Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Serving Chevy Chase, Colonial Village, Shepherd Park, Brightwood, Crestwood, Petworth & 16th Street Heights
Vol. XLVIII, No. 43
The Northwest Current
Peters sisters honored in Georgetown
High school exam yields low, but expected, scores
j u mping for joy
■ 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
The St. John’s field hockey team won its first-ever crown by upsetting defending Washington Catholic Athletic Conference champion Good Counsel 2-0 on Thursday. Second-year coach Corey Samperton, left, pushed her team to play with passion, which showed in players’ aggressive style. See story, page 9.
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
Proposed design for Cleveland Park Library sparks debate By KELSEY KNORP Current Correspondent
A concept design released earlier this month for the new Cleveland Park Library building has drawn mixed reviews from local residents. The project is slated to begin in February, when the original 60-year-old library building at 3310 Connecticut Ave. NW will be largely demolished and replaced by a larger “net zero” facility — a building that produces as much energy as it consumes — to open by summer 2017. A temporary facility will provide resources to library users in the interim. The latest design would include about 27,500 square feet of space, almost 9,000 more than the current structure. The proposal would afford about 2,000 more square feet for adult sections and a little more than that for children’s areas. All adult collections and reading areas would
SPOR TS
Friday ceremony to fete Georgetown’s iconic Exorcist steps
Sidwell rallies from 20 points behind to shock rival Maret
— Page 3
— Page 9
Rendering courtesy of D.C. Public Library
A larger, more modern structure — rendered here from Connecticut Avenue — is proposed to replace the aging Cleveland Park Library.
be moved to the second floor, while the children’s sections and a new teen area would be located on the first. Meeting rooms would be installed between those two main-level sections, with significant additional space for assembly on the
SHERWOOD
Marine Corps runs marathon expo out of District next year — Page 6
lower level as well. Other features include a children’s garden extending off the first floor and a roof garden on the second. A number of residents told The Current they support a new library building, but there remains some debate about the aesthetics and features incorporated in the design. Some have worried the concrete exterior and tall glass windows would be too modern for the historic neighborhood, and there has also been disagreement about whether the architects should include underground parking in the design. The only parking currently available on the property is confined to a small lot at the rear end of the building, off Macomb Street NW, and additional parking has not been included in the new construction plan. Resident Megan Draheim, one of many who commented on the design in posts on the Cleveland Park neighborhood listserv, said she supports See Library/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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