Public Comment by Dr. Erin Bibo

On DC Education Research Collaborative’s Research Priorities

August 24, 2022

Good evening, my name is Erin Bibo, and I am Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at CityWorks DC, a nonprofit organization that is focused on ensuring that DC’s youth of color are better prepared for, hired into, and succeeding in the District’s good jobs. I’m also a Ward 6 resident and parent of three DCPS students. 

When I think of what I want for my own children and the youth of our city, it’s to be able to support themselves and their families in the city in which they were raised and educated. Critical to that is securing and maintaining a good job - a job on a career pathway to a salary that can support a family in the high-cost Washington, DC area (about $48,000 for a single adult or $89,000 for an adult with one child, per the MIT Living Wage Calculator) and offer conditions for stability and growth. In order to truly know if we are effectively preparing our youth to be successfully employed in the city and region’s excellent jobs, we need to be able to access and analyze both comprehensive academic and career outcomes data. 

To that end, I hope to see the DC Education Research Collaborative pursue research that speaks to the postsecondary outcomes of the graduates of DCPS and charter schools, including Early Career outcomes. 

The DC Policy Center has begun excellent research on these topics. More research would shine an important light on the extent to which our graduates are successfully securing good jobs, and on investments and programs that enhance these desired outcomes.