Living the D.R.E.A.M.

Another first post here!  I'm about halfway through my second week of living in Virginia and am powering through my 7th day of work here at Achievement Prep in SE DC.  And when I say that I'm living the D.R.E.A.M., it's not just that I'm so excited as a history major to be living right next to a city of incredible historical importance with tons of museums to go to, or that as a burgeoning public transportation enthusiast I am able to take advantage of the great DC Metro.  I'm talking about the core values of Achievement Prep:  Determination, Respect, Enthusiasm, Accountability, and Mastery.  Those aren't just values that our 4th through 8th grade scholars come to learn; I feel that as a PP55 Fellow at the highest achieving charter school in Ward 8 (or any kind of school in Ward 8 for that matter) I have an incredible opportunity to learn more about all of the hard behind the scenes work that goes into running a school that's doing it right when 5th graders are being sent to us from DC Public Schools and other charter schools who don't know how to read.  My first major project is helping with the enrollment process for our new 4th, 5th, and 6th grade scholars and the struggle to track down paperwork from DC public schools is giving me a pretty good idea of the "shenanigans" as my boss would say, going on in those schools.  One particularly egregious problem is the idea of social promotion, where children are promoted to the next grade because teachers find them too difficult to deal with and just want to get rid of them.  It's a travesty.

I think it really says something about Achievement Prep that we have new scholars coming in from 30 different schools.  We're only a couple of years old but our name is getting out there.  People know that we are the place to go for rockin' DC CAS scores.  One thing that is especially impressive to me about Achievement Prep is their model of the expanded middle school.  Achievement Prep serves grades 4 through 8, a system based around scientific evidence that shows that the likelihood of a child graduating from high school can be predicted with relatively high accuracy based on reading proficiency at the end of the third grade.  Achievement Prep works hard every day to defy this, with their program of intervention, remediation and acceleration.  They are truly making a difference in a community where 85% of the students receive free or reduced lunch and 100% of the school population is African-American, a community that has been dubbed a "food desert" by First Lady Michelle Obama because of the impossibility to get fresh fruits and vegetables here.  Good thing I pack my own lunch!

In the time coming up to my first day of work I have to say I was nervous about the community I'm working in.  I'd been to the school once before in March and gotten to and from Union Station via taxi so I'd seen a bit of the neighborhood, which seemed mostly desolate and reminds me very strongly of Trenton.  Mostly I felt nervous because every time I mentioned to someone from the DC / VA area that I was working in Anacostia they'd make a surprised face and say something along the lines of "Oh my god be careful!" or "Better buy mace!"  I haven't had any problems so far and I feel very safe here at Achievement Prep.  I've got to say that the neighborhood looks very different from the other parts of DC I've seen, but I like to think of that as an opportunity to make progress in a struggling community. 

At the end of the month I'll be moving out of my dad's cousin's friend's basement in Vienna, VA and into an apartment in Arlington, VA with fellow Carol and another friend of ours.  I can't wait to explore Ballston and other parts of Arlington as well as DC on my weekends.  And I can't wait for school to start again so I can meet all of the wonderful and dedicated Achievement Prep scholars!