schools – Truxton Is In Shaw

Back to School, for what?

If you look at data for Black children’s literacy rates in America, it is just so depressing. The shut down of schools during Covid didn’t help. There is lots of blame to go around. Parents, community, culture, education fads, and the kids themselves play a part.

So take your anti-depression meds and lets look at Shaw education as school gets back in session.

Back in the Winter of 2019-2020 I looked at all the Shaw schools I could get data on. To be fair, I’ll stick to the 2018-2019 PARCC data, because in 2020 everything went to Hell in a hand basket. Even if there is 2019-2020 data, it would be worse.

Black students	PARCC Test	Meets/Exceeds	Below Adv & Failing
Dunbar	ELA 2018-19	16.50%	83.50%
Dunbar	Math 2018-19	0.50%	99.50%
Dunbar	Males ELA	13.40%	86.60%
Dunbar	Males Math	0.90%	99.10%
Cleveland E	ELA 2018-19	20.30%	79.70%
Cleveland E	Math 2018-19	20.30%	79.70%
Cleveland E	Males ELA	10.80%	89.20%
Cleveland E	Males Math	24.30%	75.70%
St. Augustine**	ELA 2017-2018	49%	51%
St. Augustine**	Math 2017-2018	51%	49%
Friendship PCS- Armstrong Elementary	ELA 2018-19	9.20%	90.80%
Friendship PCS- Armstrong Elementary	Math 2018-19	22.90%	77.10%
Friendship PCS- Armstrong Elementary	Males ELA	7.30%	92.70%
Friendship PCS- Armstrong Elementary	Males Math	18.20%	81.80%
Center City PCS – Shaw	ELA 2018-19	26.50%	73.50%
Center City PCS – Shaw	Math 2018-19	28.90%	71.10%
Center City PCS – Shaw	Males ELA	13.60%	86.40%
Center City PCS – Shaw	Males Math	31.80%	68.20%
KIPP- LEAD (1-4)	ELA 2018-19	39.70%	60.30%
KIPP- LEAD (1-4)	Math 2018-19	68.60%	31.40%
KIPP- LEAD (1-4)	Males ELA	30.00%	70.00%
KIPP- LEAD (1-4)	Males Math	62.20%	37.80%
KIPP- WILL (5-8)	ELA 2018-19	36.40%	63.60%
KIPP- WILL (5-8)	Math 2018-19	32.10%	67.90%
KIPP- WILL (5-8)	Males ELA	29.30%	70.70%
KIPP- WILL (5-8)	Males Math	28.70%	71.30%
Garrison ES	ELA 2018-19	37.50%	62.50%
Garrison ES	Math 2018-19	27.50%	72.50%
Garrison ES	Males ELA	45.50%	54.50%
Garrison ES	Males Math	36.40%	63.60%
Meridian	ELA 2018-19	16.80%	83.20%
Meridian	Math 2018-19	14.20%	85.80%
Meridian	Males ELA	14.70%	85.30%
Meridian	Males Math	14.70%	85.30%
Mundo Verde	ELA 2018-19	22.00%	78.00%
Mundo Verde	Math 2018-19	22.00%	78.00%
Mundo Verde	Males ELA	20.00%	80.00%
Mundo Verde	Males Math	25.00%	75.00%
Seaton ES	ELA 2018-19	35.00%	65.00%
Seaton ES	Math 2018-19	37.50%	62.50%
Seaton ES	Males ELA	31.60%	68.40%
Seaton ES	Males Math	26.30%	73.70%

**St. Augustine is a predominately African American school and does not break down data by race.

I am left asking myself what percentage of Black students who are below reading level or does not meet expectations in math acceptable? It sure as heck isn’t 99% or 80% as it is at Dunbar.

Rando Alley not in Shaw- More of O’Brien Court NW/ Stevens School Garden

I’m just throwing this out there. It was in a collection of things I had from the National Archives, Still Picture Division. Why I have these, I don’t know.

I previously posted about O’Brien Ct. Here is another page about O’Brien Ct but regarding the Stevens School Garden Project. Look kids, school gardens are nothing new. The Stevens School was a school for Black children at the time, which was 1936. Now, it is a Pre-K school.

