Opponents of a plan by the SEED School to build a campus in the Kingman Park neighborhood near RFK Stadium are raising questions about the school’s academic record.
SEED, the nation’s only urban boarding school, has been lauded by D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and Congress as a national model.
The school already has one campus in Southeast and plans to expand the program to at least four other states in the next few years. The group regularly boasts that all 41 of its graduates to date have gone on to college.
But Lee Glazer, co-founder of local watchdog Save Our Schools, said the school has misled everyone by “weeding” out underachieving students to pad graduation statistics.
“Parents are being bamboozled,” Glazer said. “What this is is a dangerous exercise in social engineering. They have spent $30 million of taxpayers’ money and only graduated 41 students.”
Dozens of parents of current and former students have written saying their children have been “forced out” of the school or held back for as longas four years.
One 18-year-old man said he was held in eighth grade for four years at the school before eventually leaving with no high school credits.
SEED spokesman Michael Robbins said the allegations are “completely inaccurate” and that the school has tried to be as open as possible to critics. Robbins said 85 percent of ninth-graders go on to graduate from high school and the school has a 75 percent retention rate among all grades.
“We never expel anyone because of grades,” Robbins said. “Some people leave because they get homesick and others are asked to leave for disciplinary reasons.”
When compared to other District high schools, the SEED students’ performance is exemplary.
Students at Anacostia High School tested just over 6 percent proficient in reading and 10 percent in math, according to federally mandated performance records.
SEED students, 99 percent of whom are black and 70 percent from low-income homes, tested at 56 percent proficient in both categories.
More on the plan
» Neighbors of the proposed site say they were left out of the planning process. They hope to reclaim the site for parkland.
» Mayor Anthony Williams pressed the federal government, which owns the site, to set aside the land for an urban boarding school.
» D.C. Council Member Kwame Brown plans to introduce legislation this week to ensure that residents would be part of planning for new developments like SEED.
» SEED is proposing a 600-student campus on a 15-acre site that now serves as a parking lot for RFK Stadium.
