Lunch & Learn with Ruth Wattenberg: Public Education in DC

March 10, 2021    
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Public Education in DC: What Reforms Have Been Undertaken–and How Is It All Working Out?

For decades, DC schools have been the focus of many “reforms” aimed at improving the quality of education that the city provides its students. Among them: the elimination of the local school board and imposition of mayoral control of the schools (2007); elimination of teacher tenure; school choice—including one of the nation’s largest charter school sectors (which now enrolls nearly half the city’s public school students); a 5-STAR school quality rating system designed to help parents choose schools for their children; and Pre-K for all.  Ruth Wattenberg will provide an overview of DC’s many reforms, the arguments pro-and con—including a look at the falsification of high school graduation and suspension data, and a look at what the achievement data says about how it’s working.

Ruth is currently the elected member of the DC State Board of Education for DC’s Ward 3 (where Micah is located). Until last month, she had been the Board’s president for two years. She has worked as an education policy consultant and spent many years working for the American Federation of Teachers, including as its Director of Educational Issues and the Editor of its magazine, American Educator.  She and her family joined Temple Micah roughly twenty years ago!  Ruth’s two children went to religious school and her son became Bar Mitzvah at Micah.

Need more information? Contact Geri Nielsen.
Lunch and Learn is a project of the Aging Together Team.

Register before Tuesday, March 8 at 5:00 pm.  There is no guarantee that a link to the meeting can be sent after that time.

Further questions, email Lunch and Learn.

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