Lessons Learned from Year 1, Beginning of Q3

We’re entering third quarter here at Washington Leadership Academy. Here are a few startup lessons learned so far:

• We wanted to build a school where we would proudly send our children. We did. In our charter application, and in the development of our school, we imagined the best private school in D.C. and are actively building WLA to rival it and its results, but to serve the students who are most often disenfranchised. As a result, all 10th graders here are set to take AP Computer Science next year, our students have access to a huge range of electives options, the likes of which you’d find in D.C.’s best private schools, and our students have visited Google, Facebook, and the White House, among dozens of other field trips.
• We haven’t yet figured out how to tap into student motivation, ownership, and the “why” of learning and grades: Some of our students arrived a full 8 grade levels behind, meaning that they have been passed along from grade to grade without mastering the basic building blocks required to actually achieve at the next level. Playing academic catch-up is one thing, but the internal feelings of disengagement and disenfranchisement from school are a whole different ball game. We’re trying out a vast range of tools to build student motivation, from providing school ownership opportunities like student-led tours for visitors and student presentations to the whole school about topics of interest, to more robust and real-time grade tracking and communications. We’ll keep you posted on what works.
• A relationship-oriented and restorative justice-based school culture model works, but requires much more staff time and energy than the alternative: To be brutally honest, it would be so much easier to suspend or expel the students who disrupt our broader community. Taking the time to talk with students and walk them through the results of their actions and then to facilitate community repairs based on their actions is much, much more time and energy consuming. However, we’re proud of and thrilled by the results so far. One data point — multiple students who have been expelled from other D.C. schools are thriving at Washington Leadership Academy (and not causing any disruptions)!
• The people who told us that we would need security guards and other prison-paraphernalia were wrong — strong relationships work (so far): Two months into the school year we realized that not only was a security guard unnecessary, it also sent a message to our kids that we needed one to control them, which is the opposite of the message we should send to our kids. Instead, we hired our incredible psychologist, Dr. Leah Nathan.

Stay tuned as we keep learning more together!