Introduction
District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) operates across 117 schools with nearly 5000 teachers (1). I am one of eight educators selected for the 2026 Yale National Initiative (YNI)— hailing from the newest comprehensive high school in the district—John R. Thompson Jr. High School (formerly MacArthur High School). As the inaugural art teacher and student activities lead, I have the privilege of shaping critical, creative, and cultural foundations for every single student that walks through the doors since they opened in the fall of 2023. As an inaugural anything, I get to take part in a culture of firsts. At some point, every student must complete 0.5 credits of art to graduate from a DCPS high school—with the expectation that they’ve previously encountered the DCPS Arts Framework for learning throughout varied cycles of their preK-12th grade development. The DCPS Arts Framework for learning consists of thematic arcs that engage students across developmental stages to explore identity, interaction, language, determination, creation and transformation (2). Whether or not the student is enrolled in introductory or advanced art classes such as Imaging-A, Digital Art and Design I, Digital Art and Design II, or AP 2D Art and Design—all courses that I am slated to teach for the 2026-2027 school year—the content in my proposed curriculum unit is positioned to converse with the framework’s thematic arcs designed to build capacity for meaning making. Although it is my intention to primarily introduce this curriculum unit to the upper division/returning art students on my Digital Art and Design II and AP 2D Art and Design rosters—the thematic arc interaction also creates opportunities for students in the introductory courses: Imaging-A and Digital Art and Design I to be included.
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