1914 Howard University Students in Shaw

I wanted to see if by chance Arthur B. McKinney was in a Howard University yearbook. The yearbooks or student yearbook type publications go as far back as 1914. I did not spot him in that yearbook. I don’t know if those things covered the medical school.

But I did spot something interesting, addresses. This was not repeated in later yearbooks. So here is a small list of the students in Shaw:

Annie H. Catlett- 943 (or 913) St St NW

Frank Robert Cook- 1636 10th St NWCeretta Desmukes- 209 O St NW

Mark E. Rivers- 103 or 403 U St NWWalter S. Savoy- 1325 12th St NW

Herbert L. Stevens- 922 Florida Avenue NW

Final Presentation for Langston and Slater Schools

I’m going to take a break from Dr. Carter Grumpypants Woodson to bring up a presentation regarding Truxton Circle’s eyesores of Langston and Slater schools.

I’m just going to copy/paste Bradley A. Thomas’ letter:

The final presentation of the ten proposals for the redevelopment of the Langston and Slater school buildings will take place this Thursday, February 11, 2021, beginning at 6:30 pm. Please review the slides from each of the applicants which I want to thank Bates Area Civic Association President David Hall for putting together into a single link.

You can view all ten of the proposals here .

To view this Thursday’s final disposition presentation, log in at the link below by 6:20 pm on February 11, 2021:

https://dcnet.webex.com/dcnet/onstage/g.php?MTID=e12fcd01a2ec9c1319d6d2f603f937ff8

Five days later, on February 16, 2021, ANC5E will vote on a resolution specifying which elements of the various presentations our community wants to see in the final development plan. We are not being asked to state a preference for one development team over the others. We are being asked to indicate which ideas we like best. If you want to, and haven’t already done so, you can submit to me your individual preferences anytime between now and 11:59 pm on Friday, February 12, 2021. After that, over the weekend, I will put together our collective thinking into a concise resolution which I will ask the Commissioners of ANC5E to support at our public meeting on the following Tuesday night.

For the record, so far four residents have sent me their thoughts and I suspect that after the final presentation on this Thursday, I will get several more. Thank you all for participating in this process which will impact our neighborhood for decades to come.

—–

Because someone’s bedtime is around that time, and Destructo is the king of delay (5 more minutes!), it’s unlikely we’ll see all of this live. But for you with children who go to bed or put themselves to bed or without kids, please participate and finally do something with this. It is possible.

Property Owners of Truxton- Addendum to the Bundys

Okay, James F. Bundy from my previous post was on the DC School Board. So the Bundy School and the Bundy playground was named after him.

I found an obituary for him from the Evening Star on the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America site. In December 14, 1914 he died at the age of 50 at Freedmens Hospital. One of his pallbearers was Judge Robert H. Terrell.

Although he was born in Virginia, he spent most of his life in Washington, DC. He did leave for Oberlin College in Ohio, but returned to attend Howard.

Not sure what his belief system was. He was listed as a trustee for the Baha’i Assembly of Washington. But he was a member of the Second Baptist Church in his obit.

In addition to have been on the DC School Board (1901-1907), he was the secretary of the Howard University Law faculty. He was an alumni graduating from Howard Law school in 1886. When I looked for him, I would find his name attached to public notices regarding wills and probate.

Somewhere in a university library is his biography, “James F. Bundy, 1862-1914” by Charles Murdah Thomas. His papers are at the Historical Society of Washington, DC.

Twinning School of Truxton Circle

This is from the pile of stuff I have on my computer about DC History and while reviewing Church Survey uploads that hadn’t a lot of views, I noticed this one. I got this from the Sumner School Archives, a great resource and it is from DCPS Public School Buildings Past and Present, which appears to be an unpublished manuscript.

The Twinning School used to be a school at 3rd and O Streets NW. It was an 8 room school house built in 1883 and demolished sometime around the time Dunbar expanded. When it served as a school it was a segregated white school. It appears that it served as a school for white students until 1918. It became a school for African American students in 1925. In 1930 the Truxton Circle neighborhood was predominately African-American. It soon got absorbed by Armstrong on the other end of the block and became an auxiliary building. Now there is an empty field where it stood.

