The District of Columbia State Board of Education (SBOE) is an independent executive branch agency of the
Government of the District of Columbia
The District of Columbia has a mayor–council government that operates under Article One of the United States Constitution and the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. The Home Rule Act devolves certain powers of the United States Congress to ...
, in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. The SBOE provides advocacy and policy guidance for the
District of Columbia Public Schools
The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) is the local public school system for the District of Columbia, in the United States.
It is distinct from the District of Columbia Public Charter Schools (DCPCS), which governs public charter ...
, and works with the
Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
and the
District of Columbia State Superintendent of Education.
Charter school
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...
s are overseen by the
District of Columbia Public Charter School Board
The District of Columbia Public Charter School Board (DC PCSB) is the regulatory authority and sole authorizer of all public charter schools in the District of Columbia, in the United States. It provides oversight to 69 independently-run no ...
.
Early boards of education
Authority for the establishment of public education in the District of Columbia was granted by the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
in 1802, when the existing Commissioner system of government was abolished and a mayor-council government created. Two years later, a 13-member Board of Trustees was established to oversee schools in the District. Seven members were appointed by the mayor, while the remaining six were elected by those citizens who had donated funds to the city's school system.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
was elected to the board, and became its first president (serving until 1808).
The City Council divided the District of Columbia into two school districts in 1816. One was governed by the existing Board of Trustees, and the other by a board appointed by the council. Two years later, the "old board" was abolished and replaced by a board appointed solely by the council.
For most of the 19th century, the District of Columbia was divided into three distinct legal entities: The Federal City (consisting mostly of the area south of
Florida Avenue
Florida Avenue is a major street in Washington, D.C. It was originally named Boundary Street, because it formed the northern boundary of the Federal City under the 1791 L'Enfant Plan. With the growth of the city beyond its original borders, Bounda ...
), the town of
Georgetown, the town of
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, and the County of Washington (that part of the District not included in the previous three entities). In 1842, Georgetown established a seven-member Board of School Guardians to oversee
private school
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
s receiving public funds. Two years later, the Federal City's two school boards were merged into a single 13-member board. Three board members were appointed by the council from each of the city's four wards, while the mayor served as the board president. The council turned over its appointment authority to the mayor in 1858, and for the first time the board of trustees was required to promulgate an annual budget and annual report.
Schools in the District of Columbia were segregated by race from the beginning. Although the city's first school for African American children was created in 1807, it was not until 1862 that an oversight body was created for these schools. That year, the
United States Secretary of the Interior
The United States secretary of the interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior. The secretary and the Department of the Interior are responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land along with natural ...
established and appointed a Board of Trustees for Colored Schools. In 1864, Congress enacted legislation establishing a seven-member School Commission to oversee public schools in Washington County. Members of the board were appointed by the Washington County Levy Court.
The District of Columbia's first Superintendent of Education was created by the City Council in 1869. The mayor was given authority to appoint this position.
In 1871, Congress merged the county, Georgetown, and Federal City into a single legal entity (Alexandria having been retroceded to
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
in 1846). The new "territorial government" retains school boards for the Federal City, Georgetown, and old county, and appoints a superintendent of education for each board. The Secretary of the Interior also retained separate school boards for African American schools in the Federal City and Georgetown, and began appointing a superintendent of education for each. Two years later, Congress turned authority to appoint the superintendents for black schools to the territorial government.
Congress abolished the territorial government in 1874, and created a three-member commission to oversee the District of Columbia. Congress also abolished all the city's school boards and replaced them with a single, 19-member Board of School Trustees. Congress also required the commissioners to appoint two superintendents of education, one for white schools and one for black schools. Congress reduced the size of the board to nine members in 1882, and required that three of them be African Americans. The commissioners attempted to take over the duties of the board of trustees in 1885, but protests from city residents forced the commissioners to return many of these powers to the board. Congress expanded the board's membership to 11 in 1895, and authorized the appointment of women to the board of trustees for the first time.
Modern board of education
After a political struggle for control over public schools led to a congressional investigation in 1900, Congress significantly reformed public school governance again. New legislation established a seven-member Board of Education (BOE) whose members were appointed by the city's three federal commissioners. The BOE was given complete control over the public schools, and had the sole authority to appoint a superintendent and two assistant superintendents (one for white and one for black schools). The BOE also had the authority to hire and fire teachers and other school employees. The BOE was now required to submit an annual budget to the commissioners, who would review it and forward recommendations to Congress as part of the city's annual budget process.
