news & notes winter 06

Chairman’s messageVolume 1 • Issue 1 • Winter 2006

Inside this issue:Chairman’s Message...................................1New Day at Southeast Campus...................................1FNN Awarded Arts Grant...................................2College Head Start...................................2Chamberlain’s American Star...................................2Friendship Calendar...................................3Tomorrow’s Healthcare Leaders...................................3Bright Smiles, Bright Futures...................................3Achievement Highlights...................................4About Friendship...................................4

The students and parents of Southeast Acad-emy of Scholastic Excellence never lost hope. Th e Ward 8 school, in dire need of operational and instructional support, closed in June. In July, Friendship Public Char-ter School turned possibility into reality by adopting the Southeast facility. In less than 40 days, Friendship completed over half a million dollars in renovations and upgrades to create the new Friendship-Southeast Elementary Academy. Th e new school opened in Au-gust with 352 students in kindergarten through grade six. Th e Washington Post reported it was the fi rst time a D.C. charter school campus, after being closed, was immediately taken over by another charter school or-ganization.

A Brand New Day On the first day of school, Southeast stu-dents and parents opened the doors to a drastically dif-ferent school facility. Freshly painted hallways in red and ivory, bright light fi xtures, vaulted ceilings, kitchen and cafeteria upgrades and classrooms outfi tted with new books, artistic learning tools and mobile computer labs transformed a crumbling building into a produc-tive learning laboratory. Friendship Chairman Donald Hense and Southeast Principal Gary Bartee hosted a tour of the Southeast facility, inviting the community to share in the school’s new beginning.

“Th ey have expanded their existing campuses successfully,” said Tom Nida, chairman of the charter school board.

“Th ey have the capacity to take on something bigger and better.”

Washington Post, September 2, 2005

“I was mad that the school was closing. I’d have to fi nd new friends,” said sixth-

grader Maurice Brown, 11. But, he added, “most of my friends came back

-- everybody in my class.”

Washington Post, September 2, 2005

Friendship Invests $500,000 to Revive CampusOpens New Friendship-Southeast Elementary Academy

When schools, parents and communities work together to promote quality education students thrive! At Friendship Public Charter School, this philosophy lies at the heart of our mission. As we welcome a New Year, Friendship affi rms its commit-ment to providing every student an ex-ceptional educational experience. With a community of support cheering our students toward higher achievement, they will continue to exceed academic expectations and grow as young schol-ars, leaders and citizens.

News & Notes, our quarterly newslet-ter, will keep you informed and engaged throughout the school year. Inside these pages, you will fi nd useful news updates

and inspirational success stories that refl ect the outstanding performance and dedication of our students, teach-ers, principals, parents, administrators, staff and stakeholders.

Indeed, Friendship has good news, par-ticularly in the areas of student perfor-mance and innovative academic pro-grams. Stanford 9 results over the past fi ve years show dramatic improvement in reading and mathematics across ele-mentary and secondary schools. In fact, in 2005, our elementary schools aca-demically outpaced or equaled similar public and public-charter elementary schools in the District.

We are also pleased to report that our high school graduates earn top awards and scholarships. For example, in De-cember, four Collegiate seniors were selected as Posse Scholars and will at-tend Lafayette College, Grinnell Col-lege and Bucknell University on a four-year investment totaling more than $400,000. Overall, ninety-fi ve percent of our seniors go on to college.

Friendship’s Early College program accepted its second class this fall. We opened our fi fth campus, Southeast

Elementary Academy, in August. And earlier this year, we joined with Venture Philanthropy Partners and McKin-sey & Company to develop a fi ve-year strategic vision that will guide our or-ganization toward broadening rigor-ous academic off erings, strengthening operating systems and introducing two new, groundbreaking schools – Friendship Tech Prep, a career-focused Early College high school in South-east, D.C. and Friendship Preparatory

Academy, a pre-K-12 international baccalaureate program in Northwest, D.C.

Friendship is prepared for a dynamic 2006. We invite your active participa-tion as our schools provide a culture of learning where every student thrives.

Donald L. HenseChairman,Board of Trustees

Visions for the Future

• Increase enrollment to 5,000+

• More pre-k programs for 3- and 4-year olds

• Grow from 5 to 7 campuses (4 elementary, 3 middle, 3 high school)

• Open Friendship Tech Prep, a career academy with apprenticeship programs

• Establish Friendship Preparatory Academy, the fi rst pre-k-12 international baccalaureate program in D.C. area

• Continue annual increases in student achievement

• Raise college acceptance from 95% to 100%

• School of choice for all District students

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Research confirms that mean-ingful connections between high school and university life signifi cantly improve stu-dents’ chances of earning a four-year degree. Th e Early College program at Friend-ship-Collegiate Academy addresses this critical need by exposing high school students to the rigors and rewards of post-secondary study.

