchelor, Ward 8
Research: This committee examined and reviewed how school quality is measured under the District’s STAR Framework, alternative ideas and options for such measurement, and the strengths and weaknesses of these measures. It has since been absorbed into the Assessment and Accountability Standing Committee.
Chair: Ruth Wattenberg, Ward 3
Members: Emily Gasoi, Ward 1; Jack Jacobson, Ward 2; Markus Batchelor, Ward 8; Jessica Sutter, Ward 6; Zachary Parker, Ward 5
Every Day Counts! Task Force (External Committee Assignment): The Every Day Counts! Taskforce is a partnership of diverse District of Columbia agencies and stakeholders that collectively advance and coordinate strategies to increase student attendance and reduce truancy.
Ashley MacLeay, At-Large, to serve as alternate delegate
ESSA Task Force: ESSA implementation began during the 2017-18 school year. The Task Force worked with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to gather input from diverse stakeholders on the design and development of the new accountability system for the District.
Chair: Karen Williams, Ward 7
State Board Members: Jack Jacobson, Ward 2; Zachary Parker, Ward 5
Members: See full list
High School Graduation Requirements Task Force On June 5, 2017, the DC State Board of Education (SBOE) proudly announced the formation of a new High School Graduation Requirements Task Force under the leadership of Ward 1 representative Laura Wilson Phelan and Ward 8 representative Markus Batchelor. With a clear focus on ensuring that all students across the District succeed in college and career, this task force reviewed, analyzed and, as necessary, made thoughtful, implementable recommendations to adjust DC’s high school graduation requirements for all DCPS and public charter students.
Co-chairs: Laura Wilson Phelan, Ward 1; Markus Batchelor, Ward 8
Members: See full list
SBOE approved final Credit Flexibility Regulations during our Public Meeting on March 16, 2016. This critical step created flexibility beyond the time-based Carnegie unit for students to earn high school credit. In order to hear the voices of stakeholders across all wards, a Task Force convened by the State Board of Education of the District of Columbia was chaired by Laura Wilson Phelan, SBOE Member from Ward 1. The Task Force's report and recommendations were adopted by the State Board. You can read their final report "Giving Credit Where Credit is Due: Report and Recommendations of the High School Credit Flexibility Task Force" below. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) created proposed regulations based on these final recommendations.
1. Waivers: Schools may apply for a waiver to create competency-based courses. Competency-based education provides more personalized learning that allows students to move at their own pace, whether it is faster or slower. Students can only move to the next level once they have demonstrated mastery of the necessary skills.
2. Changes to Algebra I: Currently, all Districts high school freshman are required to take Algebra I. The new regulations will delay that requirement until students are in the 10th grade. This change comes from feedback from educators that many ninth grade students are not ready for this challenging content. The new regulations will allow schools flexibility in preparing students for the rigor of Algebra, while still allowing students to graduate in four years.
3. Data-Driven Decisions: OSSE will report on the impact of competency-based learning that will result from this rule. The report will explore best practices and places for improvement. For example, there will be an assessment of what tactics and types of competency-based learning has worked for DC's students.
With these new regulations, schools can now apply for a waiver to offer competency-based courses. The task force determined that it was important to maintain the Carnegie Unit as the default means for earning credit to allow for controlled innovation and scaling of the most successful approaches. These changes will allow schools to innovate with competency-based education without forcing our school system to overhaul their current credit-giving framework before it is ready to do so. The State Board of Education will continue to analyze the best usage of competency-based education in District public schools as it tackles high school graduation requirements this year.
[email protected] | (202) 262-7776 | @emilygasoi
Emily Gasoi began her career as a classroom teacher in 1995 and has been a passionate teacher of children and adults ever since. Early in her career, Emily worked with MacArthur award winning educator, Deborah Meier, to found the now internationally recognized Mission Hill School in Boston. After leaving Mission Hill School in 2004, Emily split her time between DC and Philadelphia, earning a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania. She earned “Dissertation with Distinction” in 2012 for her research identifying conditions and practices within schools that foster a strong culture of school-based accountability.
From 2010-2015, Emily worked with Center for Inspired Teaching as a course instructor, mentor, and researcher. In 2015, Emily co-founded Artful Education, a consulting practice that works with schools and educational organizations to strengthen practices related to creative teaching and learning. Emily is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University in the Program for Education, Inquiry, and Justice.
Emily has published numerous op-eds and articles on topics ranging from educating for democracy and teacher-initiated professional development to the importance of safeguarding our system of public education from forces of privatization. She recently collaborated with Deborah Meier to co-author the book, These Schools Belong to You and Me, Why We Can’t Afford to Abandon Our Public Schools.
Emily currently lives in Ward 1’s Mount Pleasant with her husband, Winston and their daughter, Frankie. Adopted from Taiwan at 15 months, Frankie now attends Washington Yu Ying PCS, a Chinese language immersion school in Northeast DC.
