Antwan Wilson visits Tubman Elementary School a day ahead of the third and final hearing hosted by the D.C. Council’s committee on public education. The Council will vote on his appointment as the next head of DCPS on Dec. 20. (Photo by Christina Sturdivant)
A day before his final education council hearing, Antwan Wilson greeted families, engaged with students, and observed classrooms this morning at an elementary school in Columbia Heights.
Last month, Mayor Muriel Bowser nominated Wilson, the former head Oakland’s public school system, to succeed Kaya Henderson as D.C. Public School’s chancellor. Today, he met a rush of families dropping off students at Tubman Elementary School. “Have fun today, okay?” he said to one student, patting her own the shoulder, before turning around to shake a parent’s hand.
A former teacher, Wilson eventually went inside for some classroom time where he interacted with students one-on-one. He also walked the halls, stopping to view student progress boards, and sat inside classrooms as teachers lead morning rituals.
During his two-year stint in Oakland, Wilson is credited with increasing the system’s graduation rate by almost four percentage points, as well as decreasing suspension rates and investing in teacher pay, among other things.
Prior to overseeing the Oakland system, Wilson was assistant superintendent for post secondary readiness in Denver Public Schools for six years, overseeing middle, high, and alternative schools. Before that, he worked as a high school principal in Denver, and a middle school principal in Wichita, Kansas— “serving diverse communities and tackling challenges similar to those faced” by D.C.’s system,” according to DCPS.
In Oakland, Wilson has faced pushback for working to “create a more cooperative environment” for public schools and charter schools, The Washington Post reported. He ran into opposition for proposing a common enrollment system—a process that DCPS already has. And he’s been criticized in Oakland for his efforts to bring special education students “into mainstream classrooms,” according to The Post.
One of the D.C. system’s biggest hurdles is closing the achievement gap. While DCPS announced in September that its four-year graduation rates have reached an all-time high, graduation rates among black and Hispanic students are both at 67 percent compared to 93 percent for white students.
“It’s 100 percent possible to educate every child,” Wilson has said, referencing his top priority of eliminating disparities in D.C., according to The Post. “Sometimes people say that’s unrealistic, but I just don’t believe that.”
Wilson will testify tomorrow in the third and final hearing hosted by the D.C. Council’s committee on public education. Nearly three dozen people are also slated to speak.
Meanwhile, the Washington Teachers’ Union has brought up concerns regarding Mayor Bowser’s selection process. Elizabeth Davis, president of the WTU, told Fox 5 News that members of D.C.’s chancellor selection panel “were not aware of the qualifications of any of the candidates. We never met them. We never reviewed their resume. We never interviewed with them.” Members of the panel were first introduced to Wilson and his resume about 45 minutes before Bowser announced him as her pick at a press conference in November, Davis said.
The union sent its complaint in a letter to At-Large Councilmember and education chair David Grosso. Among other things, Davis said she’d like the city to “acknowledge that the process was not followed” and for D.C. to “take necessary steps to ensure the mayor understands the importance of following the law—none of us are above the law.”
In response, Shayne Wells, deputy chief of staff in the office of the deputy mayor for education, argued in a statement that not only was Bowser compliant with the law, “she conducted the most inclusive Chancellor search under mayoral control and possibly beyond.” Bowser received and solicited the committee’s full input “in compliance with the law and used it to inform this critical selection for our children’s future.”
If the council decides to move forward with the nomination, it may appear on the December 20 agenda, Wells said.
This post has been updated with new information about Wilson’s confirmation.