Dissatisfied with the political nature of the commissioners' appointments to the BOE, in 1906 Congress reformed the Board of Education yet again. The board was expanded to nine members, three of whom were required to be women. The authority to appoint board members was turned over to the
Supreme Court of the District of Columbia
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District of ...
, and the authority of the BOE was strengthened and clarified (although budgetary authority remained with the commissioners). A tradition emerged in which three of the BOE's members were African American (two men and one woman). In 1936, Congress changed the name of the court to the District Court for the District of Columbia. The name changed to the
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District of ...
in 1948.
In 1954, the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
handed down its landmark decision in ''
Bolling v. Sharpe
''Bolling v. Sharpe'', 347 U.S. 497 (1954), is a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court Legal case, case in which the Court held that the Constitution proh ...
'', 347 U.S. 497 (1954), which desegregated public schools in the District of Columbia. In 1966, local school activist
Julius Hobson
Julius Wilson Hobson (May 29, 1922March 23, 1977) was an activist and politician who served on the Council of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia Board of Education.
Early life
Hobson was a native of Birmingham, Alabama, He wa ...
sued the public school system, arguing that black-majority schools in the District of Columbia were being deprived of resources. He argued the judges were caught by a
conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
by appointing the BOE and then later ruling on desegregation lawsuits involving the city schools. In ''Hobson v. Hansen'', 269 F.Supp. 401 (1967), the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in Hobson's favor. (An appeal by the superintendent of education failed in 1969.) The ''Hobson'' ruling led to widespread criticism of the existing BOE and governance structure of the D.C. public school system (some of it generated by the board itself).
Post-home rule board of education
President
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
abolished the commissioner system of government in 1967, creating a new mayor-council form of government (albeit one appointed by the President of the United States). The following year, Congress enacted legislation creating an 11-member elected Board of Education. Fifty-three candidates ran for election to the board. With no clear winners, a run-off election was held on November 26, 1968. Hobson himself was elected to the BOE as an at-large member in 1969. Congress made the mayor-council form of government permanent after passing the
District of Columbia Home Rule Act
The District of Columbia Home Rule Act is a United States federal law passed on December 24, 1973, which devolved certain congressional powers of the District of Columbia to local government, furthering District of Columbia home rule. In parti ...
in 1973, which provided for a publicly elected mayor and city council.
With the city mismanaged and nearing bankruptcy, Congress enacted legislation in April 1995 creating the
District of Columbia Financial Control Board
The District of Columbia Financial Control Board (officially the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority) was a five-member body established by the United States Congress in 1995 to oversee the finances of ...
. Budget authority over the public school system was stripped from the city, and given to the Control Board. That same year, under pressure from Congress, the
Council of the District of Columbia
The Council of the District of Columbia is the legislative branch of the local government of the District of Columbia, the capital of the United States. As permitted in the United States Constitution, the district is not part of any U.S. state ...
enacted a package of educational reform proposals which included the establishment of charter schools in the District of Columbia for the first time. The reform legislation also created a new, independent District of Columbia Public Charter School Board to oversee these new schools. The
Mayor of the District of Columbia
The mayor of the District of Columbia is the head of the executive branch of the government of the District of Columbia, in the United States. The mayor has the duty to enforce district laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed ...
was given authority to appoint the charter school board, although the BOE retained the power to issue charters for these schools.
In November 1996, the Control Board seized control of the D.C. public school system. Superintendent Franklin L. Smith was fired, and
Lt. Gen. Julius W. Becton, Jr. was hired as the new superintendent. The BOE was stripped of nearly all its authority, and a new, nine-member Emergency Transitional Education Board of Trustees (appointed by the Control Board) took control of the school system. With the city's finances stabilizing, Congress enacted the
. The act allowed the Control Board to seize control of two-thirds of the city's agencies, and provided for restoration of local control of an agency only after the agency had achieved four successive balanced budgets. The Control Board hired
Arlene Ackerman
Arlene C. Ackerman (January 10, 1947 – February 2, 2013) was an American educator who served as superintendent of the District of Columbia Public Schools, San Francisco Unified School District, and Philadelphia Public Schools.
