Lincoln Middle School (Washington, D.C.)

Lincoln Multicultural Middle School is a public middle school in District of Columbia Public Schools, serving children in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.Lincoln Middle School is located at 3101 16th St NW Washington, D.C., in the heart of the rapidly gentrifying Columbia Heights neighborhood.

History

Lincoln was originally built in its current location in 1967. Falling victim to many of the problems associated with low-income inner city schools, the school experienced declining test scores, enrollment and morale. In the early 2000's, Maria Tukeva, the principal of Bell Multicultural Senior High School, was able to raise enough money to have Lincoln torn down and a new facility built in its place that now houses both Lincoln and Bell under one roof. While the new facility was under construction, students were bused to temporary classrooms located at Taft School in North East Washington. The new $65 million facility, known as the Columbia Heights Education Center, officially opened in February of 2006, breaking a 30+ year drought of new school buildings in Washington, D.C.. With the help of the new facilities, the school has increased its enrollment and hopes to work closely with the high school in an effort to help all students succeed.

Student Demographics

"The following numbers are from the Washington Post's 2006-07 School Year Report Card (see bottom of page for link)"
Lincoln Middle School serves a diverse population of around 450 students.
- Asian: 2%
- Black: 41.5%
- Hispanic: 56.0%
- White: 0.4%

By gender, 47.9% of the student body was male, while 52.1% was female.

Lincoln qualifies for the U.S. Government's Title 1 status, with 78.8% of the population identified as coming from low-income families.

Test Scores

As part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Lincoln students take Washington. D.C.'s Comprehensive Assessment System (DC-CAS) each year. Lincoln has not performed well on these exams with the vast majority of students falling in the basic and below basic categories. The results from the 2006 test can be found on the [http://projects.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/70/ Washington Post's Website] .

Extracurriculars

Lincoln has attempted to create a variety of extracurricular after school programs.
For sports, Lincoln offers baseball, softball, girls and boys basketball. The official school mascot is the knights.
Additionally, outside programs have added a boys and girls soccer team through the help of the [http://www.americascores.org/index.php?id=123 DC SCORES program] . In the 2007 spring season, the DC Knights soccer teams from Lincoln excelled during their first year in the [http://www.stoddert.com/ DC Stoddert Soccer League] .
Academically, Lincoln teachers offer clubs focused on drama, debate, tutoring and music.
Lincoln has been a part of the DCPS's Aftercare For All program for many years, and for the first time in the 2006-07 school year, Lincoln received additional funding through the [http://www.projectmytime.org/ Project My Time] organization. Project My Time helped invigorate Lincoln's after school offerings by providing access to members and groups in the community and in turn providing previously non-existent options to students including lessons on playwriting, African drumming and more.

Additional Information

The school is led by principal Lydia Blazquez (four years at Lincoln) and assistant principal Dr. Francis Nicol (two years at Lincoln).
The school's colors are maroon and gold.
Students are required to wear uniforms daily consisting of a school colored short sleeved polo shirt and Khaki pants, shorts or long skirt.
The school follows a block schedule, in which students attend four eighty minute classes each day.

External links

* [http://projects.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/70/ The Washington Post's School Report Card for Lincoln Middle School]