[email protected] | (202) 236-2184
Frazier O’Leary grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, graduating high school and going on to pursue college at Old Dominion College. An active baseball player, his college team earned NCAA Regional champion status his freshman year. In 1964, Frazier joined the United States Army and spent a year fighting in Vietnam. He then entered Infantry OCS and served as an Army officer in Arlington, VA for two and a half years.
After leaving the Army as captain, Frazier began his real college career at American University in September of 1968. He graduated from AU in December of 1970 with a BA in English, beginning his teaching career the following January at Garnet-Patterson JHS, a DCPS school.
Frazier earned his MLA from St. John's College in Santa Fe, NM in August,1973. He began teaching at DCPS’s Cardozo SHS in September, 1977, where he taught for 40 years until his retirement in June, 2017. Frazier was very active during his time at Cardozo, coaching football, girls' and boys' basketball, tennis, and baseball. In 2007, he was inducted into the DC Coaches' Hall of Fame. In 2009, Frazier was awarded an honorary doctorate of philosophy in humanities from St. Mary's College in Maryland. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and the Toni Morrison Society and a member and past Vice President of The School Club, an educational advocacy group.
Frazier lives in Ward 4 and has five children ranging in age from 20-48.
[email protected] | (202) 674-0115 | @jessicasutterW6
Jessica Sutter has loved school since the first day she attended community pre-school in Yonkers, NY. After spending her formative years in public schools in New York and Maryland, she graduated with a BA in Political Science from Loyola College in Maryland in 1999.
Immediately after college, she completed two years of post-college service teaching in a Chicago Catholic school and then went on to teach social studies and literature in public middle schools in Los Angeles and Washington, DC. After seven years of teaching, Jessica began a doctoral program in Education Policy Studies at the University of Maryland while continuing to work full time in a variety of education policy roles.
In 2010, Jessica served as a grant program officer at Washington DC’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and made innovation grants to DC public charter schools and education-oriented non-profits. She then served as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Mayor for Education under Mayor Vincent Gray, where she worked to expand early childhood education programs and to increase the supply of quality schools in the District. In 2012, Jessica founded EdPro Consulting through which she has managed projects and authored research for a variety of local and national organizations, including the School District of Philadelphia, the DC Public Charter School Board, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Center for Reinventing Public Education.
Jessica earned her PhD in Education Policy Studies in May 2018. Her dissertation research focused on charter school closures and restarts in Washington, DC.
Jessica was sworn in to office on January 2, 2019 and is committed to ensuring that all students in District have access to equitable education opportunities and are supported to achieve their fullest potential. She is passionate about middle school education, robust curriculum, public school choice, and holding schools accountable for serving all students at high-levels of academic excellence.
When not representing the students, families and schools of Ward 6 or working with clients she can be found spoiling her niece and nephew, or swimming, biking, and running her way around Washington, DC.
[email protected] | (202) 856-4422 | @ZACHARYSBOE5
Zachary Parker is a third-generation educator and former award-winning 7th-grade math teacher. Zachary now serves as the Ward 5 member and President of the State Board of Education.
Since being sworn in on January 2, 2019, Zachary has focused on informing sound policy — from the DC School Report Card to culturally responsive education standards — that ensures all students have an opportunity to excel regardless of zip code. Zachary authored the State Board's Equity Framework, which is meant to center equity in all the State Board's work, and championed expanded support for students with disabilities and full funding for the Birth to Three for All DC Act of 2018.
Zachary has also worked to make sure DC's most vulnerable students have the educational resources to excel. In 2019, Zachary launched the Ward 5 Education Equity Committee, a community-led organization for Ward 5 educators, parents, and neighbors to advocate for local educational matters. To address the impact of COVID-19, Zachary partnered with the Ward 5 Education Equity Committee in 2020 to raise over $12,000 to provide 300+ students with school supplies and critical virtual learning materials (i.e., Wi-Fi hotspots and headphones).
Zachary's advocacy has contributed to funding for McKinley Technology High School's Biotechnology Department, transportation for youth experiencing homelessness in Ward 5, and increased school budgets. Zachary's advocacy has also contributed to the renovation and much-needed upgrades to Ward 5 schools, including Langley Elementary School and Spingarn High School. Zachary's latest endeavor is working with his predecessor and businessman, Mark Jones, and Ward 5 leaders to stand up the Ward 5 Education Collaborative (Ward 5 Ed Collab) to support area schools financially. The Ward 5 Ed Collab is a non-profit entity that will raise and disburse funds to supplement Ward 5 school budgets.
When not fighting for educational equity in Washington, D.C., Zachary serves as a proud board member of Love to Langa, US-based non-profit supporting programs to provide hope and educational opportunities for the children of Langa, South Africa. Currently, Love to Langa is working to build a Montessori school for the children of South Africa. Zachary believes the push for quality education is truly a global endeavor.
Zachary received a BS in Speech and Language Pathology (Communication Sciences and Disorders) from Northwestern University and a MA in Education Policy and Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University.
