B4 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAy, NOVEMbER 9 , 2019
tions — and asks students to do
the same.
At the end of class Thursday,
Lopez-Cardoze explained why he
was extra strict that day as stu-
dents worked on projects they
would present to their families at
school.
“The reason why I’m strict,
and the reason why I’m no-non-
sense today, it’s because I wanted
to see you succeed in this,” Lopez-
Cardoze said.
When he saw a typically social
boy sitting alone on a couch in
the classroom, he asked him how
he was doing. When the student
said he was fine, Lopez-Cardoze
still sensed something was amiss
and made a note to follow up
with him the next day.
“He likes to express his feel-
ings. He always asks us if we’re
okay,” Amy said. “He’s the first
teacher I’ve had that’s like that.”
Jonathan Duncan, 12, said Lo-
pez-Cardoze has made science
enjoyable, recalling the song the
teacher taught students so they
would understand how photo-
synthesis works in plants.
Ninth-graders, two years re-
moved from Lopez-Cardoze’s
class, still sing the song in the
hallways.
“He’s fun with it. It’s new stuff
every day,” Jonathan said.
“There’s something different
about his class. Everyone just
gets happier when they’re here.”
Lopez-Cardoze said he is confi-
dent his $5,000 is being well
spent on a scholarship — even if
he could use the money himself.
“I’m living my dream job,” he
said. “I wouldn’t trade that for
the world.”
[email protected]in communities of color. Each
year during the genetics portion
of the curriculum, students up-
date the organization’s website
with information about genetic
disorders and the science behind
them.
Lopez-Cardoze said he tries to
be vulnerable with his students,
letting his class know when he
makes mistakes.
“I say fail as quickly as possi-
ble, and learn,” he said.
Amy Bonilla, 12, said Lopez-
Cardoze is a remarkable teacher
because he articulates his emo-sees himself. Like him, many of
their families migrated from El
Salvador. He encourages stu-
dents to find personal connec-
tions and meaning in the materi-
al they are learning.
There was the time a student
with sickle cell anemia ap-
proached him in 2017, upset
about news that the government
had proposed cuts to the Nation-
al Institutes of Health.
Lopez-Cardoze rallied his stu-
dents and developed an organi-
zation that educates the public
about genetic diseases prevalentteacher to be named a finalist in
the national competition since- A teacher at a detention
center in richmond took the top
honor.
“When we are selecting our
teacher of the year, we are look-
ing for educators who are, of
course, good teachers in terms of
instruction,” said Hanseul Kang,
D.C. state superintendent of edu-
cation. “But we are also looking
for teachers who inspire their
students.”
When Lopez-Cardoze looks at
his middle school students, he
fort Totten neighborhood.
During Lopez-Cardoze’s teen-
age years, his father, who fled El
Salvador during a civil war in the
1980s, struggled with addiction.
money was tight. The future
uncertain.
“It was bad,” he said. “It was
really bad. I viewed school as my
safe haven.”
But Lopez-Cardoze said a few
teachers in high school recog-
nized the struggles he faced at
home in Durham, N.C., and be-
lieved in him. He competed for a
state scholarship to attend the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill.
maybe, he said, the scholar-
ship he established, the CCPCS
LoCa STEm Scholarship, will cat-
apult a student at the school to
the same success he found. He
aspires to double his $5,000
contribution through fundrais-
ing.
“It changed my life when I got
that scholarship,” Lopez-Cardoze
said.
Nearly 100 of 8,000 D.C. public
school teachers were nominated
to be teacher of the year. A
selection committee from the
office of the State Superinten-
dent of Education interviewed
Lopez-Cardoze, visited his class-
room, read his application essays
and reviewed his letters of rec-
ommendation.
Lopez-Cardoze will be the D.C.
nominee for the National Te ach-
er of the Year competition. Last
year, Kelly Harper, a third-grade
teacher at Amidon-Bowen Ele-
mentary School in Southwest
Washington, was the first D.C.
teAcHer from B1
D.C. teacher sees scholarship opportunity in cash award
MICHAEL ROBINSON CHAVEZ/THE WASHINGTON POST
Seventh-grade science teacher Justin Lopez-cardoze talks thursday with students emarion edwards,
13, left, and Amy Bonilla, 12, at capital city Public charter School.point gain in 2019. Somerset Pre-
paratory, which changed charter
operators this academic year be-
cause of low performance, experi-
enced a sharp drop to 65.7 per-
cent.
“Increasing graduation rates
are an important part of the story,
but we also need to make sure our
graduates are prepared for col-
lege and the workforce,” s aid Scott
Pearson, executive director of the
D.C. Public Charter School Board.
Citywide, Hispanic students,
students from low-income fami-
lies and students with disabilities
experienced declines in gradua-
tion rates.