A fi rst-of-its-kind in the District, the Early College was founded in partnership with the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and is support-ed by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. In its second successful year, this program tar-gets highly motivated students, giving spe-cial focus to ninth through twelfth graders who aspire to become fi rst-generation col-lege graduates. Participants not only take college-level courses at no charge, they earn college credits while obtaining their high school diploma. Students entering the Early College in the ninth grade can potentially acquire two years of college credit.

Each semester, Early College students par-ticipate in the traditional process of enroll-

ing in college courses. Classes are held on the UDC campus, taught by tenured professors, and cover seven core curricu-lum areas including literature, historical studies, foreign lan-guage, laboratory sci-ence, and quantitative reasoning.

Honing behaviors es-sential to sustaining college success is the

program’s foremost goal. As Early College students excel, they develop invaluable time management and study skills. Students em-brace an ownership of their academic futures and chart clear paths toward lasting achieve-ment in college and the workplace. In 2005,

58 percent of Early Col-lege students achieved a 3.0 or higher grade point average in their college courses.

Preparation for the Ear-ly College begins with the Pre-Early College

“Th is experience has helped me mature as a young man who understands college

expectations and settings.”

Reishad Jessup, Early College Class of 2008

Continued on next page

“I’ll take a question from the Friendship News Network,” announced D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams at his weekly press briefi ng. FNN Junior Academy Corre-spondent Raoul Buddle, seat-ed among reporters from the Washington Post and NBC4, promptly stood and addressed the Mayor, “Mr. Mayor, have you ever considered running for President?”

Like other news teams, the FNN student-reporters attend-ed the November press brief-ing in search of a story. But, on this day, they were also honored guests. Earlier in the briefi ng, Mayor Williams recognized FNN as a grant recipient for the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities arts-education program. FNN was selected for its mission to train students in graphic design, photography, illustration and newsgathering.

Th e Friendship News Network (FNN) is a year-round after-school and summer enrichment program in which students ages 11-18 manage a real media enter-prise. With the guidance of experienced teachers and mentors who are profession-al artists and journalists, students work collaboratively in teams to create their

own magazine, website, television and radio pro-grams. Each FNN stu-dent fulfi ls a major news function such as photog-rapher, web designer, il-lustrator, producer, news anchor, fi eld reporter and videographer.

Th is Fall, FNN launched Rated-T, a four-color news magazine featur-ing investigative re-

ports, editorials, advice columns, origi-nal cartoons and book reviews. As part of the newsgathering process, reporters held interviews with the offi ce of U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel (NY), the U.S. Department of Homeland Secu-rity, and Seeds of Peace, a group dedi-cated to empowering young leaders with confl ict resolution skills. To learn more about the FNN program visitwww.friendshipnewsnetwork.com.

Marilyn KaufmanProject Director

Brian YoungWeb/Print Instructor

Alicia WadeFNN Editor and Chief

Raoul BuddleFNN Correspondent

Ahmed DavisFNN Photographer

FNN Awarded DC Arts Grant Student-Reporters Join Mayor’s Weekly Press Briefi ng

Leading the Way Chamberlain Star Shadwick Jenkins

Th e U.S. Department of Education selected Shadwick Jenkins of Friend-ship-Chamberlain Elementary as the District of Columbia’s 2005 American Star of Teaching award recipient. A lead third-grade teacher, Mr. Jenkins is widely praised by colleagues and parents for his creative teaching style, connection with students and eff ective staff leadership skills. Among his vol-unteer eff orts, Mr. Jenkins is a mentor to Chamberlain’s young male scholars and spearheads tutorials after school as well as during spring break. In 2005, Mr. Jenkins’ class scored the highest Standford 9 test results of all Cham-berlain third graders, with 76 percent of students achieving advanced scores in math and 33 percent achieving ad-vanced scores in reading.

Located in Ward 6, Chamberlain Elementary serves kindergarten through grade fi ve. Although 80 percent of its students qualify for free or reduced lunch, Chamberlain has exceeded state academic goals since opening in 1998. Th ese results are noteworthy considering that the majority of minority elementary students in the District score be-low basic reading and math levels.

Th e U.S. Department of Education No Child Left Behind American Stars of Teaching program recognizes one outstanding teacher from every state and the District of Columbia. Th e 2005 recipients were selected from 2,000 nominations based on their success in improving student academic performance.

