In the classroom, decorated with colorful posters that displayed math symbols and the order of operations, one student proclaimed loudly, “Joe Biden!” The president hugged one excited child and talked about whether she could someday become president.
“The hardest thing is to come back after three months of not doing any work, not doing any homework,” Biden told the class. A teacher in the classroom explained they were spending the day reviewing concepts from last school year to see what everyone remembered.
Eliot-Hine broke trends last school year when its students scored higher on a standardized test known as the PARCC exam than they did before the pandemic. Elsewhere in the city, most students saw incremental gains from 2022 — when scores plunged after virtual learning — but have not yet fully recovered to scores from 2019.
Nearly 34 percent of the student body at Eliot-Hine is meeting or exceeding expectations in reading, compared with about 23 percent in 2019. Math proficiency grew about 3 percentage points, from almost 13 percent in 2019 to nearly 16 percent in 2023, city data show.
Children there also outperformed their peers across the city on the reading exam, officials said. City leaders pointed to the school’s participation in high-impact tutoring programs — consistent and small-group instruction — and training for math teachers.
Despite recent successes, the president’s query about the most challenging subject in school was met with a unanimous “math.” English — the subject that first lady Jill Biden teaches at Northern Virginia Community College — received much more enthusiasm.
The first lady will resume teaching Sept. 5, she told the classroom of eighth-graders. “I’ve been working on my lesson plans and what I’m going to do the first day, so I’m excited,” said Jill Biden, who is the first woman in her role to maintain a full-time job outside the White House. “What you probably don’t know about teachers is that no matter how long you’ve been teaching, the night before you can barely sleep because you’re so excited.”
She also encouraged students to rely on their teachers for help.
“We love our students, and so if you’re going through tough times, or maybe you’re struggling a little bit in math, maybe you’re struggling a little bit at home, you know you can go to your teachers,” she said. “You can trust your teachers. We are always here for you.”