The State Board holds its monthly working session. For all meeting agendas, documents, and minutes, please visit: bit.ly/SBOEMeetingInfo
NOTICE 1: As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread globally, the State Board is taking the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of our members, staff, and public. Guidance from the mayor recommends that non-essential gatherings be postponed or canceled and has encouraged agencies to adjust their operating status to permit telework and social distancing if possible. Therefore, the State Board has shifted to telework and this meeting will be a web conference.
NOTICE 2: The January 6 meeting was postponed to January 7.
Watch live:
January 7: bit.ly/SBOEJanuary2021WS
February 3: bit.ly/SBOEFebruary2021WS
March 3: bit.ly/SBOEMarch2021WS
April 7: bit.ly/SBOEApril2021WS
May 5: bit.ly/SBOEMay2021WS
June 2: bit.ly/SBOEJune2021WS
July 7: bit.ly/SBOEJuly2021WS
September 1: bit.ly/SBOESeptember2021WS
October 6: bit.ly/SBOEOctober2021WS
November 3: bit.ly/SBOENovember2021WS
December 1: bit.y/SBOEDecember2021WS
The Student Advisory Committee holds its monthly committee meeting. Please contact [email protected] for the joining information.
All students, parents, and educators, and community members are invited to provide testimony at public meetings. Individuals and representatives of organizations who wish to comment at a public meeting are asked to notify Board staff in advance by phone at (202) 741-0888, by email at [email protected], or by form no later than 48 hours in advance of the meeting. Individuals are asked to furnish their names, addresses, telephone numbers, and organizational affiliation, if any.
NOTICE: As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread globally, the State Board is taking the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of our members, staff, and public. Guidance from the mayor recommends that non-essential gatherings be postponed or canceled and has encouraged agencies to adjust their operating status to permit telework and social distancing if possible. Therefore, the State Board has shifted to telework and this meeting will be a web conference.
For all meeting agendas, documents, and minutes, please visit: bit.ly/SBOEMeetingInfo
Watch live:
January: bit.ly/SBOEJanuary2021PM
February: bit.ly/SBOEFebruary2021PM
March: bit.ly/SBOEMarch2021PM
April: bit.ly/SBOEApril2021PM
May: bit.ly/SBOEMay2021PM
June: bit.ly/SBOEJune2021PM
July: bit.ly/SBOEJuly2021PM
August: bit.ly/SBOEAugust2021PM
September: bit.ly/SBOESeptember2021PM
October: bit.ly/SBOEOctober2021PM
November: bit.ly/SBOENovember2021PM
December: bit.ly/SBOEDecember2021PM
The State Board holds its monthly working session. For all meeting agendas, documents, and minutes, please visit: bit.ly/SBOEMeetingInfo
NOTICE 1: As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread globally, the State Board is taking the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of our members, staff, and public. Guidance from the mayor recommends that non-essential gatherings be postponed or canceled and has encouraged agencies to adjust their operating status to permit telework and social distancing if possible. Therefore, the State Board has shifted to telework and this meeting will be a web conference.
NOTICE 2: The January 6 meeting was postponed to January 7.
Watch live:
January 7: bit.ly/SBOEJanuary2021WS
February 3: bit.ly/SBOEFebruary2021WS
March 3: bit.ly/SBOEMarch2021WS
April 7: bit.ly/SBOEApril2021WS
May 5: bit.ly/SBOEMay2021WS
June 2: bit.ly/SBOEJune2021WS
July 7: bit.ly/SBOEJuly2021WS
September 1: bit.ly/SBOESeptember2021WS
October 6: bit.ly/SBOEOctober2021WS
November 3: bit.ly/SBOENovember2021WS
December 1: bit.y/SBOEDecember2021WS
Learn More - Block ATestify at our next public meetingAll students, parents, educators, and community members are invited to provide testimony at public meetings, which are held the third Wednesday of every month at 5:30 pm. Individuals who wish to comment at a public meeting are asked to notify Board staff in advance by filling out our form no later than 48 hours in advance of the meeting. |
Top Resources - Block BTop Resources |
Recent Work - Block CRecent Work Student Advisory Committee Report At the July 2021 public meeting, the Student Advisory Committee (SAC) presented their annual report, a summary of the most important issues the SAC tackled throughout the 2020–2021 school year and the recommendations the committee made. This report covers distance learning, mental health, in-person learning, safe passage, inequities in funding, and recruiting applicants for the SAC/Student Representative positions. Social Studies Standards Revision The State Board, in partnership with the Officer of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), has begun its review and update of the District's social studies standards. The revision process presents an opportunity for the District’s social studies standards to be culturally responsive, anti-racist, to impart important social studies content in the early grades, strengthen student knowledge of democratic principles and values, and promote civic engagement. Fall Engagement Series The State Board is pleased to announce a series of public engagement sessions to provide the public opportunities to share their thoughts on the State Board’s work. RSVP for the second session on Saturday, December 4 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library from 10:30 am – 1:00 pm. Each session will provide the public with multiple opportunities to deeply engage with issues under consideration by the State Board: (1) social studies standards, (2) school accountability (STAR Framework and Rating), and (3) education governance. |
