DC Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee visited Dupont Circle's Ross Elementary in October 2019 to highlight the school's designation as a National Blue Ribbon School and to congratulate principal Holly Searl. (Photo by Jake Maher)

Ross principal credits ‘years of our community working together’ for inclusion as one of DC’s five National Blue Ribbon Schools

By Jake Maher On Oct 17, 2019 Last updated Oct 28, 2019

One of Holly Searl’s goals this year as principal of John W. Ross Elementary School is to have lunch with each of her students. Earlier this month, though, it was a breakfast of coffee and doughnuts for the Dupont Circle school’s parents and staff that drew DC Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee to a celebration of the school’s success: recognition as a National Blue Ribbon School.

“I’m very proud — I feel like it is a reflection of many years of our community working together,” Searl said while students played in the courtyard before filing into class and resuming academic work that places a heavy emphasis on writing and cutting-edge science programs. “Our community is really invested in excellence.”

Ross Elementary School at 1730 R St. NW has emphasized collaboration among faculty members as well as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) instruction. Last year’s enrollment of 190 students was up from 157 in the 2011-12 school year.(Photo by Chris Kain)

This fall, the U.S. Department of Education named five DC public and private schools as 2019 National Blue Ribbon Schools. Ross Elementary joined Alice Deal Middle School, Blessed Sacrament School and St. Peter School as 2019 Exemplary High Performance Schools, and KIPP DC Heights Academy was named an Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing School.

Deal Middle School in Tenleytown is an International Baccalaureate School, emphasizing a global perspective to education. Led by the Holy Cross Sisters, Blessed Sacrament School in Chevy Chase carries on a 75-year-old legacy of Catholic education while incorporating modern technology and pedagogy. St. Peter School on Capitol Hill is another Catholic school serving kindergartners through eighth-graders in DC that has launched a new capital campaign to pay for expanded facilities. KIPP DC Heights Academy, offering blended learning with extended-day and extended-year programs and located in Barry Farm, is ranked by the DC Public Charter School Board as a Tier 1 school, a category that applies to schools meeting standards for high performance.

The high-performance award celebrates schools that place highly in state and national tests. The other award honors schools that help student groups close the achievement gap. Nationwide, only 362 schools received awards this year, the 37th time the awards have been given.

“We recognize and honor your important work in preparing students for successful careers and meaningful lives,” U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in an Oct. 2 video message to all of the honorees. “As a National Blue Ribbon School, your school demonstrates what is possible when committed educators hold all students and staff to high standards and create vibrant, innovative cultures of teaching and learning.”

Several of the DC recipients have earned Blue Ribbon status previously, according to a list on the U.S. Department of Education website: Deal, then a junior high school, in 1983-84; Blessed Sacrament School, 2012; and St. Peter School, 2013. Other KIPP DC campuses drew recognition in 2007 and 2018.

Ross Elementary, located at 1730 R Street NW, expanded its National Walk to School Day celebration on Oct. 2 with coffee, blueberry doughnuts (to match the blue ribbon) and a visit from Ferebee in honor of its recognition as a high-performing school.

“I’m proud to call Holly a partner in this work, and I’m really happy to spend time here today,” Ferebee said. “It’s just a reminder of the talent here in the building and the amazing work teachers do with students every day.”

Searl said that Ross has been working toward this achievement for the past few years. She noted that the school’s success is the result of community support and a concerted effort to hire and retain top teaching talent, as well as input from Ross students. “When we got the award, I met with all the kids and said, ‘This is your award. You won because of all your hard work,’ ” she added.

Searl, the school’s principal since 2010, highlighted a few of the education practices that have enabled Ross to stand out from the pack. Ross has seen an enrollment surge in recent years, increasing to 190 last year from 157 in the 2011-12 school year and 174 in 2017-18.

The school has been working on its English Language Learning (ELL) strategies to accommodate an increasing number of Ross students who speak another language at home — currently 19% of students. Ross also has been working to provide universal access to learning tools, including fidget bracelets and noise-canceling headphones, which are available to all students who request them.

Ferebee noted that one of the school’s distinctive features is its emphasis on collaboration among faculty members. In many classrooms multiple teachers are providing instruction at the same time to help students with special needs, and there’s often collaboration between classroom teachers and specialized ELL and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) instructors. The Ross staff also includes a social worker.

“When you’re digging in as a team and there’s a collaborative effort that’s pervasive, I think it positions [a] school well for the kind of success that we’ve seen here at Ross,” Ferebee said.

Chancellor Lewis Ferebee visited classrooms at Ross Elementary as part of a school visit to highlight the school system’s Blue Ribbon honorees. Ferebee went on to visit Deal Middle School later in the day. (Photo by Jake Maher)

The school displays a strong commitment to STEM education. In addition to having a specialized teacher, Ross has repurposed the faculty lounge as a STEM lab and created a “STEMbassador” program in which older students help younger ones with STEM subjects. Students make crafts on “Maker Mondays.” When The DC Line toured the school, students in kindergarten and first grade were studying the way light behaves when it interacts with various materials.

To Searl, this success results in part from her responsiveness to the community, including the students themselves. Her goal this year, she said, is to have lunch with each student at Ross. According to Ferebee, Searl is attuned “to the needs of her students and staff and has great relations with the school community, and they worked really hard for this.”

The announcement of the Blue Ribbon awards enabled Ferebee to showcase the kinds of success stories that keep parents and children in DC schools. “We want dependable feeder patterns for families that they have great confidence in,” Ferebee said. “It’s the element of DCPS that makes us unique — that we are the only by-right feeder system in the city. And we should ensure that system is strong.”

DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education will honor Ross and the other Blue Ribbon schools Nov. 14 and 15 at an awards ceremony at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor, Maryland.