| The School Without Walls | |
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The City as a Classroom
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| Location | |
| 2130 G St., NW Washington, D.C. 20037 United States |
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| Information | |
| Type | Public (Exam school) secondary |
| Established | 1971 |
| School district | DCPS |
| Principal | Richard Trogisch |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Enrollment | approx. 500 |
| Color(s) | Black and White |
| Mascot | Penguin |
| Pictures | Renovations |
| Website | http://swwhs.org/ |
The School Without Walls is a small public magnet high school in the Foggy Bottom area of Washington, D.C. It is colloquially referred to by students and faculty as "Walls." It is also well known as the top high school in the District of Columbia Public Schools, and one of the best in the region.
The school is located on the George Washington University campus, on G Street NW near 22nd Street NW. Founded in 1971, the School Without Walls was originally located on the 8th floor of 1411 K St., an office building in the heart of downtown D.C., just a block from the notorious 13th and K street area. In the fall of 1973 the school relocated to 10th and H Streets, N.W., where SWW shared space with the Webster Girls School program, a program for pregnant teens.
Today SWW provides an academic curriculum and encourages students to "use the city as a classroom." It is part of the DCPS and draws students from all parts of the city. Any student interested in applying must follow an entrance procedure, involving a multiple choice test, a written essay, an interview, and a report of the applicant's standardized test scores and grades from previous years. School Without Walls now has approximately 520 students and spans the 9th through 12th grades.
In August 2007, Walls was relocated to Capitol Hill in the Logan School building on G Street NE between Second & Third Streets NE (near Union Station and adjacent to the Securities & Exchange Commission headquarters). This temporary home was used for two years while the original building was renovated. The Logan School was renovated—including a new roof and internal work—during the summer of 2007 to accept students. In August 2009, The School Without Walls moved back into the Grant School following an opening ceremony by Mayor Adrian Fenty, DCPS chancellor Michelle Rhee and George Washington University President Steven Knapp.
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School Without Walls attempts to provide strict learning environment. The George Washington University Partnership, examined below, is one manner in which School Without Walls expands the curriculum of its students. Additionally, the school uses science labs at the University of the District of Columbia, has a standing partnership with the Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson law firm, and an informal journalism internship program with the George Washington University student newspaper, the GW Hatchet. The school has in the past conducted classes at the United States Capitol, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the National Aquarium, the National Zoo, the Botanical Gardens and other academic resources available in the city. In doing so, it offers certain opportunities and privileges not common to other high schools.
George Washington University provides classes free of charge to 100 of the 11th grade and above students. Students must qualify for courses by taking the GWU placement test. Also, 10th graders can apply to the newly established GW Early College Program, which allows the students to achieve an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts from the University. The program is done in the last two years of high school and when the students graduate, they not only get the degree but their high school diploma as well. The students are dually enrolled and have access to both the university and their high school. The program is tuition free and the students get to choose to stay at the university or transfer the degree to another college or university.
Beginning in their sophomore year, students attend trips to sites in Anacostia and beyond the Washington, D.C. area. Gilder Lehrman provides visiting historians to serve as guest lecturers and seminar leaders. The Institute further assists with college-placement counseling and provides Walls students access to the Institute's contacts at colleges and universities. Students are given opportunities to interact with their peers enrolled in Gilder Lehrman programs and schools throughout the country. By providing supplemental resources books and materials, packages of documents replicated from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, traveling exhibits from the Institute's national program of exhibitions on specific themes in American history, and keepsake documents from the collection, as well as scholarship opportunities, Gilder Lehrman provides learning opportunities that might otherwise be unavailable.
In the 2004–2005 school year School Without Walls students took their first Gilder Lehrman sponsored trip to Williamsburg. This trip provided a first-hand look at colonial life in America. To enhance the study of the foundation of American democracy, a visit to the New York Historical Society gave students an opportunity to witness the influence of Alexander Hamilton on American government. The class also takes a spring visit to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to expand the study of American History and Culture into the American Civil War period.
School Without Walls takes pride in consistently ranking among the top schools in the DCPS system in terms of graduation rate, average SAT score, attendance rate and other academic benchmarks.
Walls was named a National Blue Ribbon School September 9, 2010, one of only 304 schools nationwide. The Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes and honors public and private elementary, middle and high schools whose students achieve at very high levels or have made significant progress and helped close gaps in achievement, especially among disadvantaged and minority students.
