The 2004-2014 findings from the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System (DC CAS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that the District's 4th and 9th graders scored 49th out of 51 states and territories in 2016. The District had switched to the federal PAARC test, and in 2017 it began to implement the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) model. Implementing this model means that students will work with two teachers in the classroom: one provides job-training and another who teaches basic skills in reading, math, or English language. The students' historically-low test scores and the implementation of the I-BEST model suggest that CSOSA clients referred to the District's public and charter schools or nonprofit adult education contractors would have been unlikely to have been able to obtain a high school degree or GED credential.
TopAn Osse Adult Education Program Implementaion Assessment Audit
After reviewing the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System (DC CAS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) between 2007-2014, the National Research Council summative review found that although student scores had increased, student scores remained all but the lowest in the country and although, graduation rates fluctuated from year to year, with no discernable pattern, they, too, remain disturbingly low (National Research Council, 2015).
The Council called for an interagency-coordinating body to develop a data warehouse and to effectively monitor all of the District’s public schools and student success because the District was composed of 62 public school and 61 charter entities (National Research Council, 2015).
Table 1
shows that 2,306 adults took the high school equivalency exam in 2013, and of those, only 1099 passed the exam.
Table 1. State GED high school equivalency test performance (2013)
Source: Adapted from National Center for Education Statistics (2017)
This table allows members of both the local and federal Judiciary Committees to assess the degree to which the District prepares its residents to take the GED. However, this table does not indicate the number of probation and parole residents the District prepared to take the GED. Federal Judiciary Committee members could request that the National Center for Education work with the District and CSOSA administrators to determine how many probation and parole clients are prepared annually to take the GED. The next two tables present District education performance on National test and provide federal Judiciary Committee members information by which to judge the District’s ability to prepare residents for educational exams.
Table 2
indicates the performance of District children on national test from 2000 to 2017.
Table 2. Source: Adapted from National Center for Education Statistics (2017)