Graduation rates were deter-
mined by calculating the percent-
age of students who entered a
high school in 2015 and graduat-
ed four years later in 2019. If a
school has paperwork document-
ing that a student transferred
schools, then that teen is not
factored into a campus’s gradua-
tion rate.
While the graduation rate in
the traditional public school sys-
tem declined, ferebee pointed to
other measures he says indicate
students are better prepared for
college. Participation and passage
rates on Advanced Placement ex-
ams increased last academic year.
SAT scores also increased.
fifty-five percent of 2018 high
school graduates enrolled in col-
lege last fall, a seven percentage-
point increase from 2017.
[email protected]dropped from 76 percent to
66 percent. The rate for Dunbar,
which increased 10 percentage
points to 86 percent in 2018, de-
creased to 76 percent in 2019.
Ballou High — the school that
sparked the investigation of grad-
uation rates — recorded an in-
crease to 58 percent from 55 per-
cent.
The school system’s f our oppor-
tunity academies, which are alter-
native high schools, all had low
graduation rates, which city offi-
cials said was expected.
In the charter sector, IDEA
Public Charter School — which
had a 55 percent graduation rate
in 2018, one of the lowest in the
city — reported a 25 percentagenext step.”
Sixteen out of the nearly 40
traditional and public charter
high schools in the District expe-
rienced a graduation rate in-
crease. A few schools saw double-
digit gains or losses.
ferebee said he does not read
much into big year-to-year chang-
es in a school’s graduation rate.
Changes in one graduating class
compared with another — per-
haps one class has significantly
more special-education students
— could explain the fluctuation,
he said.
The graduation rate for
Coolidge Senior High School
jumped from 56 percent to 66 per-
cent. The rate for H.D. Woodsonferebee attributed some of the
decline in the graduation rate to
changes in the credit recovery
program, which came under fire
in the wake of the citywide inves-
tigation. That program allows
students who have failed a class to
recover credits in courses outside
of traditional school hours.
The school system has made
the standards for credit recovery
courses more consistent across
the city and now requires stu-
dents to pass exams to show that
they have learned the material.
ferebee said students were un-
able to enroll in credit recovery
courses for one academic quarter
last year as the school system
revamped the program. As a re-
sult, he said, there was a slight
decline in the number of students
who earned credits through the
recovery program last year.
The chancellor said revamped
graduation procedures and pro-
grams that the city has imple-
mented will take time to yield
changes, and he believes the grad-
uation rate may go up next year.
“We always want to see more of
our students graduate,” ferebee
said in an interview. “But we also
want them to be prepared for theCharter schools, which educate
far fewer high school seniors than
the traditional system, graduated
76.4 percent of their seniors, a
four percentage-point increase
from 2 018. In a ll, the city graduat-
ed 3,359 students in the spring
who started high school four
years earlier.
“These results show we clearly
have more work to do in ensuring
all students graduate from high
school on time, prepared for suc-
cess in college and the career of
their choice,” D.C. mayor muriel
E. Bowser (D) said in a statement.
Graduation rates in the tradi-
tional public school system have
tumbled since a citywide investi-
gation found that 1 in 3 graduates
in 2017 received their diplomas
despite missing too many classes
or improperly taking makeup
classes.
D.C. Schools Chancellor Lewis
D. ferebee said the school system
has continued to tighten gradua-
tion requirements, and he said he
is confident that students in the
Class of 2019 who walked across
the graduation stage earned their
diplomas.
grAduAtIon from B1
Graduation rates show there’s ‘more work to do,’ mayor says
MARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POST
data released Friday shows the district’s high school graduation
rate was 6 8.2 percent in 2019, essentially unchanged from 2018.BY MARTIN WEILAnimals know of the changing
seasons by instinct. our own
awareness comes in many ways,
but as the song goes, we in Wash-
ington on friday didn’t “need a
weatherman to know” that our
future includes winter.
It’s not here yet. But the day’s
cold and the early darkness ban-
ished doubt that the “times, they
are a-changin’.”
A significant signal of the onset
of cold times is the early setting ofthe sun. It w ent down in Washing-
ton on friday, according to time-
anddate.com, at 5 p.m. on Satur-
day, for the first time this season,
it will sink at 4 :59 p.m.
In cold figures, the thermome-
ter gave another indication of the
vanishing of warmth and bright-
ness. As o f 4 p.m., friday’s average
temperature was 42 degrees, 10
below normal.
Not since may 13 had Washing-
ton fallen so far below normal.
m any people seemed to notice.
Appropriate messages regardingthe night’s high school football
games a ppeared on social media.
“Extra ready for a cold night
and a great game,” t weeted Billie-
Jean Bensen, the principal of
rockville High School. Her tweet
showed a photo of two knit caps.
Police in Bowie warned against
warming up cars by letting them
run unattended, lest they become
targets of thieves. The library at
Lake Braddock Secondary School
in fairfax County said the cold
weather was “perfect for reading!”
