Washington City Paper: Contents for Mar. 28

Escape From DCPS
Getting to college from a District high school is hard enough, but a counseling system in chaos makes the odds even longer.

Cover Story

There are few lonelier spots on earth than the place Iyabo Akinadewo found herself last May. She was halfway through the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT)—the key that unlocks the door to colleges and universities—and she realized she was blowing it.

The then-junior at H.D. Woodson Senior High School was baffled. She figured the SAT was just another in the long line of standardized tests that teachers plop down to measure achievement. She had entered the test confident that her success in school would extend to the SATs—a hope that turned out to be cruelly mistaken.

"I was sitting there, like, 'I can't believe I have 15 minutes to read this whole thing,'" Akinadewo, now a senior, says. "I was stuck on questions for more than five minutes. You're only supposed to take 40 seconds on a question. I didn't know how to pace myself. I didn't know how to read and comprehend what I was reading. I was so unprepared for that test."

An honors-level student who has wanted to study psychology since she was 12, Akinadewo says she knew a good SAT score was her ticket to a respected university in her desired field of study. But her belly-flop on the test dimmed those chances considerably.

A promising, college-bound student should never enter the SAT clueless. But failing to prepare its students is not the only way the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) foil the already tricky escape from a troubled inner-city school system. It's scary enough that only six out of every 10 DCPS pupils who begin 10th grade graduate, but the ones who survive find themselves undereducated, undercounseled, and underinformed.... Continued

Issue of Mar. 28 - Apr. 3, 1997

News and Features

Escape From DCPS
Getting to college from a District high school is hard enough, but a counseling system in chaos makes the odds even longer.
Cover Story By Tom Stabile
Marooning Ward 3
The Department of Public Works is driving the plot to divide the city.
The City By Erik Wemple
Camp Starbucks
How one star-struck employee woke up and smelled the coffee
The City By Amanda Ripley
Good Counsel
Wilson High counselor Georgia Arrington-Booker is exceptional as a rule.
The City By Tom Stabile
General Disappointment?
DCPS's Gen. Charles Williams' report card includes a couple of incompletes.
The City By Tom Stabile
Couriering Favor
The Mail By Lambchop
Ridicruel
The Mail By Marilyn W. Groves
Sneak Attack
The Mail By Elizabeth Nelson
The Safety Trants
The Mail By Sigmund Cohen
Eon Flux
The Mail By Laurie Weiner and Bob Kowlowitz
Torpedo Envy
The Mail By Alexa M. Beattie
Anatomically Incorrect
The Mail By William R. Eckberg
Go Public
The Mail By Nancee Lyons

Columns

The Mark of Soros
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
CityDesk
City Desk
Old School vs. New School
Loose Lips By Ken Cummins

Eats

Aged Lunch
Young & Hungry By Brett Anderson

Movies

Devil With a Green Shirt On
Film Review By Mark Jenkins
Crossover Dreams
Film Review By Arion Berger

Music

Theater

Slow Ride
Theater Review By Bob Mondello
Some Rays Pass Right Through
Theater Review By Trey Graham

Arts and Events

Scar Turn
In Search of a New Scene, Chuck Bettis and the All-Scars Meld D.C.'s Disparate Sounds
Arts By Jason Cherkis
From the Former Soviet Union With Love
Artifacts By Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
That Smell
Artifacts By Virginia Vitzthum
Preface to a Multidisc Suicide Note
Arts By William Jelani Cobb
One More Chance
Arts By Deborah Rouse
He Is Risen!
Art Review By Glenn Dixon