As I’ve tried to describe in previous posts, D.C. has a choice-based P-12 public education system that includes District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), charter schools, and community-based preK programs. As a city that is also a state, D.C.’s education governance structure must also fulfill both state and local education responsibilities for D.C. residents. The combination of these factors, as well as D.C.’s unique broader governance history, have created an unusual school governance structures that includes multiple actors, which can be confusing for residents who aren’t deeply engaged in education matters. It’s not always immediately obvious “who is in charge?” or which entity is responsible for or has authority to fix a problem they may be experiencing.
This post seeks to help readers understand “who’s who” in D.C. school governance, by unpacking the various actors that play a role in D.C. school governance and oversight, their roles, who currently holds the positions, and how they are appointed. It’s not intended as a commentary on how well the current structure works or and analysis of potential alternative structures, but rather a description of the current state.
I’ll write more about how D.C. came to have this unusual structure in an upcoming post, but for now it’s important to understand that D.C.’s current school governance structure was created by the Public Education Reform Amendment Act (PERAA) of 2007, which placed DCPS under the authority of the Mayor, created the offices of Deputy Mayor for Education and Office of the State Superintendent of Education, made the Public Charter School Board the District’s single authorizer responsible for overseeing all charter schools, and reconfigured the composition and role of the State Board of Education to its current form. Although subsequent legislation has made minor changes to this structure, it remains largely intact today.
District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) Chancellor:
DCPS’ Chief Executive is the Chancellor, essentially the equivalent to a Superintendent in other large urban districts. The DCPS Chancellor oversees the operations of the 117 schools that DCPS operates, and is appointed directly by the Mayor. Currently, DCPS has an interim chancellor, Dr. Kim Jackson, who was appointed by Mayor Bowser to fill the position on a temporary basis following long-time Chancellor Lewis Ferebee’s departure in June to assume leadership of EdReports, a national organization that reviews school curriculum.
Public Charter School Board (PCSB):
PCSB is the District’s charter school authorizer, the entity given authority by law to grant charters to operate public schools. Crucially, the PCSB does not directly operate charter schools, each of which has its own chief executive and board. However, PCSB is responsible for monitoring whether schools it has authorized comply with local and federal laws and the terms of their charters, as well as whether schools are stewarding public funds appropriately, and holding schools accountable for performance, compliance, and fiscal stewardship. PCSB also has authority (and in some cases is required) to close charter schools when they fail to meet their charter goals, are chronically low-performing, or are no longer financially viable. The Board itself, on which I served from 2009-2017, is a decision-making body that comprises seven volunteer members who are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the D.C. Council. The Board employs an Executive Director to lead day-to-day authorizing work, represent PCSB’s and charter schools’ interests in engagement with other D.C. government agencies and the public, and manage the PCSB staff, budget, and operations. The current PCSB Executive Director is Michelle Walker Davis. PCSB was established in 1997, following passage of D.C.’s charter school law.
Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE):
OSSE is the District’s equivalent of a State Department of Education in most states. It has the same roles and functions as other state education agencies (SEAs), including (but not limited to) administering the District’s student assessment system for students enrolled in all public schools, operating the District’s longitudinal student data system and managing data on public school enrollment and attendance, administering federal education grant programs that flow through states to local education agencies (LEAs, which includes both DPCS and charter LEAs), holding LEAs accountable for compliance with federal special education laws and reporting to the federal government on special education indicators, and licensing teachers to teach in public schools. Because of DC’s unique state-local structure and choice-based education system that includes both public and charter schools, OSSE also fills a number of functions that are not always found in SEAs, including (but not limited to) overseeing early childhood programs (a function I led within OSSE from 2020-this April, and which is also housed in the education agencies in our neighboring states of Virginia and Maryland), administering early intervention for infants and toddlers with disabilities and developmental delays, operating the Advanced Technical Center and GED testing programs, licensing higher education institutions, and operating school transportation (buses) for children with disabilities. OSSE is a relatively young agency, created in 2008 following passage of PERAA. The leader of OSSE is the State Superintendent of Education, a role currently held by Dr. Antoinette Mitchell.
