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DCPS Begins New School Year with Highest Number of Students in Five Years

Sunday, August 24, 2014
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Contact: Melissa Salmanowitz (DCPS) | 202-535-1096 | Contact Email

Today, 111 District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) opened their doors to welcome more than 47,000 students for the 2014-2015 school year, the highest enrollment on the first day of school in the past five years. To support the increase in students, DCPS has also hired 300 new teachers, 24 new librarians, 29 new guidance counselors and more.

In the 2014-2015 school year, DCPS will continue to focus on the goals set forth in A Capital Commitment to ensure every student, in every part of the District  receives a world-class education that prepares them to succeed after school, in college and in life. To meet these goals, DCPS schools are expanding successful academic programs and focusing on educating the whole student, including social and emotional support and ensuring students love school.

“We are going big this year at DCPS – with more students in our schools, longer school days across the city and a continued focus on engaging and supporting our students to strive for their absolute best, I am so excited for what’s to come,” said DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson. “The first day is so much fun, and I want that enthusiasm and that love for school to continue throughout the entire year.”

Across the city, 25 schools, including all grade bands, will offer a longer school day, allowing more time for instruction while also paying teachers for their longer work schedule. New this year, all schools will offer a world language class for students, including all elementary, middle and high school schools. DCPS is also continuing its focus on literacy and 55 schools will have a reading specialist or assistant principal for literacy to support struggling readers.

Focusing on Success: New Staff, New Initiatives

To support student learning as well as the critical social and emotional needs of students, DCPS schools have hired over 500 new staff members more than the previous school year. New hires include:

  • Over 300 trained and experienced teachers from across the country
  • 29 new hires for school counselors, including 14 serving middle schools
  • 13 new social workers
  • 24 new librarians
  • Six new coaches who will work with teachers to support students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms. The support includes regular coaching and professional development for general education and special education teachers.

DCPS added preK classrooms at seven schools, including Janney, Nalle, Moten, Seaton, Shepherd and Stoddert Elementary Schools and School Without Walls @ Francis Stevens Education Campus. DCPS also added 37 new full-time special education classrooms, building additional capacity to better serve students with disabilities in neighborhood schools.

Supporting Middle Grade Students

In the 2013-2014 school year, DCPS focused on ensuring elementary grade students had the tools they need to succeed in school, including providing arts, music, physical education and world language at all elementary schools. In the 2014-2015 school year, the focus is on supporting middle grade students to provide a well-rounded, enriching experience. These efforts center around more consistency in scheduling and academic offerings. Students will also have more opportunities for advanced learning, including high school level courses, like algebra, geometry and credit-bearing world languages.

Other interesting middle grade investments include:

  • Focus on literacy: Eight new reading specialists will support middle grade students. In addition, students at six middle grade schools will partner with The Writing Revolution, a national non-profit focused on helping student express their thinking more clearly in writing. Schools include Hart, Johnson and Stuart-Hobson Middle Schools as well as, Columbia Heights, Brightwood and Truesdell Education Campuses. 
  • New music instruments: DCPS spent $350,000 to purchase band and orchestral instruments for middle grade programs in 27 schools. Instruments include flutes, clarinets, trumpets, trombones, violins, violas, cellos and basses.
  • More time in health and physical education: Middle grade students will have more time in health and physical education. DCPS hired more teachers to accommodate this increase. 

Providing Exciting and Enriching Programming

Schools received new technology over the summer to help support student learning. In addition, this school year, DCPS will grow the exciting and enriching programs students love. For example: 

  • Schoolwide Enrichment Model: DCPS' official program for nurturing creativity and finding talent in all students, the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM), is entering into its third year and expanding into four new schools for a total of 10 schools in the 2014-2014 school year, including Ross, Eaton, Murch, and Stoddert Elementary Schools. The existing ones are West, Johnson, Hardy, Kelly Miller, Sousa, and Stuart-Hobson Middle Schools.
  • Blended Learning: DCPS is doubling the number of schools where students learn through a school-wide blended learning program, which combine technology with face-to-face instruction to customize and personalize learning for each student, and help them become more comfortable with technology. In addition to the two elementary schools who using blended learning models in the previous school year, in the 2014-2015 school year, Garfield Elementary School, Browne Education Campus, Johnson Middle School and Patterson Elementary School will implement blended learning school-wide (in addition to Ketcham and Randle Highlands Elementary Schools and Kramer Middle School).
  • Embassy Adoption Program: In 2014-2015, DCPS’s Embassy Adoption Program (EAP) will celebrate 40 years of innovative global education programming in DCPS.  Each year, EAP matches 50 fifth and sixth grade classrooms with an embassy partner. This year, the program is growing to support more middle grade students and will include more Embassies than ever before. The program creates direct interactions for DCPS students with diplomats from around the world, where students learn about the language, customs, history and culture of their embassy’s home country. 

