Parents, teachers, and students packed a D.C. Council performance-review hearing on Wednesday after internal documents revealed that D.C. Public Schools plans to cut back the minutes students spend in direct reading instruction. Witnesses warned that the move could shrink small-group intervention time and make existing staffing shortages hit even harder. The disclosure, combined with the district’s decision last year to end an international teacher-sponsorship program, set off sharp testimony from families who said their schools stand to lose ground.
What the hearing revealed
During Wednesday’s performance review, witnesses outlined a planned reshuffling of English-language-arts minutes that would shorten the block set aside for direct reading instruction. Council members heard repeated worries that trimming that block could squeeze small-group intervention time and pile more pressure on staff who already feel stretched thin. Those developments, along with the families' testimony, were detailed by WJLA.
Parents and students push back
Families and students told the panel they felt the district had walked away from its commitments. In one pointed moment, Bunker Hill Elementary fourth grader Francesca Macken said, "DCPS has failed to make good on its promise," according to WJLA. Testimony also highlighted an April decision to end the district’s international teacher sponsorship program, which unions say left nearly 200 teachers who moved here under that guarantee "in limbo." Parents told the council that losing those educators while also trimming reading minutes would amount to a double hit for classrooms that are already short-staffed.
Policy context: D.C.'s literacy rules
The fight is unfolding against a backdrop of city policy that leans heavily into structured literacy and science-of-reading approaches in the early grades. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education’s Early Literacy Task Force recommended requiring K-5 teachers to demonstrate structured-literacy competency and creating a vetted list of high-quality materials grounded in the science of reading, according to OSSE. The District’s Addressing Dyslexia law also mandates "science-based" reading programs and annual compliance reporting, which feeds directly into the council’s oversight work, per D.C. Law 23-191.
How DCPS got here
District leaders have ramped up structured-literacy efforts in recent years, including the "DCPS Readers Next Door" line of decodable texts and coaching designed to boost decoding skills and fluency. Those efforts sit inside a multi-year recovery plan after pandemic learning losses and have helped drive curriculum choices across the system. For more on the district’s literacy rollout and how it has been framed to families, see earlier coverage from WTOP.
What to watch
Chancellor Lewis Ferebee is scheduled to appear before the council on Thursday to field questions about staffing, curriculum pacing and how DCPS plans to match classroom minutes with its literacy promises. Council members have signaled they want clear answers on staffing and budgets, not general assurances, and families say they are prepared to come back and testify again if they do not get them. Expect more pointed testimony as officials weigh the proposed curriculum shifts against what is actually happening in classrooms.