2005 American Star of Teaching Recipient

FNN News Team Accepts DC Arts Grant

Early College Off ers Students Winning Start

Sample Early College Courses·Biological Science Lecture & Lab·Fundamentals of Chemistry Lecture & Lab

·United States History·Introduction of Logic ·English Composition·Intermediate Algebra ·Precalculus and Calculus ·Introduction of Drawing·Personal and Community Health

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curriculum off ered in the Friendship junior academies. Students as early as sixth grade are exposed to advanced reading/English strategies and mathematics principles in Geometry and Algebra. Th e Early College is pre-pared to serve more than 400 students in grades six-12. To learn more about the Early College and how your student can apply contact Dean Arsallah Shairzay at [email protected].

“I feel that the doors of success are opened, and now I stand at the threshold. I no longer gaze at tomorrow’s opportunities, because I am living

opportunity today.”

LaMika Robinson, Early College Class of 2006

Early College, continued from previous page

In September and October, Colgate-Pal-molive’s Bright Smiles, Bright Future mobile van vis-ited Friendship’s four elementary and middle school campuses -- Chamberlain Elementary, Southeast El-ementary, Woodridge Elementary and Middle, and Blow Pierce Junior Academy.

On-site dentists and hygienists provided students in pre-kindergarten through grade six with free oral ex-aminations, and students were instructed on the im-portance of brushing, fl ossing and eating nutritious

foods that support healthy teeth and gums. Students took home dental hygiene kits and storybooks, and parents received oral health guides that encourage preventative dental practices. Th us far, 994 Friend-ship elementary and middle school students have been served through the Colgate-Palmolive Bright Smiles, Bright Futures Oral Health partnership.

Periodontal (gum) disease and dental cavities are the most prevalent childhood illnesses and major causes of school absenteeism. Untreated oral problems, such

as swollen gums and rotting teeth, cause children se-vere pain and infections that can lead to bone decay, speech impediments, chronic fatigue and diabetes. During National Children’s Dental Health Month in February, Friendship schools will continue initiatives to educate students on oral health and hygiene.

To learn more about Friendship’s Colgate-Palmolive oral health partnership contact Dianne Harris, Com-munity Resource Director-Health Related Programs at [email protected].

Imagine a Friendship-Collegiate student pioneering research for a cancer cure. In November, 11 seniors from Collegiate’s Health and Human Services Academy explored this possibility and other career goals in healthcare at Howard Univer-sity’s Allied Health Fall Workshop.

Led by university professors and healthcare practitioners, the all-day workshop introduced students to educational programs in clinical health sciences, pharmacy, nursing and health-care management. Students attended interactive seminars and engaged in exploratory exercises that provided real insight into the daily functions of such specialties as clini-cal laboratory scientist, clinical nurse specialist, nursing anesthesia and hospital administrator. Students were also guided in the usage of equipment designed for the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions.

At the workshop’s closing session, Howard Univer-sity invited the students to join their delegation at the Association of Minority Health Professionals’ 20th Annual Symposium on Careers in Biomedical Sciences in Houston this spring. It was a great day for these budding healthcare leaders. Th ey returned to Collegiate’s campus excited about their fu-tures and better prepared to make sound col-lege career choices.

Th e Collegiate Health and Human Services Academy is designed to expose students to careers within the human services sector. Stu-dents receive the specialized training needed to become caring, responsible, compassionate public servants. Most importantly, students develop a plan for career advancement and independence. Course off erings and activities focus on Allied Health, Business Adminis-

tration and Protective Services. Additionally, Collegiate off ers an Arts and Communications Academy and an Engineering and Technology Academy.

To learn more about Friendship’s How-ard University Allied Health partnership and other health-related programs con-tact Dianne Harris, Community Resource Director – Health Related Programs at

[email protected].

Collegiate Workshop Participants Shaney DavenportPatrice GrayLa Toya AkinsAlisha JacksonHope DunningtonChari Th ompsonBrittany StringfellowJoseph JamesJessica KelleyBrenda ClevlandTiara Sutherland

Bright Smiles, Bright Futures

Training Tomorrow’s Healthcare Leaders

Friendship CalendarJanuary-March

Enroll your student for the 2006-2007 school year today! To schedule a school tour or for information contact (202) 675-9060 or visit www.friendshipshipschools.org

January 13ABC “20/20” airs eye-opening hour special on public schools featuring Friendship Public Charter SchoolChannel: WJLA 7Time: 10 p.m. - 11 p.m.

January 16 All Schools Closed for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday

January 18 Collegiate Academy Science FairLocation: Collegiate Academy Campus,4095 Minnesota, Ave., N.E.Time: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

January 21 Collegiate Academy Parent Open HouseLocation: Collegiate Academy CampusTime: 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

January 23-27 Blow Pierce Junior Academy & Collegiate Academy Mid-Term Exams

January 28 Registered high school juniors and seniors SAT Test Date

February 10Student Learning Contract Conferences at all Friendship schools

February 25Annual Teaching Job FairFor more information contact (202) 675-9060

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Achievement Highlights 2004-2005 Year in Review As we look ahead to 2006, let’s take a moment to review Friendship Public Charter School’s achieve-ments for 2004 and 2005.

