Thurgood Marshall Academy is a charter school in Washington, D.C., United States., the first law-themed school in DC. Thurgood Marshall Academy was founded based on the principles of Justice

Thurgood Marshall Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-A ...

that every child should have a world-class education and the opportunity to reach their full potential. The school is located in the

Congress Heights Congress Heights is a residential neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C., in the United States. The irregularly shaped neighborhood is bounded by the St. Elizabeths Hospital campus, Lebaum Street SE, 4th Street SE, and Newcomb Street SE on ...

region of Washington D.C.

History

Thurgood Marshall Academy grew out of the experience of law students and professors in the DC Street Law clinical program at

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

. Thurgood Marshall Academy opened in 2001, serving 80 9th-graders in a rented church basement; the school added a grade each year. In 2005, the school renovated, expanded, and moved into its permanent facility in

Anacostia Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is nam ...

. In 2009, the school opened a new gymnasium to be shared with next-door A. Kiger Savoy Elementary, creating a full-service educational campus to meet a range of youth development needs in Ward 8. The school also broke ground for an expanded school garden shared with Savoy Elementary School. Thurgood Marshall Academy earned a full continuance of its charter in 2007 and full accreditation in 2008.

Going green

Through the educators in the science field and other faculty sponsors at Thurgood Marshall Academy, the school has taken steps to become more energy efficient and

environmentally friendly Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that cl ...

. Along with the TMA Green Club, the school has an organic garden with home-grown vegetables, and 15

solar panels A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...

on the roof of the school. The school won the 2011 Mayor's Environmental Award for Excellence by an Educational Facility for its efforts.

Awards and media

According to the DC Public Charter School Board's 2011 PMF ranking, TMA was one of three charter high schools to receive Tier 1 status, meeting the standards of high performance. The school has been ranked as a Bronze Medal School by '' U.S. News & World Report. ''

CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...

'' featured the school in its broadcast in June 2010.

References

External links

Official website
{{DC High Schools Charter schools in the District of Columbia Congress Heights Educational institutions established in 2001 Public high schools in Washington, D.C. 2001 establishments in Washington, D.C. Thurgood Marshall