Twining School by Mm Inshaw

So we got our DC School Lottery Results

First off, we’d pretty much given up on caring that much. The daycare that Destructo is one of those few child development centers that offers free Pre-K 3 and 4. I was angling for something a bit fancier but due to Destructo’s not being fully potty trained, put a monkeywrench in the ranking order. So maybe next year. Also we’re eying an exodus from this lovely city for career reasons in the near future, so there’s that too.

Anyway, here is what we got in the email today.

Yes, I knew we had a snowball’s chance in the hottest part of Hell of getting into Mundo Verde. If we got in or if his waitlist number (not shown) wasn’t 3 digits, I’d be fast tracking that potty training. For reasons, too gross to put here, I believe he has more control over his body than he’s letting on. Same thing for Yu Ying, which is also a three digit waitlist number.

If I could have found something about proximity as a preference for Cleveland Elementary, I would have. Cleveland is closer to our home than our in-boundary school Seaton. But I didn’t see anything about proximity, so apparently that wasn’t a factor…. maybe. Our waitlist number for both Cleveland slots is thirty-something.

I love the fact that DC has school choice. I didn’t have to choose a school based on an address. When I bought my house, almost 20 years ago, I was a single childless woman, so what school boundary I was in was immaterial. Looking at where we’d move to in the land of Maryland drivers, yeah, elementary school boundaries are a concern. It also helps that Seaton is our in-boundary school, which isn’t that bad, and there are a couple of good charters in walking distance.

Looking at our top 5 which actually is a top 4, you can guess what we found important. Language. What do Cleveland Elementary (DCPS), Yu Ying PCS, and Mundo Verde PCS have in common? Dual language programs. Destructo is getting a bit of that at his daycare, ad hoc, but I don’t think Tagalog is a language he can take with him past Pre-K 4.

I appreciate an article written in the Post profiling 8 families and what went into their lottery choices. I get that people want to have families choose in-boundary or neighborhood schools over charters and out of boundary DCPS schools. But the reality is some schools suck. And I have a good memory of what DC schools were like in the 1990s and early 00s, and schools have improved, but they aren’t equal to all students. We and other parents, make decisions based on what we think is best for our family or our individual kids. We only have one, but I know kids, even in the same family are different. And the school that worked for kid #1 may not work for kid #2. Same for the neighborhood school that may work for kids 1-11, but not kid #12, #32, #57 or #71- 102. And programs take time to develop and by the time it’s ready for the kids it was promised to, those individual kids have moved on.

Anyway, I hope your waitlist number was low, or you got into the school of your choice, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

Shaw School Review: Friendship PCS- Armstrong Elementary

Friendship PCS- Armstrong Elementary
1400 1st St. NW or 111 O St NW

Type of school: Public Charter
Grades: PK3-5 (Note: Middle School for 2020 grades 4-8)
Before & After School care: Yes. Contact school. Prob. $70 a week for before and after care.
Enrollment: 417 (2019-20)
—PreK3: 55; PreK4: 72; K: 63; 1st: 40; 2nd: 65; 3rd: 38; 4th: 37; 5th: 47
PCS LEA 1 Programmatic Capacity: 900; Unfilled seats 499 (2018-19)
Cost Per Pupil- No figures found. Apparently those numbers will be available later in 2020 or 2021.

Attracts Students From These DCPS schools (2017-18), 10 students or more

Name of School	# of Students
Thomas Elementary School	17
Truesdell Education Campus	10
Walker-Jones Education Campus	88
Browne Education Campus	23
Langley Elementary School	15
Seaton Elementary School	36
Cleveland Elementary School	13

Physical activity: Grades K-5: 65.00 Minutes/week

PARCC Scores 2018-19, % meeting & exceeding expectations
	Black	White	Hispanic	Pac. Is/Native Am.
ELA 2018-19	9.2%	n<10	n<10	n<10
Math 2018-19	22.9%	n<10	n<10	n<10
Males ELA	7.3%	n<10	n<10	n<10
Males Math	18.2%	n<10	n<10	n<10

Mari’s 2 cents–

I chose the picture of Armstrong before it was renovated. Friendship is the second charter school to take over the building. I almost feel that I should have a photo of the Langston school to show the importance of charters on the neighborhood. However, Langston is so far long gone no charter, no matter how well funded, isn’t going to touch it, unless the neighboring Slater building comes with.

