Sometimes when you meet someone you just know that there is a motivating force behind the work to which someone is dedicating their life. So it was with Emily Lawson, since 2002 the founder and CEO of DC Prep. Ms. Lawson first became interested in improving public education when she was a tutor at Martha's Table while attending the National Cathedral School. There she worked with a 7th grader from the Shaw section of Washington, D.C. who could not read. "It was a real eye opener," Ms. Lawson said, "completely unfair." She immediately thought "there but for the grace of God go I."
She knew then that she wanted to invest her energies in improving the lives of those living in the nation's capital. But she wasn't sure how.
It took Ms. Lawson some stops along the way to figure this out. Ms. Lawson attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a Morehead Scholarship as an economics and history major. A position with the Boston Consulting Group brought her up North. After a few years Ms. Lawson decided that she really wanted to develop her business and management skills and so she applied and was accepted to the Business School and the Kennedy School at Harvard University, where she earned both an MBA and a Masters of Public Administration.
It was during her time at the Kennedy School that Ms. Lawson took a course on social policy, which she said helped convince her that improving public education was the most important way of ensuring that all US citizens could have fulfilling and productive lives. And just at this period the charter movement was beginning in Boston, which seemed to her to have great potential to create better schools.
Ms. Lawson knew she had to be involved in urban education but she didn't feel called to be a teacher. Instead, she became part of the start-up group of the Academy of the Pacific Rim Public Charter School, now a nationally-recognized urban charter school.
The following summer, her interest in Education Management Organizations took her to Philadelphia where she worked for Kaplan in their public school partnership. After graduation, she joined entrepreneur Steve Klinsky as he set up his first Victory public charter school in Harlem, the Sisulu-Walker School. Lawson's job was to get the school up and running in just a few months. But Mr. Klinsky's company was set up as a for-profit, similar to Kaplan, which bothered Ms. Lawson. She felt that structure meant putting the organizational focus on generating money rather than on student learning.
After 2 ½ years with Victory and Mr. Klinsky's investment firm, New Mountain Capital, Ms. Lawson was eager to build on what she had learned and open her own charter school back in the nation's capital. But the private equity firm was competitive and wanted to keep her. So for 6 months she went back and forth between New York and Washington during the process of writing her charter and having it approved, while still working for New Mountain Capital. During this busy time Ms. Lawson built a founding team in Washington and in the fall of 2003 DC Prep opened with 100 students in 4th and 5th grade in the basement of the Chapel at the Old Soldiers Home.
DC Prep is uniformly judged as one of the most successful charter schools in D.C. When I asked Ms. Lawson why this is the case she opined that it was because at DC Prep, everyone is focused on student success. Some results from the school's website:
DC Prep students continue to significantly outperform their peers in regular public schools. Overall in 2009, 65% of students were proficient or advanced in Reading while 70% achieved these levels in Math as measured by the DC-CAS. In both Reading and Math, DC Prep students have more than one and a half times the proficiency rate of their peers in regular DC public schools.
These proficiency differences accelerate the longer students stay at DC Prep. On the 2009 DC-CAS, 57% of entering 4th graders were proficient in Math; by 8th grade 94% of DC Prep students scored proficient or advanced - a proficiency rate that is nearly triple that of students in DCPS. In Reading, proficiency levels increased from 55% for 4th graders to 82% among 8th graders, more than double the proficiency of students in DCPS.
I then asked Ms. Lawson to what she attributes the school's progress. "It is not one thing," she answered. She explained that the organization quickly established a stable foundation regarding governance and finances. After that, DC Prep was able to recruit excellent teachers and a high quality leadership team. The solid foundation led to being able to attract additional talent for educational, leadership and Board positions, in a continuing positive cycle.
In regard to the students, Ms. Lawson explained that most of the school's achievements have resulted from establishing a culture in which it is cool to do the right thing. She talked about the use of DC Prep dollars that students earn for demonstrating the school's values that can translate into fun activities including everything from "crazy shirt day", to bowling parties, to visits to local colleges and universities.
When I asked Ms. Lawson what the future for her school looks like she immediately mentioned expansion. She would like to open another elementary school, beginning with PreSchool and Pre-Kindergarten students, like DC Prep's Benning Elementary Campus. DC Prep currently educates 850 students on 3 campuses. The goal is to expand to 10 sites (5 elementary and 5 middle) educating approximately 3,000 kids, which will represent 10% of all children living in Wards 5 through 8. But even more importantly, Ms. Lawson said she hopes DC Prep will show the city and the nation that it is possible to show dramatic education improvements for inner city children.
I inquired as to whether this year's reduction in the facility allotment from $3,109 per child to $2,800 for each student has had a negative impact. "Yes," she replied, "We have had to scale back the positions that we wanted to have next year because of this cut."
In closing I asked Ms. Lawson for one indicator other than standardized test scores that her school was moving in the right direction. She mentioned that not too long ago U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had visited. Mr. Duncan observed that the students were well informed, thoughtful, courteous, and extremely well behaved.
"He mentioned that it was obvious that our kids loved learning, and basically that says everything about our schools." As nice as that was, she said what really gives her the most satisfaction is that although 80% of DC Prep students come from economically-disadvantaged families, about 60% of all graduating eighth graders have gone on to a selective high school, including out of town boarding schools, the top private schools in the area, Catholic schools, and DC magnet / selective high schools. DC Prep has dramatically changed the lives of these students and that is what makes her most happy.
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