Rashad Price: Giving back to my community of Southeast DC and its children

Growing up in Southeast DC with limited good public education opportunities, I was fortunate to attend Friendship Public Charter School’s Collegiate Academy. My late mother told me I would be attending Woodson, which excited me as some of my middle school friends were headed there. Later, I learned that she meant Friendship’s Carter G. Woodson campus, which initially disappointed me as I wouldn’t be with any of my friends at H.D. Woodson High School.

I had yet to learn about the opportunities available to me at my mother’s school of choice. In addition to teachers and mentors who pushed me to succeed and who were important for my future, I could take academically rigorous Advanced Placement classes offered in cooperation with the University of Maryland College Park, McDaniel College, and the University of the District of Columbia.

My classes in AP World History and AP U.S. Politics required mastering texts in preparation for class, plus interacting with college professors and fellow scholars. The experience of honing research, critical thinking, writing, speaking and listening skills provided early preparation for (and exposure to) college, which would prove invaluable to me as an undergraduate.

Because I was able to enroll in classes that earned college credit at Collegiate Academy, I arrived at university with accumulated credits, enabling me to pursue a challenging major and electives that sparked my interest.

I realized while completing AP World History in the 10th grade that I wanted to study religion in college. I graduated high school as male valedictorian. Earning a place at University of Wisconsin–Madison, I majored in religious studies to pursue my passion for learning about different people and cultures.  

In this journey, my biggest supporters were my family — “the ones I do it for.” As the first male in my family to earn a college degree, I owe much to them.

My grandfather instilled in me the value of education at a very young age. I could lean on my cousin Zack, who had some college experience, when social pressures or drama arose. My mom would call me every other day. Aunts and my uncle also helped motivate me, as did my strong, loving grandmother. Always concerned for my well-being, she regularly asked: “Are they racist up there?” Happily, I was able to report that I had experienced no issues so far.

Many mentors and teachers also helped me on my way from high school to college, like a caring second family.

My family and school support helped me adjust to a very different community from the one where I had grown up. After earning a highly competitive Posse scholarship that paid my tuition costs, I also was fortunate to be able to rely on my cohort of “Posse” scholars — 11 by the time I arrived there.

Other such scholarship recipients came before and after me, creating a supportive community of students of color: like-minded individuals with shared experiences and common purpose in the middle of a Midwest campus, including students from urban New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as my native Washington, DC.

Upon graduating with my bachelor’s degree, I was initially unsure of my next steps, but working with the City Year Program in DC took me to public charter schools, enabling me to learn about special education and students’ needs. From there, a desire to teach inspired me to enroll in Teach for America. My passion for the challenges and rewards of special education was ignited.

Addressing learning difficulties and behavioral issues with appropriate interventions — an aspect of schooling long ignored by traditional education systems — is now seen by experts as an essential part of public education, as recognized in federal legislation and heightened public awareness.

While the challenges of special education are some of the hardest in teaching, student growth and progress in this area is perhaps the most rewarding of achievements. But as I remind colleagues, you have to be motivated by the welfare of the children you serve, and to connect with them or their families; otherwise, you will find it exhausting.

Returning to the neighborhood where I was raised, I can see many challenges from my current workplace at Friendship Southeast Elementary and Middle School near Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE. There are some positive changes in the community, but also displacement of poorer residents of color due to gentrification. 

At Friendship Public Charter School, many former mentors and teachers are now colleagues. Like them, my aspiration for my students is a high-quality education that places them in charge of their future, realizing their full potential.

Rashad Price is a teacher at Friendship Southeast Elementary and Middle School; a former student at Friendship’s Collegiate Academy; and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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