At Paul PCS: Data, Support, and All Really Meaning All

October 19, 2022

Interviewed by Julie Camerata, Executive Director of the DC Special Education Cooperative

This week, EmpowerK12 released its 2022 Bold Performance Schools report, highlighting DC schools that are serving high-priority students, including students with disabilities, well. We sat down with Rosee Ragin, Executive Director of Student Support Services at Paul PCS, whose middle school was named a 2022 Bold Performance School.

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Questions and answers edited for length and clarity.

What does support look like for students with disabilities at Paul PCS?

We look to support all of our scholars and not put them into subgroups. All students have continuous learning plans, not just our students with disabilities. And that exemplifies our approach at Paul: How can we set up the systems, supports, and teams to support all students and not lead with labels?

How does that play out for the adults?

Professional development has to be a priority for everyone. We have instructional specialists across all content areas to support teachers. And at Paul, SPED is a content area (as is ELL). So that instructional specialist is focused on developing special education teachers and ensuring strong co-teaching relationships between special and general education teachers so that both root Universal Design for Learning in their craft. Our special education teachers meet weekly with their coach. They are observed regularly. They get feedback regularly. Our idea is to help everyone get from good to great.

You’ve been a leader at Paul for a long time. What are some of the big shifts you’ve seen?
One of our biggest successes I’ve seen at Paul in my 11 years is the move from feeling like a segmented school to one where we need to serve all students and all students should be served with data, response to the data, and appropriate interventions.

Change starts at the leadership level. It’s not special education versus general education. The person that I work most closely with is the Executive Director of Schools. We’re attached at the hip. She had to develop me on the priorities of general education students; and I had to develop her on the needs of our special education students.

We had to get out of our lanes and collaborate. Our special education-focused instructional coaches are on the instructional team because they are focused on instruction. They are not siloed into a special education team. I collaborate with them all of the time. Once we made that shift, we had to collaborate to get support and instruction aligned. We’re in the room together. And we never talk about scholars, without thinking and talking about all students.

Anything else?
Our titles reflect our all-means-all mentality. Because our jobs aren’t just special education. We have a Manager of Compliance and Support, not a Special Education Manager of Compliance and Support. I’m the Executive Director of Student Support and everything I do is about supporting all learners.

How are you innovating for student learning this year?

We’re doing Virtual Fridays, focused on interventions where all scholars are online in small groups. Some students may be focused on their specific goals, IEP-related or not; some students may work with social workers; some students are in math interventions.

What are your goals for this year?

First, we want to nail Virtual Fridays and make sure our targeted support to students is based on their needs and that we can course-correct and celebrate as needed. Second, we want to make sure we have a universal approach to scholars that need intervention and a way that everyone can support that. For me, that starts at Tier 1. We do a monthly data dive to make sure our Tier 1 instruction is strong. Finally, we want to lean into developing how case managers support our students. Our data shows our scholars need more, and so we’re leaning into developing our people even more. We want to get tighter on knowing when the data is telling us to create a plan and when it is telling us to go back to instruction. We want more early identification of needs and the ability to quickly provide the right tools, supports, and structures.

Rosee Ragin is the Executive Director of Student Support Services at Paul PCS.

Alexandra Pardo ED.D Bio

Board Member
Partner, TenSquare

Alexandra drives the performance outcomes of TenSquare’s school improvement practice.In this role she has led schools to have drastic achievement outcomes for students in K-adult ed across Washington, DC, Nevada, and North Carolina. She was the Executive Director of Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter School from 2011-2015 and the Academic Director of the school for the five years prior. Under her leadership, the school became the highest performing open-enrollment high school in Washington, DC and attained unparalleled outcomes on state (DC CAS, PARCC) and national (SAT, AP) standardize tests. The school earned a 2014 National Excellence in Education Award from the National Center for Urban School Transformation and a School Award from the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color (2013). The school was ranked as the highest performing high school by US World and News Report in Washington DC earning a Bronze Award (2012, 2013, 2014).

Her use of data has been recognized nationally by the Department of Education in its Doing What Works series, and she is featured in the books, Driven by Data (Paul Bambrick-Santoyo) and the upcoming From Good to Great: School Leadership (Jim Collins). Alexandra received a Distinguished Educational Leadership award in 2013 from The Washington Post. She was a mayoral appointee to the DC Community Schools Advisory Committee and a contributing writer of the DC Social Studies Standards. She is an expert on school turn-arounds and her expertise ranges from academics to school operations.

An experienced classroom teacher, she has taught at the high school and collegiate level courses in social studies, technology and ESL. A Teach for America alumna, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from the George Washington University, a Master of Arts in Teaching from American University, a Master of Science in Administration from Trinity University and a Doctorate of Education from the George Washington University.

Daniela Anello Bio

Board Member
Head of School, DC Bilingual Charter School

Daniela Anello, Head of School at DC Bilingual Charter School, leads the strategic vision, implementation, and growth of DC Bilingual both academically and operationally. The DC Public Charter School Board ranks DC Bilingual among the top elementary charter schools in the city and The New Teacher Project ranks DC Bilingual in the top quartile of all DC charter schools for its strong instructional culture.

Head of School since 2015, Daniela has been a critical leader to the DC Bilingual community as the school has become an independently operated charter school; secured its own facility; and grown to serve more than 440 students. Daniela started with DC Bilingual in 2009 as a Literacy Coach and advanced into the roles of Resident Principal and Interim Principal before the school’s board of trustees named Daniela Head of School. Daniela launched her teaching career in the elementary school classrooms of New York, Boston, and Washington, DC.

Daniela is a graduate of New Leaders Emerging Leaders and Aspiring Principals Program and completed the Literacy Specialist Master’s of Arts program at Teachers College Columbia University. Daniela holds a Bachelor’s of Arts, elementary education and teaching from the State University of New York, Geneseo. A native of Chile, Daniela lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two children, both DC Bilingual students.

Jonathan Beall Bio

Senior VP & C&I Relationship Manager With EagleBank

Jonathan Beall, Senior Vice President & C&I Relationship Manager with EagleBank, is a recognized subject matter expert and leader in the not-for-profit, bond, charter & education financing market vertical; primarily serving as a senior financing partner providing taxable and tax-Exempt bond financing supporting various school program initiatives including for operations, growth, expansion, renovation and construction of existing and new campuses across the region. Jonathan proudly maintains a client portfolio consisting of ten active District of Columbia LEA / Public Charter School programs as well as over sixteen charter and private school clients in the District, Maryland and Virginia.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Jonathan brings a personal commitment to the DC Special Education Cooperative, being a devoted Father to a neurodiverse daughter with Autism Spectrum Disorder (“ASD”). His passion for comprehensive, inclusive, and equitable education is evident and manifest within his client portfolio as well as with his other commitments including serving on the Board of Directors of Great & Small, a Maryland based non-profit offering therapeutic horseback riding services including equine based occupational and hippotherapy.

Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science & Finance from Washington College. A native of Olney, MD – Jonathan lives in Montgomery County with his wife, two children, and chocolate lab.

Shelley Jacobson Hughes Bio

Board Treasurer
Finance Director, EdOps

Shelley Jacobson Hughes is the National Finance Team Director at EdOps providing business and financial management services to ~60 school clients. Shelley joined EdOps in October 2015 from DC Prep where she worked as Senior Manager of Operations and Extended Learning. Prior to working directly with charter schools, she was a Private Equity Associate at Huntsman Gay Global Capital in Palo Alto, California and an Investment Banking Analyst at Barclays Capital in New York. Shelley has a BS in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA and Masters in Education from Stanford University.

At Paul PCS: Data, Support, and All Really Meaning All

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