District of Columbia

Current Projects

OSSE Reimaging High School Graduation Requirements

The aim of this initiative is to identify and implement new high school graduation requirements that incorporate outcome measures and support innovative approaches to preparing young people for life after graduation.

Past Projects

Developing a Districtwide Framework for Supporting Positive School Culture and Climate

The R4CC team worked to document and inventory work currently underway at OSSE that impacts school climate and culture (such as work related to discipline and attendance policies, mental health supports, multi-tiered systems of support, and positive behavior intervention and supports); develop a shared vision and definition for OSSE’s role in school climate and culture; develop a Theory of Action focused on articulating OSSE’s contribution to supporting school climate and culture, OSSE’s core implementation levers, and clear goals for the agency; align school culture and climate language across OSSE divisions to the shared Theory of Action; identify gaps and redundancies in OSSE’s current school climate and culture work and create an agency roadmap to support coordinated planning and actions; and establish sustainable cross-agency coordinating structures to maximize OSSE’s impact.

Supporting the Development of New Social Studies Standards

The current social studies standards in the District of Columbia were developed in 2007. The R4CC team assisted OSSE in updating social studies standards for PreK-12 by conducting a national scan of information related to social studies standards; gathering in-depth information on advantages and challenges of approaches to standards revision or development from select state education agencies; and helping develop a roadmap for the development of social studies standards in the District of Columbia, including stakeholder engagement.