I should write about the program. As the mom of a toddler, I should point out this is one of the few (the only I found) charters that seems forgiving when it comes to potty training. KIPP and Mundo Verde demand that students be potty trained.

They will have an open house on March 11, 2020 9:00am-10:00am and March 25, 2020 5:00pm-6:00pm.

Sources:
https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/150
https://www.dcschoolreportcard.org/schools/120-0269
Copy of EdScape_Chapter 3 Facilities_Facility Enrollment and Utilization_6
2018-19 School Year Annual Enrollment Audit Report Supplemental Tables
Detailed 2018-19, 2017-18, 2016-17 PARCC And MSAA Performance

Truxton Black History Link- Dunbar Cadet Corps

Right now the Library of Congress website is being very uncooperative. They have photographs of Dunbar High School girl cadets from the 1940s. So instead I’m going to link to someone else’s old blog post about the boys’ cadet corps circa 1950-1960.

It’s a pretty good post with photos from the Dunbar High School year book describing what the cadet corps did and their history. The author, Marion Woodfork Simmons, said that the cadet corps was the precursor to the JROTC. My niece is in the JROTC at our (I & her mom – my sister- went there too) Florida high school. She’s interested in the Navy. Anwho, it seems Dunbar still has an JROTC program.

Shaw School Review: City Center- Shaw

Center City PCS – Shaw
711 N St. NW

Type of school: Public Charter
Grades: PK4-8
Before & After School care: Yes. Contact school. Monthly cost $180.00.
Enrollment: 230 (2018-19)
—PreK4: 16; K: 24; 1st: 20; 2nd: 21; 3rd: 26; 4th: 24; 5th: 26; 6th: 25; 7th: 25; 8th: 23
PCS LEA 1 Programmatic Capacity: 280; Unfilled seats 50 (2018-19)
Cost Per Pupil- No figures found. If I were more confident with math, I’d try. But I’m a humanities person, I don’t do math.

Attracts Students From These DCPS schools (2017-18), 10 students or more

Name of School	# of Students
School Without Walls @ Francis-Stevens	26
Walker-Jones Education Campus	20
Cardozo Education Campus	11
Thomson Elementary School	28
Seaton Elementary School	38

Physical activity: Grades K-5: 270.00 Minutes/week
Grades 6-8: 90.00 Minutes/week

PARCC Scores 2018-19, % meeting & exceeding expectations
	Black	White	Hispanic	Asian
ELA 2018-19	26.5%	n<10	32.2%	n<10
Math 2018-19	28.9%	n<10	33.9%	n<10
Males ELA	13.6%	n<10	26.9%	n<10
Males Math	31.8%	n<10	34.6%	n<10

Mari’s 2 cents– I remember when this was the Immaculate Conception Catholic School. And that makes me sad. What makes me happy is that I had my wedding reception in this school building, but that has nothing to do with the school itself. The Center City schools exist in the former buildings of struggling catholic schools closed by the Archbishop. The reason why they were struggling is that those schools served primarily low-income students and the city was offering free charters, and it is hard to compete with free. So when you can’t beat them, join them. If things go downhill for St. Augustine, this could be their fate too.

Sources:
https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/150
https://secureservercdn.net/45.40.149.159/x6k.c0b.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ExtendedDayOverviewEnglish.pdf
https://www.dcschoolreportcard.org/schools/156-1107
https://dcpcsb.org/center-city-pcs-shaw
2018-19 School Year Annual Enrollment Audit Report Supplemental Tables
Detailed 2018-19, 2017-18, 2016-17 PARCC And MSAA Performance