What is going on in Anacostia's schools?
Jaquan McGee photographed by his mother Leshawn Weathers
Washington D.C.— Anacostia High School Senior Jaquan McGee and his mother Leshawn Weathers return from church to their most recent residence on 17th Street in Southeast Washington D.C. Three years ago they lived in Northwest and a year before that they argue about where.
“I am just trying to finish school,” the 19-year-old who transferred to Anacostia High School two years ago, said. McGee is one of seven children, and lives at home with his mom and two other siblings. “We moved a lot because of hard times,” said Weathers who works at Bread for City, a nonprofit organization that provides food and clothing to the Ward 8 community. McGee entered Anacostia High School with a 1.50 grade point average according to his mother. He is just one of the 449 students considered economically disadvantaged at Anacostia High School, according to District of Columbia Public Schools enrollment records.
The United States Department of Education defines economically disadvantaged as students from a family of four with an annual income under $45,500, qualifying them for free lunch. At Kramer Middle School, the feeder to school to Anacostia High School, all students are also considered economically disadvantaged according to District of Columbia Public Schools.
Kramer Middle School Principal Romain Smith sees the daily toll living in an impoverished environment takes on learners. “Our students face serious challenges not even adults deal with,” Principal Smith said. Most students attending Kramer Middle School live in the Ward 8 community where the child poverty rate is 50 percent according to the 2015 U.S. Census. “Many of them are only able to eat at lunchtime or breakfast here. So they have trauma, and they are angry.”
Ward 8 has maintained the highest number of students that qualify for free lunch for the past ten years according to records from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. Educational experts see such areas of concentrated poverty as an indicator of poor performance according to a report released by the National Center for Educational Statistics. At McGee's school, 45 percent of his peers failed to meet basic proficiency for math on their PARCC exams according to the District of Columbia Public School records. Students from low-income families do not perform as well as their wealthier cohorts for a host of reasons including less school funding, less access to resources and supplies like textbooks, computers and lab equipment according to educational-researchers. “Each ward is different. Kids on this side struggled to get more resources,” Weathers said.
Kristen Clardy a geometry teacher at Anacostia High School said that she not only supplies her school kids with pencils and pens but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in case a student mentions that they don't have food for after school. “I don’t require them to bring supplies. I would rather give them the pencil than have them not show up because they don’t have something they need.” Clardy said.
Despite many schools in Ward 8 receiving title one funding, students from Ketcham Elementary, Kramer Middle School, and Anacostia High school all admit they lack basic school materials they need for class. According to the 2016 District of Columbia School Budget every school in the District was awarded money from Mayor Bowser with the lion's share of $1,378,181 going to support “At Risk” students in the Ward 8 school district.
Main Abdul Rahman, an educational-researcher who studies the impact of poverty on education suggests a less obvious explanation for the consistent achievement gap among D.C. wards. “They are throwing money at school without vision or clear objective,” she said. Students in Ward 8 schools have consistently fallen behind every ward in reading and math scores a recent assessment of PARCC exams records by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. The former Ballou STAY principal argues that school and parental expectations in low-income communities can greatly influence a student’s achievement.
Principal Smith affirms Rahman’s point. He contends that while most of his students do come from low-income homes, the expectation of success of that can home can make a huge difference in performance. Some students Principal Smith said, may “lack a role model and don’t see the benefit of what it means to be a student.” This, in turn, may cause a “lack of class participation” which Principal Smith said can turn cause teachers to “burn out” as they try to help. Educators and researchers have studied ways to boost overall engagement and accommodate these learners.
Anacostia High School senior math teacher Mark Smith suggests a wraparound approach to address the needs of students. “Schools need to be like a community center,” he said. “They need health care and mental health care. Some of them can’t even see the board they don't have glasses.” Other teachers in Anacostia are trying to reform suspension policies so that students are in school more often and do not fall behind. Educators in Southeast have also found that extracurricular activities not only give students a healthy outlet but motivation to boost their grades in order to participate. Geometry teacher Kristen Clardy, who started coaching a club rugby team last year, said she has seen improvement not only in her student's grades but their attitudes. “They are learning to problem solve and consider consequences, and just become really emotionally mature.” Clardy also said that since starting the team she has found a key way to relate to her students outside the classroom which has helped engagement inside the classroom. “It was the best thing I ever did,” the coach said.
McGee who began playing on the rugby team, football team, tennis team, and track team also credits his improved 2.50 grade point average to extracurricular activities. “When I got into sports things started changing for me,” he said. Weathers leads the Anacostia High School Football Mom Club and attends most of her son’s activities. “He is in so many now. It is hard to keep up,” the proud mom said. Most recently McGee, the only swimmer for on the Anacostia High School swim team won swimmer of the year. He plans to go to Louisburg College in North Carolina next year to study physics. “I have a lot of hope for Anacostia,” the senior said.