Education Forward DC has partnered with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to assist schools in building more positive school climates that support student well-being and academic achievement.
“Supporting student well-being is critical, particularly as DC seeks to recover from the negative impacts of the pandemic,” said Bisi Oyedele, CEO of Ed Forward DC. “Students who feel supported emotionally and connected to their school communities are more likely to remain engaged and succeed academically.”
Ed Forward DC is funding nearly $150,000 in “microgrants” for 19 public schools in the District of Columbia. These grants will allow schools to understand and respond to school culture and climate data from the 2024 Panorama survey, which measures students’ perceptions of school climate, teaching and learning, relationships, and belonging.
OSSE administers the grant, including selecting recipients and collecting data. OSSE adopted social and emotional learning standards (SEL) and plans to administer a statewide school culture and climate survey in spring 2025.
“The School Climate Enhancement Microgrant enables schools to turn school climate survey insights into action,” said Interim State Superintendent Antoinette S. Mitchell, Ph.D. “OSSE is making strides to foster strong, supportive environments for every DC student, school staff member, and family. We are grateful for Ed Forward DC’s partnership in establishing these microgrants to support this vision.”
Schools can use the grants toward the purchase of professional development for staff to help create a safe and positive school culture, the design or improvement of an early warning system to identify students in crisis, or other strategies that support the effective use of survey data to improve school culture and climate.
“Whitlock aims to collaborate with families, the community, and students to build an environment that boosts achievement. We will empower both students and families to actively engage as partners in this effort. We’re all in this together!”
-Malaika Golden, Principal, Whitlock Elementary School
School Climate Microgrants Fall 2024
| School | Award Amount | Project Description |
|---|---|---|
| Academy of Hope Adult PCS | $5,000 | The school aims to create a cross-departmental advisory group to improve the safety and wellness survey domain. The cross-departmental advisory group will work with Panorama consultants, conduct focus groups, and apply data insights to foster a supportive school environment. |
| Brookland MS | $10,000 | The school plans to significantly enhance their stakeholders' ability to understand and utilize school climate data. Specifically, they will increase professional development offerings aimed at improving stakeholders' data literacy. Interventions will include culturally responsive teaching and mentorship programs that aim to promote equity and support for historically underserved students through data-driven strategies. |
| Capital City PCS - HS | $5,170 | The school plans to improve the self-efficacy and sense of belonging for students through targeted lessons and increased staff engagement with survey results. Specifically, key staff will undergo training to focused on understanding and interpreting survey data, and the school will launch interventions to address student needs and increase participation in upcoming survey administrations. |
| Cardozo EC | $10,000 | The school plans to implement NXU Education’s SEL program to reduce disruptive classroom behaviors and increase students' sense of belonging. The program focuses on improving SEL through staff training and data-driven interventions to support a diverse student body. |
| Columbia Heights EC | $3,000 | The school plans to provide targeted professional development focused on increasing student engagement, conflict resolution, and relationship building, which will remedy inequitable suspension rates based on student race and gender. |
| District of Columbia International PCS | $10,000 | The school plans to integrate a multi-tiered system of support dashboard to consolidate disparate student data, form a Community Data Action Team to respond to school climate data, and partner with a consultant to implement inclusive, data-informed strategic actions and programming. |
| Friendship Online PCS | $10,000 | These schools aim to improve their understanding and use of school climate data through workshops and training for staff and caregivers. They plan to improve data analysis skills, increase survey participation, and tailor interventions to address specific student needs, focusing on mutual respect, self-efficacy, and a sense of belonging. |
| Friendship PCS - Collegiate Academy HS | $10,000 | The school aims to improve its understanding and use of school climate data through workshops and training for staff and caregivers. It plans to improve data analysis skills, increase survey participation, and tailor interventions to address specific student needs, focusing on mutual respect, self-efficacy, and a sense of belonging. |
| Friendship PCS - Technology Preparatory Academy HS | $10,000 | The school aims to improve its understanding and use of school climate data through workshops and training for staff and caregivers. It plans to improve data analysis skills, increase survey participation, and tailor interventions to address specific student needs, focusing on mutual respect, self-efficacy, and a sense of belonging. |
| John Lewis ES | $10,000 | The school aims to create a summer working group that will focus on developing a school climate survey participation strategy. The diverse working group will consist of five caregivers, five school staff members, and five students. The project aims to improve school culture via a series of training sessions designed in collaboration with experts in data analysis and equity. The training series will improve data literacy among stakeholders, increase understanding of equity issues, and increase data use to inform decision-making processes. |