Improving College and Career Readiness

DCPS will offer robust and interesting programming for high school students in the upcoming school year. To meet the variety of needs and interests of students, schools will offer both technical and college oriented programming.

  • Career Academies: Thanks to a $2.8 million investment from Mayor Gray, DCPS will launch seven new National Academy Foundation (NAF) Career Academies at six high schools, serving approximately 400 students.The seven Academies center around engineering, information technology and hospitality. Students will learn skills necessary to prepare them for college and to secure high skill, high wage, and high demand jobs in the District in these industries. McKinley Tech, Phelps and Dunbar High Schools will offer an Engineering Academy, Columbia Heights Education Campus and Wilson High School will offer a Hospitality Academy and McKinley Tech and Cardozo Education Campus will offer an Information Technology Academy. The Academy model includes strong college and industry partnerships as well as work-based learning experiences and rigorous content. All Academy students will also participate in internships and upon completion of their program, students will receive an industry recognized certification. 
  • Advanced Placement (AP): DCPS enrollment in AP courses is at an all-time high. High schools will offer more AP courses than ever before in the upcoming school year, with nearly 150 different AP courses available across high schools, including new courses like AP Chinese Language and Culture, AP Environmental Science, AP Studio Art/Drawing, and AP Computer Science.  
  • Evening Credit Recovery: For the first time, DCPS High Schools will offer evening credit recovery during the first term at five high schools this school year. This shift will allow more students to get back on track for promotion and/or graduation. Students are eligible to participate if they have previously failed a class or are missing required credits for graduation.

Empowering and Supporting Educators

With the strongest and largest teaching force, DCPS has seen in recent years, DCPS will continue to offer high quality and regular professional development for educators.  Two unique programs in particular are:

  • Family Engagement Collaborative: The Family Engagement Collaborative (FEC) is a yearlong fellowship and professional learning community for teachers that gives them training and resources to support effective  strong family engagement practices. Last year 62 Teachers participated in the Family Engagement Collaborative, this year 110 teachers will participate.
  • Teacher Leadership Innovation (TLI): Building on a successful pilot with six schools in the previous school year, this year, 20 schools and 58 teacher leaders will participate in the Teacher Leadership Innovation program. This program is a unique opportunity for teachers and school leaders to design and implement innovative teacher leadership roles that allow a teacher to spend part of the day teaching and part of the day leading and coaching other teachers in the school. The incoming cohort of 17 schools and 51 teacher-leaders spent two weeks in professional development this summer to design their leadership role.

Building Strong Family and Community Connections:

Following the largest DCPS Beautification Day effort in the history of the event, with over 5,000 volunteers across the city, this school year DCPS will continue to focus on engaging families and the community.

  • Home Visits: This year, six new schools will participate in the Family Engagement Partnership, This successful program between Flamboyan Foundation and DCPS, which will include 21 schools in total this year, provides resources, training and support to help school staff build relationships with families and leverage them as academic partners.  New schools include Burrville, J.O. Wilson, Ketcham, Kimball, Langley and Maury Elementary Schools.
  • Strong community partners: The NCAA donated 1,500 new backpacks to third grade students in Title 1 schools to be delivered throughout September. DC United is hosting a school supply donation drive at their home game on August 31. In addition, Capital One Bank donated teacher appreciation packs to every teacher in DCPS’ 40 lowest performing schools. The reusable tote bags were filled with reams of paper, notebooks, pens, pencils, highlighters, sticky notes and dry erase kits.

Helping Students Love School

A top DCPS priority for the 2014-2015 school year is to ensure students like their school, which is also a goal in A Capital Commitment

  • Creating opportunities for fun: All schools were provided with funding to implement new programs and activities to improve student satisfaction. Schools across the city will offer more peer interactions, bullying prevention, student recognition events, new afterschool initiatives, field trips and/or intramural activities.
  • More food options: DCPS will offer new and improved breakfast and lunch menus for middle and high
    school students, which reflects student input after a series of school taste tests during the school year and the summer. New items include Chicken Sausage Biscuit Sandwich, French Toast Bake, Cheesy Scrambled Eggs with a Whole Grain English Muffin, Turkey Hot Dog with Toppings Bar and a rotating burger including a Charbroiled Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Pizza Burger, and Santa Fe Burger.
  • Updated buildings: Students in seven schools will walk into building modernized over the summer. Work included updating classrooms, upgrading technology, with computers and interactive white boards, and internet connectivity, upgrading furniture, replacing wiring and pipes, transforming hallways and offices and enhancing ADA compliance.

Follow the hashtag #firstday to learn more about what’s happening the first day of school for students.