Monday, April 12, 2010

The Visionary: How Maria Tukeva helps immigrants succeed in D.C. schools

This school, on a new campus, has a 90% rate of seniors being accepted to college. It started out as a program in 1981 for troubled immigrant high school students and is now a model for other cities. All this time with the same Principal. - - Donna Poisl

By V. Dion Haynes

To the nervous high school senior presenting her research project in the school library, this feels like an "American Idol" moment, and Principal Maria Tukeva is the judge she most wants to impress.

The student, Lizbeth Macias, 17, rattles off data about the slave roots of Georgetown's Mount Zion Cemetery and laments all the ways it has fallen into disrepair. She tells the judges she even volunteered as a tour guide at the historic site and shared her knowledge with visitors for the class project. But not even a quarter into her talk, Macias loses her composure.
Click on the headline to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.

No comments: