NPR series on Ron Brown College Preparatory High School

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A Three-Part Audio Series From Education Week/NPR
Episode 1
Let Brotherly Love Continue
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—Kavitha Cardoza/Education Week

Introducing Washington, D.C.’s newest high school: the roughly $60 million Ron Brown College Preparatory High School, the capital city’s first all-male traditional public school.

The school is designed specifically to meet the needs of its young black male students – who are called “kings.” And for many of the young men, their needs are profound.

Two reporters, Education Week's Kavitha Cardoza and NPR's Cory Turner, spent hundreds of hours with teachers, students, and parents from the school for a three-part audio series on Ron Brown’s first year.

In this episode, we’ll meet Dr. Benjamin Williams, the principal, who personally recruited each of the 100 young men who enrolled as freshmen.



We’ll also meet two of the men at the center of what makes Ron Brown so unusual: Dr. Charles Curtis and Dawaine Cosey, members of the school’s CARE team.

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"They feel like it's a place where they can take chances, where they can grow." — Benjamin Williams, principal



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“I tell the guys here: You’re gonna get love and there’s really nothing you can do about it.” — Dawaine Cosey, director of culture, empowerment, and restorative justice
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"When we look at these young people, we’re looking at them from a place of godliness, of kingliness, of royalty." — Charles Curtis, school psychologist

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In the first few months of the academic year, the educators at Ron Brown work with an almost single-minded focus on establishing a school culture and ethos that few of the kings, and in many cases even teachers, have ever experienced.

They spend hours every week in restorative justice circles, putting offenders and their wronged parties together to talk through what’s happened and find ways to set things right. And the students resist. And some parents and school faculty push back too.

For Principal Williams and the CARE team especially, it’s an effort to convince many skeptics that this approach to educating young men of color is worth fighting for.NPR's Code Switch. It's introduced by Code Switch's Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby.

https://www.edweek.org/ew/projects/...ol/let-brotherly-love-continue-audio-npr.html
 

VAiz4hustlaz

Proud ADOS and not afraid to step to da mic!
BGOL Investor
A Three-Part Audio Series From Education Week/NPR
Episode 2
'They Can't Just Be Average'
LISTEN ▼

—Kavitha Cardoza/Education Week

If you’ve been following this audio series, you know about Ron Brown College Prep, the remarkable new D.C. school designed specifically to meet the needs of young men of color.

In episode one, you met the principal and learned about the school’s core philosophy—placing high expectations on its students—known as “kings”—and infusing love into their schooling experience.

In the second episode, Ron Brown's unique CARE team and the teaching faculty continue their focus on nurturing students' social and emotional growth. But their time becomes increasingly dominated by a few kings who are getting into trouble.

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The school's commitment to never suspending a student is put to the test by some serious incidents, including a couple of staff members who are assaulted. And there is pushback from some parents who are deeply skeptical of this unfamiliar approach to discipline.

Meanwhile, the profound academic gaps among students have become glaringly obvious. Some kings are reading on the 1st grade level and struggling with even the most basic math concepts. Others are reading on the 10th grade level and able to do college-prep math.

Teachers are worried about both extremes—how to accelerate years of literacy work into a few months for the kings who are woefully behind and how to keep high-performing students from becoming bored and complacent among so many peers who are years behind them academically.



And morale is beginning to flag as pressure mounts on the Ron Brown faculty to squeeze two years of learning into one year of teaching and ultimately, to prove that this radically different approach to educating students won't be a failure. Can it be done?

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"School has to come first. … If you leave high school and you still make a 600 on the SAT, nobody cares how much you were loved." — Shaka Greene, Math teacher
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"If I’m tough on them, it’s because I have high expectations for them." — Schalette Gudger, English teacher

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"I do this corny thing called, ‘Let me give you a tool for your toolbox.’ … I give lots of tools every day." — Travis Bouldin, World History teacher
Listen to Episode Two
This episode originally aired Oct. 25, 2017 on NPR's Code Switch. It's introduced by Code Switch's Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby.

https://www.edweek.org/ew/projects/raising-kings-dc-boys-school/cant-be-average-audio-npr.html
 
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