What’s up with the lack of effort in electives at Roosevelt

There are a load of electives that DCPS (District of Colombia Public Schools) offers, so why are there so few at Roosevelt? As we go on throughout our time in Roosevelt and as more newcomers come to the school, our school should bring more to the table.  

As we all know, Roosevelt is a small school, but this school year our enrollment is 752 students. You may think this has nothing to do with electives, but the more students enrolled means more funding for the school, which means more staff and more courses. However, you see a stark difference in the electives here at Roosevelt compared to other schools.  

SWW (School Without Walls High School) has 600 enrolled students according to the DCPS School Profiles. Although SWW has 152 students less than us, they have more opportunities and more interesting and fun electives for their students. SWW offers 24 electives include drama and theatre courses, journalism courses, directing, law courses, history studies, AP courses, SAT prep and even sports courses, according to its website.  

Here at Roosevelt, we have 15 electives including Choir, Band, Acting 1, JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps), Financial Literacy, Build, Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, African American History, African Studies, Human Rights and Social Action Street Law, Model UN, Computer Science, Sculpture Drawing and painting, and swimming.  

Although these electives may seem like what the kids need to prepare for their future while getting high school credits, these electives are highly overlooked and neglected. Since the renovation in 2016, Roosevelt has shared its building with Roosevelt S.T.A.Y and we lack space to expand our courses. Due to the space that we have now being so small there isn’t enough room for additional electives or staff members to be invited to work and help our academic department to expand throughout the school.  

Roosevelt has experienced a lot of complaints this year regarding their electives. Students were being put in the electives that were not in their best interest, and those who were in their chosen elective could not have the hands-on experience they were hoping for because some never cared to participate. 

Roosevelt’s 2022-23 school year should be better than before, and their courses should progress and build up as the years go on. As some might find this surprising, next year we might have Roosevelt’s STAY side, depending on the final D.C. Council vote, meaning that there will be much more space than we have now. 

With the space that is available for next year, it will be an innovative idea to have more courses and hire more staff to support our electives and help the students at Roosevelt enjoy the rest of their time here by giving them more choices.