Only two other DCPS schools have earned this distinction in the past three years: Murch and Noyes Elementary schools.
School Without Walls is also well known for having a 100% graduation rate, and 100% of the graduates are accepted into a four-year college.
The Street Law students recently won a city-wide mock trial, and arts students have won numerous awards for their artwork—including 2011's National Cherry Blossom Festival Youth Poster Contest.
School Without Walls has the highest combined SAT scores in DCPS with an average combined score of 1074.
The Creative Expressions club is a gathering of about 30 students with a variety of artistic interests. Similar to their Drama Club, Creative Expressions allows students to engage in various forms of the arts.
The School Without Walls Drama Club is composed of students interested in acting. They participated in the Folger Library Shakespeare Festival, acting out scenes from the play The Color Purple. In the Spring of 2010, they will put on Romeo and Juliet. The Drama Club also has the opportunity to act out plays written by the Playwriting class, or join the Acting classes held at SWW.
This is a class where concepts of law are taught to students by a senior George Washington University School of Law student and a practicing attorney ending with a city wide mock trial. The 1992 School Without Walls Mock Trial Team won the city wide competition and went on to compete at the National Competition in Wisconsin. This was also the year Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson partnered with School Without Walls.
The 2008-2009 street law team got to the final round of the D.C. mock trial tournament, losing to Bell Multicultural High School. However, the 2010-2011 plaintiff team won the city-wide title against Duke Ellington at finals.
'Men Can Stop Rape mobilizes male youth to prevent men's violence against women. We build young men's capacity to challenge harmful aspects of traditional masculinity, to value alternative visions of male strength, and to embrace their vital role as allies with women and girls in fostering healthy relationships and gender equity.'
Also known as SASS, this club is an initiative by the DC Rape Crisis Center to encourage adolescent girls to explore relationships and issues that are important to them as women in an open and accepting environment.
The School Without Walls chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers is composed of approximately 40 minority students interested in pursuing a career in engineering.
The Science Bowl / It's Academic team competes in academic competitions.
The Green Team at School Without Walls works to make it more energy efficient and environmentally friendly place. New recycling bins and many architectural aspects help with this mission. The Recycling Club also works at this goal.
SWWTech is a student run organization of techies. SWWTech provides information technology support to all faculty and students, runs a portal[1], manages the library computers, and provides numerous other tech-related services.
There are many other clubs in School Without Walls, including Graphic Novel/Manga club, Japanese Culture Club, Cheese Club, Hip Hop Dance Crew, Literary Journal/Newspaper, Skiing, Longboarding, Rubix Cube club, Student Government and Chess club. There are opportunities to create your own club, as well as join them, providing a community for a wide variety of interests.
The historic Grant School, the building that houses The School Without Walls, was badly deteriorated. There was extensive water damage throughout the school as well. The brick facade needed to be repainted, and the slate roof was steadily losing its shingles. On February 13, 2006 the D.C. City Council and the George Washington University Board of Trustees approved a deal for $12 million dollars to renovate and expand the school building in exchange for transfer of the school's rear parking lot property to the university.[1]
The old facade was kept intact while the inside was renovated and remodeled to better fit the needs of Walls students. In addition, an entirely new building was added as an additional wing to accommodate the constantly increasing enrollment. The new Walls features science labs in the basement, bathrooms and teacher spaces on each floor, and plenty of huge windows and natural lighting. Each classroom has a Promethean board, only one example of the new technology installed in the building. The entire building has wireless internet access as well.
The area where there used to be a parking lot and tennis courts is now the site of South Hall, a new GWU dormitory. Both buildings are LEED certified.
In August 2011, School Without Walls was forced to temporarily close, ironically because of damage sustained to the building's walls and roof during the earthquake and Hurricane Irene a few days later.[2]
While Walls has a very small pool of students from which to select its athletes, they do quite well in many sports, consistently placing 2nd in men's baseball. Finishing first has been deemed nearly impossible as Woodrow Wilson High School has won for more than a decade.
Walls has many other sports programs; Tennis, soccer, crew, basketball, baseball, girl's volleyball, softball and skiing are all available. The Track and Field team is going to Penn Relay 2011. The softball team won citywide championships in 2011, beating out rivals from Wilson in the semifinals and Anacostia in the finals. The team had lost to both in the regular season, so the championship win came as a rewarding surprise. Lacrosse was recently made available to School Without Walls, along with Ballou and Coolidge High Schools. Girls field hockey was also made available recently.