State Board of Education (SBOE):
The SBOE is an elected body, comprising 9 elected members, one for each Ward, plus a president elected at large, as well as three appointed student representatives. Under PERAA, SBOE is largely an advisory and approval body. In this capacity, it is responsible for reviewing and approving a variety of D.C. education-related standards and policies, including: state academic standards, the annual school report card, high school graduation requirements and equivalence credentials, standards for teacher preparation programs, state policies for parental involvement, rules for residency verification and enforcing student attendance, the lists of accreditation organizations for charter schools and private placements, and standards for homeschooling. In addition, the SBOE is responsible for reviewing and approving some plans and policies required in connection with federal education laws and programs, such as the District’s state school accountability plan and waivers under the Every Student Succeeds Act. All of the previously referenced standards and policies are developed and administered by OSSE but require approval from SBOE. SBOE is also charged with advising the State Superintendent on education issues but does not have operational authority over OSSE, or over any state-level education functions beyond those explicitly delegated to it in statute, nor does it have any operational authority over DCPS. Over the past twenty years, there have been multiple efforts to expand the SBOE’s authority over education in D.C., most notably passage of legislation in 2014 and 2017 that gave it authority over the Office of the Ombudsman for Public Education and the Office of the Student Advocate as well as the ability to hire staff for those positions and its own administrative staff. Its actual powers, however, remain limited. SBOE has existed largely in its current form since 2009, following the passage of PERAA and election of new SBOE board members in 2008, but some form of elected board has existed in D.C. since 1968.
Deputy Mayor for Education (DME):
The DME, within the Mayor’s office, is responsible for developing and overseeing a District-wide education strategy on behalf of the Mayor and facilitating coordination and collaboration across the various entities that make up the District’s birth-postsecondary public education system (e.g. DCPS, charter schools, OSSE, and the University of the District of Columbia (UDC)) as well as between education and other District government agencies (e.g. MPD, D.C. Department of Health) on matters that affect education and/or children, such as school safety. As part of this work it develops the Public Education Master Facilities Plan as well as a variety of other data analyses and reports that inform education planning in the District. DME also directly oversees or supports education-related agencies under the authority of the Mayor, including DCPS, OSSE, Department of Parks and Recreation, Department of Employment Services, and the Workforce Investment Council, as well as coordination with independent agencies of D.C. government responsible for education (e.g. D.C. Public Libraries, PCSB, UDC). Over time, the DME has also taken on responsibility for operating some initiatives and programs designed to fill gaps in D.C.’s education system, including administering grants for and sharing information with families about out of school time programs. Because DME is located within the Mayor’s office and is more a strategic, policy, and coordinating entity than an operational agency, its priorities and how it carries out its work vary based on the goals and culture of each Mayor’s administration. The current DME is Paul Kihn. The upcoming Mayor transition will mean a transition in the office of DME as well, and who the incoming Mayor picks for this key role is an important signal of her likely priorities and approach.
The Mayor:
It’s probably obvious by now that the Mayor plays a major role in education governance in D.C.: She appoints the DCPS Chancellor, the DME, the State Superintendent, and the members of the public charter school board (though not its executive director), and DCPS, DME, and OSSE are under her direct control. Her administration also sets proposed funding levels for education agencies and programs (including proposed UPSFF increases) as part of the annual budget process. This means that the end of current Mayor Muriel Bowser’s term and transition to a new Mayor in January 2027 will have significant implications for the District’s public education system.
The D.C. Council:
As the legislature for the District., the D.C. Council also plays a major role in D.C. education policy and governance. Major Mayoral appointments require Council confirmation, as does the DCPS teachers union contract. The Council sets ultimate funding levels for education agencies and programs within them. In the absence of an elected board of education with operational authority over D.C. schools, the Council has at times chosen to step into that role. It passed the Schools First Budgeting Act, for example, which seeks to prescribe how DCPS sets school-level budgets. The Council has also used its authority under PERAA to impose new statutory requirements on both charter and DCPS schools, including requirements related to literacy instruction, physical education, and school discipline. And Councilmembers use their oversight authority to grill the DCPS Chancellor and OSSE Superintendent on operational specifics in annual budget and performance oversight hearings. Further, PERAA, the law that has defined D.C. education governance for the past two decades, was enacted by the Council, and the Council has the authority to change it. A key takeaway for DC parents and voters to understand is that, while PERAA gives the Mayor operational control of DCPS and both DCPS and OSSE leadership ultimately report to the Mayor, any effort to enact major changes in DCPS or the District's broader school governance structure requires Council engagement and support.
This is a useful guide and context for those of us who care about education in the District of Columbia. Thank you!