Friday, June 11, 2010



ANACOSTIA HIGH School will be much in the news Friday, as first lady Michelle Obama is scheduled to address the graduating class. The bigger news, though, is the work underway to transform this long-troubled D.C. high school. A unique partnership between the D.C. public school system and a charter organization is beginning to show signs of progress.


"They didn't care, so I didn't care," one senior recently told us. She was describing the school leadership and teaching staff before Friendship Public Charter Schools, at the behest of Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, this year took responsibility for academic instruction. The young woman, one of 16 Anacostia students selected for a scholarship program, recalled how she would regularly skip school and, when she did show up for class, would not think twice about acting up. That kind of behavior was hardly unusual at what was widely seen as the city's worst high school, with its reputation for violence and record of dismal academic performance. Nearly half its students failed to graduate. Repeated efforts to turn the school around floundered, with four principals cycling through in four years.