Anacostia

Anacostia High School

Anacostia Voices is written by Paul Penniman. In 2003, Paul founded Resources for Inner city CHildren, RICH, which provides tutoring and mentoring services to Anacostia High School and the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School-Capitol Hill.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your interesting comments about “Number 1 and “Number 2”. To give you a sense of how much our kids in Anacostia are learning, three “home-grown” students, those of whom have gone to Anacostia neighborhood schools throughout childhood, have scored 800 or higher on the SAT (math + reading, or math + verbal for us old folks). “Number 2” is one of those students. There are eight other kids who transferred to Anacostia High School in the eleventh or twelfth grade who also have that distinction. “Number 1” is one of those students. The good news about this gap is our kids can do a lot of catching up freshman year. Paul Tough addresses this issue toward the end of his excellent book, “How Children Succeed.”

To all the Spelman alums who have expressed interest: Your alum support system is phenomenal, and we will continue to make good use of it!

Some of you have wondered about ensuring the success of these kids when they get to college. We do have a dedicated budget for this, but if you would like to enhance it, or donate for any other of our programs, click here and in the comment section you can specify your donation (or not). Thank you in advance, and I hope all in PoPville have a relaxing and fulfilling holiday season.

Below is an interesting essay written by one of the other two home-grown 800+ kids. I hope you enjoy it although it is a little disturbing:

I’m from Southeast Washington DC, perhaps one of the worst places to live in the U.S. The crime here is phenomenal, and to experience drug dealing and murders first hand is unbearable. When you compare this side of the city to the other quadrants like NE or NW geographically it’s so different, I mean the culture changes, the way people treat each other is different. Once you cross into Ancostia it’s a whole new world, the increase of Black/African Americans sky rockets. There are abandoned houses and buildings everywhere, trash all over the place, and a good amount of homeless folk. It’s like the rest of the city literally drew a line between us and them saying “We don’t want anything to do with those people”. It’s almost like they just don’t care. (more…)

Anacostia High School

Anacostia Voices is written by Paul Penniman. In 2003, Paul founded Resources for Inner city CHildren, RICH, which provides tutoring and mentoring services to Anacostia High School and the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School-Capitol Hill.

Hi everyone,

This week I want to profile the girls at Anacostia High School with the top two GPA’s, whom I’ll call “Number 1” and “Number 2.” Number 1 came to Anacostia from another school in town and immediately stood out for her inquisitiveness and hard work. It is a cliché to say the first few words that come to mind when describing her, but those words are “relentless,” “fearless,” and “curious.” She plays volleyball and runs cross-country during the same seasons. Her teachers and coaches love her, and if she does not get a POSSE scholarship she will almost assuredly get another scholarship somewhere. POSSE scholars in the Washington, D.C. area attend one of six colleges: University of Rochester, University of the South at Sewanee, Bucknell University, Grinnell College, Lafayette College, and Wisconsin-Madison. She had virtually the highest SAT scores in her class (along with Travis, whom you might remember from earlier in the fall), but she decided to take our organization’s SAT class this fall and take the test two more times.

Number 2 is equally dogged, but perhaps less disciplined, than Number 1. She takes hard courses every year. In the tenth grade she was one of two students to get as high as a ‘2’ on the World History Advanced Placement Exam. (Travis was the other.) She is taking Advanced Placement English Language now and Advanced Placement U.S. Government. If calculus or physics were offered at the school, Number 2 would be there. She has always aspired to Spelman College, and she will be applying to a few other selective colleges as well. The school does not have a strong record of students’ gaining admission to selective colleges and universities—only one student in the last three years has gone off to a college that admits fewer than half of its applicants–but it is a real possibility for both Number 1 and Number 2. (more…)

Anacostia High School

Anacostia Voices is written by Paul Penniman. In 2003, Paul founded Resources for Inner city CHildren, RICH, which provides tutoring and mentoring services to Anacostia High School and the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School-Capitol Hill.

Hi everyone,

It’s close to the beginning of school, so I thought it might be enlightening to talk to three teachers who began their math teaching careers together at Anacostia High School in 2009 but who all left either in 2012 or 2013. Jack left after four years to go to graduate school; Abe left after four years to join the HEROS program at the DC College Success Foundation; and Ryan left after three years to continue teaching, but at a charter school elsewhere in D.C.

It should be noted that these three men had largely a negative experience and left, and their thoughts reflect that. However, Anacostia High School had a very high retention rate for teachers from last school year into this school year, over 80%.

This is a transcript of my conversation with Abe, Jack, and Ryan. (more…)

Anacostia High School

Anacostia Voices is written by Paul Penniman. In 2003, Paul founded Resources for Inner city CHildren, RICH, which provides tutoring and mentoring services to Anacostia High School and the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School-Capitol Hill.

Hello again everyone,

Travis was touched by your positive comments, and, yes, there will be some editing and paring down of his magnus opus!

As you can imagine, I’ve gotten to know Travis quite well.  I’ve actually gotten to know a lot of young men and women in my neighborhood on Howard Rd quite well.  What follows is my reflection on two of the boys that I wrote about a year ago.

Before I knew it, I had semi-adopted two teenage brothers who live two blocks away.  I first knew the older boy, identified as a top math student for our MATHlete program two years ago.   He is now an eleventh grader, and his brother is now a ninth grader.  When I moved into Anacostia last winter, I knew I would be closer to my students, but I didn’t know how close.

The relationship changed from merely student-teacher when the older one kept texting me that there wasn’t any food in their house, and could they come over.  Feeding picky teenagers is a new challenge for me, as my diet ranges from the Moosewood Cookbook to the Vegetarian Epicure with a little beer or wine thrown in occasionally.  Except for the Caesar’s salad (a “black” salad, the older boy jokes), I have not been able to get them to eat vegetables. (more…)