Congratulations to our 2019 valedictorian Aaron Spruill who was featured in the Washington Post. He shared his aspiration to become a computer scientist.

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Curtis Valentine, Special to The Informer  June 17, 2019

The African American community’s fight for quality education is a 12-months-a-year struggle, and every month — not just Black History Month — is a great time to reflect on what’s working and who is successful in fighting for quality public education in our community. Donald Hense and the Friendship Charter Network are worthy of recognition.

Hense is founder and board chairman of the Friendship Charter Network, the largest African American-led charter school network in America. Hense’s accomplishment is significant, because, while over 80 percent of charter school students are Black or Latino, fewer than 10 percent of charter schools are founded and led by Blacks or Latinos, according to a study by the Brookings Institute.

Three-quarters of students enrolled in Friendship schools in D.C. are from Wards 7 and 8, the city’s two poorest areas, and nearly all are African American. Their success is reflected in their continuous improvement on standardized tests. Most recently, Hense and his team celebrated when five of Friendship’s 12 D.C. schools were rated Tier 1 by the Public Charter School Board — the highest of three ratings a charter can earn.

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We can count the 2018-19 school year as yet another major win for our scholars, parents, teachers, staff and school community.

Because of your hard work, tenacious pursuit of excellence and love for our scholars, we have experienced a year of record achievement – in student performance and in the growth of our footprint throughout the District.

There’s so much to celebrate!

– Our engaging early childhood education program is recognized as one of D.C.’s best!
– From Puerto Rico to Providence, our middle and high school students are broadening their perspectives through travel and college dual enrollment.
– At this year’s citywide STEM Fair, Friendship students not only won numerous awards including First Place Grand Prize for their invention, the “Safety Zipper” – they excelled among over 20 other public and independent schools, competed internationally and are pursuing a patent for their one-of-a-kind invention. And by the way, Friendship is also home to Google’s D.C. Science Fair winner.

Wait, there’s more!

– Our 2019 graduating class includes five Google Computer Science scholars and a Gates Scholarship winner. Not to mention, our graduates collectively earned over $6 million in scholarships!
– Friendship’s Performing Arts program is on fire! Students performed at the Kennedy Center and wowed us with Broadway classics like “The Wiz” and a Summer Arts Festival.
– At our 1st Annual Community Planting Day, neighbors and friends joined us as we added timeless beauty to our city blocks. And visit any of our campuses and you’ll see bee harvesting, an urban chicken coop and garden boxes with everything from rosemary to azaleas!

If that’s not enough, our classroom teachers were selected from thousands of applicants for prestigious awards including D.C.’s Sanford Teacher’s Award and the Greater Washington Reading Council’s Reading Teacher of the Year and Reading Administrator of the Year.

And because of all you do, more students and families will grow from a Friendship education. We’ll start the 2019-20 school year with three new schools – Friendship Ideal Elementary and Middle in Ward 4, Friendship Armstrong Middle in Ward 5 and scholars from City Arts & Prep.