| Lorraine H. Whitlock ES | $9,750 | The school plans to improve its overall satisfaction and enrollment rates by hosting family and caregiver events to foster community connections and increase student enrollment and attendance. |
| Maya Angelou Academy at Youth Services Center (DYRS) | $4,050 | These schools plan to improve staff and family engagement with school climate data through reflection sessions and enhanced data access. The plan will increase staff ability to review, analyze, triangulate, and integrate data into regular school practices. |
| Maya Angelou PCS HS | $4,050 | The school plans to improve staff and family engagement with school climate data through reflection sessions and enhanced data access. The plan will increase the staff’s ability to review, analyze, triangulate, and integrate data into regular school practices. |
| McKinley Technology HS | $5,000 | The school will implement a Lunch Bunch Program to improve the student belonging and engagement domain, targeting students who feel a low sense of belonging. The program will build relationships between students and teachers, aiming to improve engagement, attendance, and overall school climate. |
| Powell Bilingual ES | $3,890 | The school will develop an equity working group to ensure Black students feel loved and prepared at school. Specifically, the working group will conduct focus groups and plan interventions to improve Black students' experiences, including multilingual language support, student clubs, and family engagement activities. |
| Raymond ES | $10,000 | The school will expand the Sunshine Team to include parents and students and will implement family engagement and cultural programs to enhance the school’s overall climate. The school will also promote equity by providing free workshops to help parents support their children with learning at home. The workshops will provide free food from local restaurants and time to build a positive and supportive community. |
| Sela PCS | $8,903 | The school plans to train staff on Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and purchase a new social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum. The goal is to better align SEL instruction with climate data and improve interventions based on survey trends, enhancing overall school climate and targeted support for students. |
| Stanton ES | $10,000 | The school plans to provide mental health clinicians and other partners with a multi-session training geared toward using data to support students. Specifically, the training will cover data collection, analysis, and use, including strategies and instructional support. |
| Washington Yu Ying PCS | $10,000 | The school plans to partner with an organization to bolster community-building through restorative practices. This partnership aims to increase overall family involvement, participation in the climate survey, overall engagement in multicultural initiatives at the school and academic support to students. The goal is to improve representation among families, boost involvement in equity workshops, and foster a supportive community to better address the needs of at-risk students. |
“DCI will use the grant funding to support our work in becoming a Socially Just Community that uses data to inform its evolving practice and engages all students, staff, and families in an inclusive school environment. We will do this by purchasing a data tool, launching a community data action team, and creating programs informed by data to improve school climate.”
-Zach Rogstad, Data and Assessment Manager, District of Columbia International School
“Now is the time to lay the groundwork for a reimagined school system that serves DC students even better than before the pandemic,” said Oyedele. “We need to understand better what school-based practices best meet students’ mental and emotional needs while collecting more frequent, citywide data on how students feel.”
The schools eligible for microgrants were part of a cohort of early adopter schools that OSSE has convened over the past year, including some schools Ed Forward DC funded to administer the Panorama survey over the last two years. The second round of that data—which included results from more than 30,000 students in 16 DC local educational agencies (LEAs)—was recently released in an analysis by Bellwether, Students Speak: A 2024 Snapshot of Youth Well-Being in the District of Columbia.
The survey found a significant decrease in DC students’ sense of belonging and valuing school in middle and high school compared to earlier grades, comparable to national trends.
All public schools in DC will administer Panorama in the spring of 2025.
OSSE believes that school climate survey data will provide LEAs with a critical tool for designing more impactful school and community supports. Responsive to stakeholder requests, OSSE developed surveys for students, staff, and caregivers in partnership with an advisory cohort of LEAs to address their key concerns and needs. OSSE believes it will achieve its goal of providing a high-quality tool, hands-on technical support, and robust professional development while minimizing the administrative burden for school-based staff.
The data collected through the initial Panorama survey helped school leaders identify the specific needs of their students. Four of those schools then piloted interventions to support student and staff mental health and well-being with support from Ed Forward DC in partnership with Transcend. The learnings from those pilots were published in a white paper this May, Supporting Student and Staff Well-Being: School Pilots in Action.
