FAQ

GGA Aspirational Culture: The GGA founding team uniquely understands the importance of a highly visible and tangible college- and career-going culture, having served in high schools for several years.  A college- and career-going culture is a school community effort that involves all stakeholders. While the leadership team and teachers will play integral roles, the College and Career Readiness Counselor will facilitate activities with support from staff, leadership, parents, and community members.  College and Career readiness starts in the 9th grade at GGA with the development of Personal Learning Plans for each student (with families) and a commitment to being an active participant in the GGA college and career going culture. The founding team will vet software tools such as Overgrad to provide personalized support, monitoring, and communication with students and families.  Ashley and her family will have several contacts with her counselor about her PLP, her trajectory for the next 4 – 5 years, and how the school will support her in getting there. The planning year will be utilized to firm up a concrete action plan and we will rely on and expand on our previous experiences.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:  At GGA, unique learning profiles, learning differences, and diversity are respected and valued as assets.  Our inclusion policy focuses on what students can do and establishes norms for the development of students’ authentic interests and talents, meaningful and equitable access to our curriculum, and reasonable accommodations to support learning.  In addition, GGA policies and plans across the board intentionally support diversity and inclusion:

• Admissions: Our admissions policy will not discriminate based on economic factors.  Our admissions process is transparent. Materials about our program are in multiple languages.
•  Safety:  In our planning year, the GGA founding team will develop a robust plan for physical and emotional safety.  GGA will include specific structures to ensure that our girls’ well being is accounted for through inclusiveness, social-emotional learning, and trauma-informed training for staff.  Making GGA a safe haven will give our girls the freedom to be who they are.
•  Language:  Our language policy recognizes that language is essential to learning, cultivates students’ preferred languages, and ensures that practices are inclusive for students who are learning in a language other than their primary language. We will have a full-inclusion school model for English Language Learners. 
• Gender Identity: For students who identify as LGBTQ+, GGA is a safe and secure space free from bullying, harassment, and other negative behaviors based on confirmed gender identity, gender expression, gender questioning, and transgender identity. 
• Citizenship Status: Our citizenship policy includes educational access and accompanying resources for support to undocumented students. 
•  Students with Disabilities:  GGA believes that all girls can succeed at high levels with the appropriate supports.  All students will have access to the same rich, rigorous, inquiry-based global curriculum and standards.  Students with disabilities will be held to the same standards as all of our other girls while receiving appropriate services, modifications, and accommodations as outlined in their IEPs and 504 plans .
• English Language Learners:  We will have a full-inclusion school model for ELLs.  All students will have equal access to all programs and services including instructional services (e.g., tutoring), support services, art programs, technology programs, and athletics.  English language learners will receive tiered supports based on their English proficiency.

At GGA, girls will use their voices to become leaders on issues that matter most to them. They will build the academic and interpersonal skills needed for success, contentment and a positive impact on the world now and in the future.

Research surveying high school girls in both girls schools and coed schools found that girls attending all-girls schools report better learning experiences than their counterparts attending co-ed institutions. In particular, they report:

• having higher aspirations and motivation
• being challenged to achieve more
• being more engaged in the learning process
• being more likely to engage in activities that prepare them for real-world rigors
• more often experiencing safe and welcoming learning environments
• gaining more facility with skills such as writing, speaking, critical thinking, and independent learning, and
• experiencing more support from classmates, teachers, and other school staff

 https://www.ncgs.org/research/database/steeped-in-learning-the-student-experience-at-all-girls-schools/

Note: When Girls Global Academy uses the terms “girls” or “young women,” we are referring to how our students may choose to identify themselves. We welcome non-binary students who believe the supportive community we provide along with our rigorous academic program is optimal for their high school experience. GGA is designed to be an inclusive, safe, and dynamic learning environment for any girl in the District.

LEADership Academy is on Wednesday afternoons.  Students have an early release schedule to explore issues that matter to them in the local and global community to develop future-ready personal and professional skills.

This program of study will allow you to incorporate your passions into learning.  How you learn will through design thinking will prepare you for any course of study in the future.  Design thinking helps you to become a problem solver, critical thinker, and a product developer.

Girls Global Academy student wellness is supported by our support team.  We will have a professional licensed counselor and Advisory focused on social-emotional learning twice per week.  We know from talking with girls they want to have a space in their day to talk about issues that matter most to them.

Girls Global Academy’s appreciates diverse learners and supports students in demonstrating their learning is a variety of ways.

Academic advisory is embedded in the school schedule twice per week teach successful approaches to learning

We aim to have small class sizes around 15 – 18 students per class.  Small classes mean that our teachers will know every girl by name and understand her academic needs well.

Girls Global Academy is pursuing the International Baccalaureate Career Program with distinctive pathways in Engineering and Business

Students take one pathway course each year in addition to rigorous courses across a variety of disciplines.

Girls Global Academy will offer track and volleyball during our opening year.  Since we are a small school we may need to partner with another school to offer additional team sports like basketball.  We also want to learn what sports interest girls.

Girls Global Academy will offer a variety of activities like robotics, dance, self-defense, creative writing in the opening year.  We will also offer activities girls are most interested in and we are gathering interest facts in our survey. It is important that girls become decision makers in the school and one way is to have input on the enrichment activities.

Green, Yellow, and Red lines and Metro Station serving Red, Orange, Blue and Silver Lines

Bus routes 70, 79, 30, 32, 33, 34 and 36

We are located in Ward 2.  Our Address is 733 8th St NW Washington DC 20001. Girls Global Academy is a destination high school in the center of the city with access to a variety of transportation points.  This center of the city location supports our mission to foster pathways for leading and learning.

The Girls Global Academy school day starts at 8:00AM-4:30 PM to include enrichment activities.

Girls Global Academy has registered to wear uniforms.  We actually want our founding students and founding families to be a part of the decision making around uniforms.  We definitely want girls to wear shirts that have the GGA logo, our sisterhood, scholarship, service, and safety values crests.

To apply for Girls Global Academy, a student must be a DC resident and apply through the lottery process using MySchoolDC.

Girls Global Academy is a tuition-free Public Charter School in Washington, DC.