COUNCIL CHAIRMAN KWAME R. BROWN’S STATEMENT ON TWO DCPS SCHOOLS MAKING NEWSWEEK’S LIST OF AMERICA’S BEST HIGH SCHOOLS:

“I want to congratulate the students, parents, teachers, and administrators at Benjamin Banneker Academic and School Without Walls Senior High Schools for being named two of “America’s Best” by Newsweek magazine. Acting Chancellor Kaya Henderson also is to be commended for her leadership of the public school system that produced these outstanding results.  Listed respectively at numbers 239 and 269 from among more than 1,000 schools studied for their ability to prepare students for college and for life, these institutions have graduation and college bound rates near or at 100%.

This is a rewarding day for DCPS.  As a proud parent of two DCPS students, I am glad to know that our education reform efforts are taking hold and delivering the kind of outcomes we had hoped for.”

This story comes to us from Courtney Bowe:

If you’ve lived in the D.C. area for a while, you’ve probably heard of DeMatha, the Catholic boys’ school in Hyattsville, Maryland. And if you have heard of DeMatha, odds are that it’s because of the school’s nationally renowned athletics program, which has boasted such names as legendary basketball coach Morgan Wootten, basketball Hall of Famer Adrian Dantley, NFL Pro Bowler Brian Westbrook, and NFL broadcaster James Brown, to name just a few. To most with a passing familiarity with the school, DeMatha is synonymous with sports. When I told people that I attended DeMatha, I was frequently asked “What sport do you play?” My response of “I don’t play a sport,” was always met by befuddlement and a perfunctory “Then why do you go to DeMatha?”

Let me tell you.