Today’s educators, in ways that weren’t always true in the recent past, believe that young minds and bodies need the proper “fuel” to stay sharp and ensure optimal performance. Recent studies have shown that proper nutrition improves learning and memory in school children. Today, not all learning institutions in the District understand the connection between nutrition and education.
D.C. Prep Academy Public Charter School in Northeast does.
The school offers students healthy meals through Revolution Foods, which specializes in offering organic foods to children, and focuses on wellness through activities such as physical education and educating the children about nutrition.
No surprise, then, that on Tue., Oct. 13, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan chose D.C. Prep to commemorate National School Lunch Week and launch the Department of Education’s Fueled and Fit: Ready to Learn campaign.
In addition to the Secretary, Jozy Altidore and Oguchi Onyewukey, members of the U.S. Men¹s National Soccer Team, joined a D.C. Prep physical education class for a brief, but epic, soccer matchup. The contest ended in a tie.
Faculty and students were proud of their hard work and accomplishments and pleased to be recognized by President Barack Obama’s cabinet member for education. One teacher commented that the visit by Secretary Duncan meant so much to the children because his praise was tangible evidence that what they were doing mattered.
As a result of years of hard work by the school’s founder, Emily Lawson, faculty and children, students at the D.C. Prep Middle School have posted some of the best academic results of any public school in the city.
D.C. Prep's Edgewood Middle School Campus has closed the achievement gap between Black and White students by a remarkable 50 percent. Its students have exceeded the District of Columbia’s average in standardized public school tests by 18 percent in reading and 20 percent in math.
More than 95 percent of D.C. Prep¹s students are African American and about three in four qualify for free or subsidized school lunch. D.C. Prep’s middle school’s economically disadvantaged children have been particularly successful. They are nearly twice as likely to be proficient in math and reading as their peers in regular public schools.
Now completing its sixth year, D.C. Prep has built an outstanding early childhood, elementary and middle school program and demonstrated uncommon success in student achievement, parent satisfaction and organizational development. With its dual focus on rigorous academics and character development, D.C. Prep is ensuring that its graduates have the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary for success in competitive high schools and college.
D.C. Prep's third campus opened in August 2008. In its inaugural year, the school enrolled preschool and prekindergarten students and will "grow up" a grade each year until eighth grade.
In June 2009, D.C. Prep graduated its third eighth grade class. One hundred percent of these students were accepted at independent, parochial, selective public and charter schools where the rigor, culture and focus are on college matriculation.
Over the next decade, D.C. Prep wants to expand to 10 schools, bringing a high-quality public education to thousands of preschool, elementary and middle school children in the District’s historically under-served neighborhoods. If these plans are realized, it’s estimated that D.C. Prep will enroll 10 percent of public school students in Wards 5 through 8.
The D.C. Prep elementary and middle schools Duncan visited are located in renovated warehouse space, a feature common among many D.C. charters as a result of the city government’s preference for selling unused school buildings to developers.
D.C. Prep is just one member of the city’s thriving public charter school movement, which has helped facilitate citywide improvement in academic achievement.
A recent poll, commissioned by a number of school reform organizations, found that the District’s registered voters placed a high degree of confidence in charters: 74 percent approved of charters. Seventy-six percent rated the D.C. public school system as either “poor” or “fair.”
Reflecting the poll results, enrollment in D.C.’s public charter schools, which are tuition-free and non-selective like regular public schools ,continues to grow. On the same day as Duncan’s visit to D.C. Prep, the Public Charter School Board announced that the current public charter school student population, in 56 schools nearly 90 campuses, increased to nearly 28,000, ¬ approximately 38 percent of the total public school enrollment in the District.
The fate of the District’s charter school students seems bright as they prepare for their future. But, in the meantime, they’re anxiously awaiting the lunch bell.
Barbara High is the Senior Community Organizer at Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, and is a longtime D.C. parent, school and community activist, including with the Hyde Public Charter School in Northeast D.C.