T. C. Williams High School

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T.C. Williams High School

Established	1965
School type	Public school
Principal	Mel Riddile
Address	3330 King Street Alexandria, VA 22302
Enrollment	1,997; (2,683 in 9-12)
Athletic Conference	Patriot District Northern Region
Colors	Red, White, Blue
Nickname	Titans
Rival Schools	Hayfield Secondary School West Potomac High School
Homepage	Official Site

T.C. Williams High School is the sole public high school in Alexandria, Virginia, USA. Named for a former superintendent of Alexandria City Public schools who served from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, it is located near the geographic center of the city, at 3330 King Street. It is referred to informally as "T.C." (rather than "Williams") by students, faculty and locals. T.C. currently enrolls about 2,000 students from grades 10-12. Ninth graders attend nearby Minnie Howard Ninth Grade Center and participate in T.C. Williams sports and extracurriculars. T.C. Williams is part of Alexandria City Public Schools.

The school and its legendary former football coach, Herman Boone, were featured in the 2000 motion picture Remember the Titans, starring Denzel Washington. The movie depicted the consolidation (and indirectly, integration) of Alexandria's three public high schools into one in the fall of 1971, focusing on the school's successful football program, which won the state title. The city's public schools were desegregated in 1959, but the three high schools had become racially imbalanced during the 1960s.

T.C. Williams remains one of the most diverse schools in Virginia, with a large number of immigrant students in addition to the black and white communities depicted in the movies. The school's atrium features hundreds of flags from countries that have been represented in the student body.

T.C. Williams is also strong academically, providing numerous Advanced Placement courses for its students. Every year, dozens of T.C. graduates go on to elite colleges, and T.C. Williams has won numerous statewide academic and scientific competitions.

In addition to being academically successful, T.C. Williams is one of the first high schools in the nation to offer laptops to all of its students. The laptop initiative, which began in the 2004-2005 school year, provided every student with their own personal computer as well as campus-wide wireless internet access.

T.C. Williams' Junior ROTC program is also quite successful, as is the T.C. Marching Band, traveling to competitions up and down the East Coast.

1 History
2 Demographics
3 Academics
4 Athletics
5 Notable alumni
6 External links

[edit] History

T.C. Williams opened in 1965 as Alexandria's third public high school, and became the city's only public senior high school in 1971, serving 11th and 12th graders, with the freshman and sophomores attending the two others, Hammond and George Washington. Currently, "T.C." serves 10th through 12th grades, with two middle schools, Francis C. Hammond Middle School, and George Washington Middle School, serving the city's 6th through 8th grade students, while 9th graders go to the Minnie Howard 9th Grade Center.

Increasing enrollment has strained the school's resources over time. In January 2004, the Alexandria school board approved a plan to build an entirely new school building on the current location of T.C. Williams in order to provide more space. The new T.C. Williams High School is expected to open in 2007.

[edit] Demographics

T.C. Williams High School's student body is 26% White; 43% Black; 25% Hispanic; and 6% Asian.

[edit] Academics

Alexandria recently became one of the first school districts to pay for its students to take Advanced Placement Exams, at a cost of more than $70,000 per year. T.C. Williams offers more than a dozen different A.P. courses, and is one of only a few schools in Virginia to offer a course in organic chemistry. Moreover, it has been ranked by the 2006 Washington Post/Newsweek "Challenge Index" as one of the more challenging schools in the nation, with an index of 1.494.

[edit] Accreditation

T.C. Williams High School is a fully accredited high school based on the Standards of Learning tests in Virginia.

[edit] Test scores

The average SAT score in 2006 for T.C. Williams High School was a 1,530 (509 in Math; 512 in Critical Reading; 509 in Writing). The Critical Reading and Math combined score was a 1,021, which is a 58 point increase from T.C.'s 2005 average. ACPS has credited this to a free online SAT course which high school students can take in order to better on the SAT's. It is also notable that the increase also occurred in a year where SAT scores on average dropped throughout the United States.

School Year	Mathematics	Critical Reading	Writing	Total
1999-2000	476	477	n/a	953
2000-2001	485	478	n/a	963
2001-2002	491	485	n/a	976
2002-2003	495	493	n/a	988
2003-2004	474	483	n/a	957
2004-2005	481	482	n/a	963
2005-2006	509	512	509	1,530 (1,021 M & CR)

[edit] Laptop initiative

The Laptop Initiative Program was introduced during the 2003-2004 school year. The program has been designed to allow all students to gain a basic knowledge of computers.

The students are able to do homework in programs like Microsoft Word and submit it to their teacher electronically. Many teachers are now having students create PowerPoint slideshows for things such as book reports.

The students are only allowed to connect to the internet through the wireless connection at school. Students are also able to connect to the school network through a dial-up connection for two hours each evening. The school's library is also open each evening to extend the wireless access for students. The wireless network provides many restrictions, including to download sites, entertainment sites, and other sites that could be used to distract students from their work during class. Access is allowed to the websites that are given with text books to provide additional activities or study guides.

Most teachers do allow students to take notes on their laptop and students have been provided many applications to help students in almost every course. English teachers use the laptops to give students extra learning strategies on authors or stories; History teachers use the laptops to show students Web sites with extra information; Government teachers use the laptops to allow students access to local government sites and information or participate in mock elections.

[edit] Athletics

T.C. plays in the AAA Patriot District of the AAA Northern Region. The mascot is a Titan. The Titans are well known for their boys and girls basketball programs, as well as for their rowing team. The movie Remember the Titans showed T.C. as a football powerhouse which won a AAA title in 1971 (T.C. won two more AAA football titles in 1984 and 1987) T.C. has also won state titles in basketball, indoor and outdoor track. The boys' varsity lacrosse team recently won their first ever Patriot District title with an 8-7 win over Hayfield.

Because T.C. is the only public high school in Alexandria City, and the only non-Fairfax County high school in the Patriot District, the Titans do not have a sole rival school. However, the Titans have developed rivalries against Hayfield Secondary School in recent years due to the success of both schools' basketball teams, as well as West Potomac High School, which is also located rather close to Alexandria.

T.C. is also known for its nationally and internationally competitive rowing program, which has its own boathouse on the Alexandria bank of the Potomac River. T.C. Crew has claimed many championships, state, national, and international, throughout its years. Most recently the Womens' Varsity 8 won the CSSRA Championships in St. Catherine's Canada. The program has produced several Olympic athletes.