The Future of D.C. Public Schools

Last week D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson delivered her plan to the city council on school consolidation and improvement, and she credited ERS as having a strong influence on her report. “Throughout this briefing, I will be referring to work that we did with Education Resource Strategies (ERS) over the past year,” she said.

We were very pleased with her report that demonstrated her strong embrace of our work and a commitment to making bigger changes in how D.C. delivers education. For instance, in explaining her plan to consolidate small schools, she says:

“While ERS makes clear that our spending related to small schools has been extremely high, they also note other challenges related to small school size – teachers do not have teams with whom to work, students cannot be grouped flexibly, and services, including special education services, are often use inefficiently. I credit ERS with challenging and expanding our thinking related to school consolidation.”

The Washington Post wrote a thoughtful piece on her initiative and our methodology. You can view the article and our memo here.

To view the city council meeting with Kaya Henderson on January 23,click here.