Education
Acke ...
, a deputy superintendent of education in the
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
public schools, as Becton's deputy superintendent and the system's new chief academic officer in July 1997. The same year, the Public Charter School Board began operation.
The BOE's deliberations proved rancorous in 1998. Beginning in April 1998, the chairman of the council's education committee,
Kevin P. Chavous, led a nine-month effort to reconstitute and reform the Board of Education. After a long battle with mayor-elect
Anthony A. Williams and other council members, the Council approved a Chavous-backed plan to reduce the size of the board from 11 members to seven, and make four of the nine members subject to mayoral appointment (with council confirmation). Two of the city's political wards would elect a representative to the new board (for a total of four members), while two members and the board president would be elected at-large. Voters were asked to approve the "hybrid" board, which they did so in a close vote in June 2000. The Control Board gave up its governance authority over the BOE in January 1999, after
Anthony A. Williams when took office as mayor.
Just nine months after taking up his second term in office, Mayor Williams introduced legislation to strip the BOE of nearly all its power, giving this to the mayor. Under Williams' proposal, the mayor would have the right to hire and fire the superintendent, principals, teachers, and other workers, and would gain significant new powers to reconstitute programs, operations, curriculum, and even entire schools. Chavous threw his support behind Williams' plan.
Little action was taken, however, and in February 2004 Chavous said he no longer supported the mayor's bill. Chavous introduced his own legislation, which largely undid the 2000 reforms. The new bill provided for a nine-member board, with eight elected members (one from each ward) and one member elected at-large. The council approved the bill in July 2004 on a close 7-to-6 vote.
Post-reform role of the SBOE
The "Public Education Reform Act Amendments of 2007" (PERAA) replaced the existing Board of Education with a new State Board of Education (SBOE). The SBOE's role is to advise the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (another new body created by PERAA). Other duties and functions include:
#Approve recommendations on academic standards as recommended by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE);
#Approve graduation standards for high school students;
#Approve standards for the Certificate of High School Equivalency;
#Approve definitions for "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) and "proficiency" and standards for "highly qualified teachers", all of which are applied to all local education agencies;
#Approve standards for the accreditation of teacher preparation programs at the post-secondary level, and for the certification of teachers completing and graduating from such programs;
#Approve the State Accountability Plan for D.C. public schools developed by OSSE, to ensure that AYP is achieved and all local education agencies held accountable for achievement of AYP;
#Approve policies to ensure parental involvement in the governance of the public schools and in the education of students;
#Approve policies for nongovernmental education service providers operating in the District of Columbia;
#Approve rules under which student residency may be verified;
#Approve those organizations permitted to accredit charter schools in the District of Columbia;
#Approve the format of and categories for assessment for the annual student report card, to meet the requirements of the federal
No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It supported standards-based education ...
;
#Approve those organizations permitted to accredit private placement in the District of Columbia;
#Approve rules to enforce student attendance requirements; and
#Approve the state standards under which home schooling may occur.
OSSE and the SBOE collaborated on developing the District of Columbia's five-year strategic plan, which was required by PERAA. This plan, which covers education from early childhood to the 12th grade in all public schools (charter public schools included), was released in October 2008.
D.C. State Board of Education members
As of January 2022, the following were members of the D.C. State Board of Education. The president of the State Board is elected by the members of the board annually.
*
Jacque Patterson
Jacque is a given name and a surname which may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People
* Jacque Batt (died 2014), American First Lady of Idaho 1994-1999
* Jaque Fourie (born 1983), South African former rugby union rugby player
* Jacque Fresco (1916–2017), Ame ...
(At-Large)
*
Emily Gasoi
Emily may refer to:
* Emily (given name), including a list of people with the name
Music
* "Emily" (1964 song), title song by Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer to the film ''The Americanization of Emily''
* "Emily" (Dave Koz song), a 1990 song ...
(Ward 1)
*
Allister Chang (Ward 2)
*
Ruth Wattenberg (Ward 3)
*
Frazier O'Leary (Ward 4)
*
Zachary Parker, (Ward 5)
*
Jessica Sutter (Ward 6)
*
Eboni-Rose Thompson (Ward 7)
*
Carlene Reid (Ward 8)
References
Bibliography
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:District of Columbia State Board of Education
Public education in Washington, D.C.
State Board of Education