U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan praised GW’s long-standing partnership with the School Without Walls Thursday, citing the partnership as a large reason for the high school’s success.
Duncan was at School Without Walls to congratulate teachers and students on its National Blue Ribbon school distinction, an honor that has been given to 304 schools in the country this year.
Blue Ribbon schools have students who “achieve at very high levels or have made significant progress and helped close gaps in achievement especially among disadvantaged and minority students,” according to the Department of Education.
School Without Walls was the only school in D.C. to win the distinction this year.
“It’s not just great principals and great teachers,” Duncan said of Blue Ribbon schools. “It’s great counselors. It’s great social workers. It’s great custodians. It’s great lunchroom attendants. It’s everybody.”
Academically, School Without Walls is a high-performing secondary school. On this year’s D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System test, 94.3 percent of African-American sophomores and 95 percent of white sophomores cleared the proficiency bar in math.
In reading, the two groups had a wider distance: 100 percent of the school’s white sophomores read at a proficient level or better, while 92.4 percent of its African-American students met the same benchmark.
Duncan named School Without Walls’ partnership with GW as a large reason for the school’s success. The partnership includes facilities sharing, teaching collaborations and the opportunity for SWW students to take free classes at GW for college credit.
“The partnership here with George Washington is the absolute maximum model,” Duncan said. “It is phenomenal for our students here to be able to take college-level classes.”
Duncan said allowing SWW students to take college-level classes helps push some students to college who may not have believed that they could go on to higher education.
“It’s about starting to really understand that you believe you can succeed on a college level,” Duncan said.
He said he hopes more colleges across the country would create partnerships with secondary schools.
“We’re looking for other universities to step up,” he said.
Duncan was not the only big-name public figure in attendance at Thursday’s event. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and GW Provost Steven Lerman gathered at the school to celebrate.
During her remarks, Rhee called the partnership between GW and SWW “incredibly unique,” adding that “it is a model that other cities are asking us about, and other universities are asking us how a partnership like this can be done.”
Lerman told students that GW was proud of the teachers and students at SWW.
“I look forward to the day when every child in the District of Columbia and across the country has the same opportunity that you all have,” he said.
