[submitted to the DC Council November 7, 2025]
Good afternoon Chairman Mendelson and members of the Council. My name is Meagan Alderton; I am the Senior Director of Education Innovation and Improvement at the DC Special Education Cooperative, better known as the Co-op.
For more than 25 years, the Co-op has partnered with public charter schools in DC to create equitable and excellent education systems where students with disabilities thrive. Our mission is to turn the desire for change into the ability to make change — and our Demonstration Classrooms are evidence of the change that is possible.
Launched in 2018, Demonstration Classrooms are high-quality, open-laboratory learning environments that showcase evidence-based, high-leverage practices and demonstrate how these practices can be replicated city-wide. These models are transforming how schools approach special education by helping educators see what inclusive, data-driven, high-expectation leadership and teaching looks like in action.
Let me share what this transformation looks like on the ground:
At Bridges Public Charter School, where 38 percent of students have IEPs and 54 percent are English Learners — far above the city average — teachers implemented the
Universal Design for Learning framework with Co-op coaching and support. In last year’s Demonstration Classroom, 93 percent of students met or exceeded their MAP growth goals, and 10 of 11 students with IEPs exceeded expectations. Educators from 16 schools have already toured this Demonstration Classroom to see the results for themselves.
At Washington Latin Public Charter School, the Co-op supported implementation of a Multi-Tiered System of Support to replace ad-hoc interventions with a data-driven model. Today, students with disabilities are growing academically at rates equal to their non-IEP peers, and suspension rates for students with disabilities fell to under 1 percent within the first year of implementation, compared with 9 percent citywide
At Thurgood Marshall Academy, where most students enter three or more grade levels behind, the Co-op helped embed Math 180 and Read 180 interventions directly into the schedule. Last spring, 64 percent of Math 180 students and 62 percent of Read 180 students met or exceeded their projected RIT growth, far surpassing national growth norms. Math 180 students collectively achieved 200 percent of their projected growth targets.
And at DC Bilingual, we partnered to create “Learning Labs” that redesigned schedules around students with disabilities instead of fitting them into existing structures. The result? In SY 24-25 85 percent of students with IEPs met their reading growth targets, and Learning Lab students outperformed students with disabilities citywide in ELA by 20 percentage points. As of last spring, students with disabilities at DCB continue to excel at rates well above the city average on DCCAPE.
These are not accidental successes — they are proof that when we design instruction around the needs of students with disabilities, every student benefits. The Demonstration Classrooms are creating a network of change that is raising expectations, closing opportunity gaps, and making equity real in our schools.
As you consider budget priorities, I urge the Council to:
- Consider creating an innovation fund that would support initiatives like the Co-op’s Demonstration classrooms.
- Visit one of our Demonstration sites this fall to observe equity in action.
We have seen enough data to understand what is at stake— Our Demonstration sites show us what’s possible. Let’s ensure that the success seen at Bridges, Latin, Thurgood Marshall, and DC Bilingual becomes the standard across every school in the District.
Thank you for your time and for your commitment to educational equity in our city.