District of Columbia Public Charter School Board

The board was created in 1996 by the District of Columbia School Reform Act of 1995 as a second, independent authorizer of public charter schools in the District of Columbia. In 2006, the DC Board of Education voted to relinquish its authorizing responsibilities for charter schools and in 2007, the Council of the District of Columbia passed legislation granting the Mayor of the District of Columbia direct authority over the traditional public school system. With that vote, the board became the sole authority for public charter schools within the District of Columbia.[3]

The Executive Director is Scott Pearson.[4] The board is chaired by Rick Cruz, a former CEO of DC Prep Public Charter School.[5] The vice chair is Saba Bireda, an attorney at Stanford Hiesler, LLP.[6] Other board members include Lea Crusey and Naomi Shelton, with Ricarda Ganjam serving as Secretary and Steve Bumbaugh serving as Treasurer.[4]

Under the School Reform Act, the board is granted authority to hold DC public charter schools accountable for fulfilling their obligations under the Act.[7] With a high proportion of PK-12 and adults in public charter schools, the board created the performance management framework in 2011. It was developed to evaluate charter school performance, based on common measures across all schools. Schools are rated Tier 1, 2, 3, with Tier 1 being the best. The framework measurements evaluate student achievement as well as student growth, indicators of readiness for high school and college, and mission-specific measures at each school.[8] The results of the framework have improved year to year. In 2014, six elementary/middle schools and six high schools were rated Tier 1 based on their performance. Today, 54 schools are rated as Tier 1. The rankings are released yearly in the board's School Quality Report.[8]

Students at schools under the board's authority generally perform better on statewide assessments than students from other DC-area schools. In 2018, students at DC public charter schools improved 2.7 points in English and 1.8 points in math on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness in College and Careers test.[9] Students from traditionally marginalized groups saw higher improvement than more privileged students.[10]

• District of Columbia Public Charter School Board