[email protected]THE REGIONWith an early hint of winter, the summer days are gone
BY CLARENCE WILLIAMS
AND MARTIN WEILTwo people were shot friday
night in Southeast Washington by
a D.C. police officer who was
working as a security guard, a
police official said.
The two, described as a man
and a teenager, were taken to a
hospital with injuries that were
not considered life-threatening,
said Cmdr. Durriyyah Habeebul-
lah of the 6th Police District.
She said the officer was in
uniform working at a part-timesecurity job at an apartment
house around 6:45 p.m. when he
encountered a group of people,
described as males, in the
300 block of Anacostia road SE.
A man encountered by the offi-
cer had a handgun, the official
said.
few other details were avail-
able. It was not clear whether a
gun was found at the scene.
No information was immedi-
ately available about what led the
officer to fire.
The officer was not injured,
Habeebullah said.She briefed the media in an
appearance that was posted on
video on the police Twitter feed.
It was not immediately clear
how many shots were fired by the
officer, and the officer was not
immediately identified.
The 300 block of Anacostia
road SE is a residential street
that includes three-story brick
apartment houses.
It is in the fort Dupont area,
east of the Anacostia river and
the Anacostia freeway.
[email protected]
[email protected]THE DISTRICTPolice o∞cer shoots, injures 2 at SE apartment building
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Loss AnalysisIN MEMORIAMWILBUR A. RICKETTS
As pecialsmile,aspecial face,
In our hearts,aspecial place,
Memories areagift to treasure,
Ours of you dear Daddy will last forever.
Your Children,Grandchildren, Great-Grand-
children and Great-Great-GrandchildrenRICKETTSDEATH NOTICERear Admiral JOHNF. ADDAMS
Died November 3, 2019. He was born inFort
Thomas,Kentucky August 3, 1930 to Cyrus and
Gladys Addams.Hewas the youngest of five
siblings,all of whom grew to be successful
leaders in business,education, and military
careers.Hegrew up inFort Thomas,graduated
from Highlands High School in 1948, Harvard
College in 1952 and receivedaMaster’sDegree
from GeorgeWashington University in 1963.
Admiral Addams joined the Navy in 1953 and
spent 38 years proudly serving his country.
Among the many positions in his lengthy
career in the Navy,hecommissioned both
the USS Pratt and USS Jouett, commanded
the USS Cochrane and Destroyer Squadrons
5and 7. He served as Commander Middle
EastForces in Bahrain and as Commandant
of the NationalWarCollege inWashington,
DC.During his Naval career,Admiral Addams
received numerous awards and commenda-
tions,including multiple Bronze Stars,Dis-
tinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior
Service Medal, Legion of Merit with Gold Star,
Navy Commendation Medals and multiple Ser-
viceAwards from The Republic of Vietnam.
After retiring from the Navy,Admiral Addams
enjoyed travel, visiting friends and family,annu-
al visits to Nantucket and attending weekly
services at National Presbyterian Church. Later
in life,heespecially enjoyed his position as
patriarch of the Addams clan.
He is survived by his wife of 67 years,Mary
Ellen of Boston, Massachusetts.They met on
Nantucket, where they were working during
the summer of 1952. They were married at
Nantucket’sCongregational Church, seven
weeks after they met. John and Mary Ellen
were blessed with two sons,Tom and Peter,
and their wives Barbaraand Karen, and grand-
children Timothy,Caitlin, Neftaly,Mary Anne,
and Caroline.Admiral Addams was pre-
deceased by his parents,his three brothers
and sister,and beloved granddaughter,Mary
Anne.Hereceived loving care from his nieces
and nephews,and their extended families.
Burial with full military honors will be at Arling-
ton National Cemetery atafuture date.Inlieu
of flowers,donations may be made to National
Presbyterian Church 4101 NebraskaAveNW,
Washington DC 20016.ADDAMSROBERT A.ATCHERSON
(Age 66)
OnTuesday,October 22, 2019. Survived by
brother,Raynard. Visitation 10 a.m., Service
11 a.m.,Tuesday,November 12 at Salvation,
Outreach&Deliverance Ministries,4598 Beech
Rd,Temple Hills,MD.Interment Lincoln Memor-
ial. Services byWASHINGTON&SONS.ATCHERSONGRACE L. BRANDON
(Age 91)
On Sunday,October 27, 2019. Loving and
devoted mother of Larry Brandon; one brother;
ahost of nieces; nephews; other relatives and
friends,Visitation 10 a.m. until time of Mass
of Christian Burial 11 a.m. Monday,November
11, at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, 4275
4th Street SE. Interment Maryland National
Cemetery,Laurel, MD.Arrangements by Pope
Funeral Home.BRANDONWhen theneed aris es,letfamiliesfind youint heFuneral ServicesDirectory.To be seen in the
Funeral Services
Directory,pleasecall
paid DeathNotices
at 202-334-4122.