• 2005, Chamberlain Elementary achieves highest SAT-9 reading and mathematics scores of all District elementary schools of similar demographics

• 2005, the Blow Pierce Junior Academy achieves fi fth highest SAT-9 mathematics scores of all District junior highs

• 2005, Friendship hosts Th ird Annual Teaching Institute for over 500 educators and staff

• 2005, Friendship invests over half a million to revive closed school and open its fi fth campus, Southeast Elementary Academy

• 2005, Friendship invests nearly $100,000 to install Friendship Cares learning labs across elementary campuses, launched Saturday learning camps

• 2004-2005, Woodridge Elementary & Middle adds new wing, launches middle school and pre-kindergarten programs

• 2004-2005, Friendship launches District’s fi rst Early College at Collegiate Academy with University of D.C., Gates Foundation and Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship

• 2004-2005, Collegiate achieves 95% college acceptance rate, 14% of graduates accepted to nation’s more selective colleges

• 2004, Friendship fi rst District charter school accredited by Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

• 2004-2005, Friendship installs state-of-the-art SmartLabTM technology learning centers across secondary campuses, high school features broadcast studio

About Friendship Friendship Public Charter School, located in Washington, D.C., was founded in 1997 with the mission of providing a world-class education that motivates students to achieve high academic standards, enjoy learning and develop as responsible, ethical contributors to their communities. Friendship opened its fi rst schools in partnership with Edison Schools Inc., the nation’s leading charter management organization. Today, Friendship serves nearly 3,500 students at fi ve academically thriving campuses.

95% of Seniors Accepted to College, 14% Attending Selective Colleges

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Attended som

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National14-24 year old African American High School Graduates 2003

Chamberlain ElementaryCampus

Principal James ShepardGrades K-51345 Potomac Ave., S.E. (202) 547-5800

Southeast Elementary Academy Campus

Principal Gary B. BarteeGrades K-6645 Milwaukee Pl., S.E. (202) 562-1980

Woodridge Elementary & Middle Campus

Principal Marian K. BoboGrades Pre K-72959 Carlton Ave., N.E. (202) 635-6500

Junior Academy at Blow Pierce Campus

Principal Ralph H. NealGrades 6-8725 19th St., N.E. (202) 572-1070

Collegiate Academy at Carter G. Woodson Campus

Principal Brian BeckGrades 9-124095 Minnesota Ave., N.E. (202) 396-5500

Friendship’s Posse scholarship winners Treyvon Jackson (Lafayette College), Dominic Lee (Grin-nell College), Rajaa Qadri (Bucknell University) and LaMika Robinson (Lafayette College) cel-ebrate with Collegiate Academy Principal Brian Beck at the Second Annual Posse D.C. Awards Ceremony.

Th e Posse Foundation awarded the four Colle-giate seniors with four-year scholarships valued over $100,000 each. Friendship won the greatest number of Posse scholarships from all public and private school applicants in D.C.

Congratulations 2005 Posse Scholarship Winners

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ALLIED PRINTING

WA S H I N G T ON T R A D E S COUNCILUNION

LABELR 30

ChamberlainStanford Achievement Test, 9th edition (SAT9)National Percentile RankFall 1998-Spring 2005Average Gain: 40.9

WoodridgeStanford Achievement Test, 9th edition (SAT9)National Percentile RankFall 1998-Spring 2005Average Gain: 24.8

25.4

40.4 42

56.4 59.2 61.2 63.6

Gain: 38.2

Reading

20.6

44.6 45.6

63.6 62.2 64.8 64.2

Gain: 43.6

Mathematics

29.8

40.4 47.052.8 51.4 51.2

47.7

Gain: 17.9

Reading

26.0

47.0 44.8

59.2 56.8 54.5 56.7

Gain: 30.7

Mathematics

Blow PierceStanford Achievement Test, 9th edition (SAT9)National Percentile RankFall 1999-Spring 2005Average Gain: 26.9

Collegiate AcademyStanford Achievement Test, 9th edition (SAT9)National Percentile RankFall 2000-Spring 2005Average Gain: 24.7

20.0

34.0

41.3 41.345.0

40.7

Gain: 20.7

Reading

Gain: 33.0

Mathematics

21.7

32.339.0

42.749.0

54.7

25.5 26.0 26.329.3

36.7

Gain: 19.2

Reading

Gain: 30.2

Mathematics

23.529.3

43.0

53.7 53.7

Enroll Your Student for 2006-2007 School Year! Visit a campus or go to www.friendshipschools.org


news & notes winter 06

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