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Serving Burleith, Foxhall, Georgetown, Georgetown Reservoir & Glover Park

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Vol. XXV, No. 13

The Georgetown Current

Peters sisters honored at Rose Park

High school exam yields low, but expected, scores

SMOOTH SAX

■ Education: PARCC finds

By MARK LIEBERMAN

weak English, geometry skills

Current Staff Writer

Former Georgetown residents Margaret Peters and Roumania Peters Walker — or as they’re sometimes remembered, “Pete” and “Repete” — spent the first half of the 20th century building a legacy as champions of tennis. The sisters challenged gender and racial stereotypes, setting an example for future generations of black women and others by racking up more doubles titles than any team in history. And now, a century after the sisters were born, their old tennis courts are named after them. More than 100 community members and city officials gathered Saturday afternoon in Georgetown’s Rose Park at 2609 Dumbarton St. NW, just a block away from the sisters’ childhood home, to honor their impact on the Georgetown community with a plaque personally donated by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson. As it did when the Peters sisters were alive, the park represents a respite from the inequalities that continue to plague the nation to this day, Friends of Rose Park member David Abrams said with a tear in his eye before Saturday’s event. “It’s a haven from everything else that goes on,” Abrams said. “The turmoil that we have today disappears in our little park.” Abrams sparked the idea of honoring the sisters after reading a series of profiles by blogger Topher Mathews in the Georgetown Metropolitan in February. Then he enlisted support from Ward 2 D.C. Council member Jack Evans and the Georgetown advisory neighborhood commission. “I feel strongly that theirs was and is a story that needs to be told, so that those who come after them know that before there was Venus and Serena, there were the talented, the dynamic, the athletically gifted Peters sisters,” neighborhood commissioner Monica Roaché said durSee Tennis/Page 22

NEWS

By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer

Brian Kapur/The Current

Georgetown University’s Friday Music Series featured New Orleans jazz saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. playing a variety of tunes in McNeir Hall on Friday afternoon. The event was part of an event focusing on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The scores for last school year’s first iteration of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams have arrived, and D.C. officials say the overall numbers aren’t encouraging. Citywide, slightly more than a quarter of the 3,000-plus high school students who took the exams this past spring are considered proficient and college-ready in English, and only 10 percent of test takers earned the same distinction in math, according to new data provided by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. The new standardized test replaces the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System for high school grades, evaluating students’ math performance after they take geometry and English upon completion of English II. A student with a score of at least 4 out of 5 is considered “proficient” and “college-ready.” “I think generally these results

Brian Kapur/Current file photo

School Without Walls posted the city’s best performance on the new high school PARCC exams.

are about what I would have expected when considering the far more rigorous bar that PARCC holds our students to, and also when looking at the data from other students,” D.C. state superintendent of education Hanseul Kang told reporters Monday. “While these results are not easy to see, and certainly we have a lot of work to do, they are roughly what I expected.” School Without Walls, a magnet school, was by far the best-performing D.C. high school, with 97 percent of English test-takers and 76 percent of geometry test-takers scoring proficient. Benjamin Banneker Academic See Scores/Page 5

Exorcist steps event to commemorate local movie landmark By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer

A longtime “Exorcist” enthusiast, Andrew Huff got to thinking about the movie’s iconic Georgetown steps one day last June, while showering “with a head full of shampoo.” The iconic Exorcist steps — featured in the climax of William Friedkin’s 1973 horror film — are already a well-known tourist attraction. But Huff, a D.C. resident and American University’s director of community relations, believed the site could use more formal recognition. On Friday evening, Huff’s brainchild completes the journey from his shower to the steps at 3600 Prospect St. NW. City officials including Mayor Muriel Bowser and several D.C. Council members will unveil a plaque commemorating the famous site during a 6 p.m. ceremony at the bottom of the steps. And per a ceremonial D.C.

SPOR TS

ANC calls for safety improvements at Foggy Bottom Metro

Sidwell rallies from 20 points behind to shock rival Maret

— Page 3

— Page 9

Brian Kapur/The Current

Andrew Huff pushed for greater recognition of the stairs between M and Prospect streets NW, featured in the film “The Exorcist.”

Council resolution authored by Ward 2 member Jack Evans (Huff’s former boss), Oct. 30 will be known as “Exorcist Day” in D.C. going forward.

SHERWOOD

Marine Corps runs marathon expo out of District next year — Page 6

Before the ceremony, from 4 to 6 p.m., Friedkin will be at the top of the steps signing autographs, answering questions and giving away a limited number of free Blu-rays of the film and collectible headshot photos of himself on the set. William Peter Blatty, the author of the book on which the movie is based, will join Friedkin for the second hour. The event concludes with an invitation-only screening of “The Exorcist” at the nearby AMC Georgetown theater. Interested residents across the city, from Tim Russert’s widow Maureen Orth to Redwood Investments founder Michael Wood, donated a total of $7,000 to the event. Support from Aaron DeNu at Dupont Festival, the event’s official organizer, and promotion from the Georgetown advisory neighborhood commission and other city officials, made those donations possible, See Exorcist/Page 10

INDEX Calendar/14 Classifieds/21 District Digest/2 Exhibits/15 In Your Neighborhood/12 Opinion/6

Police Report/4 Real Estate/11 School Dispatches/8 Service Directory/19 Sports/9 Week Ahead/3

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