On the “Wrong” Side of the Anacostia River
Introduction
Education reform is failing traditional DC public middle schools located east of the Anacostia River. Regardless of popular education debates centered on the merits of school choice, private and public charter schools, common core, teacher evaluations, etc., the “achievement gap” in Wards 7 and 8, versus the rest of DC traditional public middle schools, has gone largely unnoticed. Simply put, there’s a grave disparity between the traditional public middle schools located west of the Anacostia River versus those located to its east. My goal is not to use child poverty as an “excuse.” My aim is to shed light on how child poverty can, and does, affect student performance across traditional DC public middle schools.
A Brief Breakdown of DC Wards
Source: DC Action for Children (2011)
- The average family income in Ward 3 in the Northwest is nearly six times higher than in Ward 8, east of the Anacostia River. Since the recession, we have also seen an increase in