Francis L. Cardozo Education Campus
Washington, DC
Preparing every student to graduate with an entrepreneurial mindset.
As the first all-Black business school, Cardozo is named after Francis Lewis Cardozo, an advocate for school integration and the first African American to hold a statewide office in the United States.
Now growing as an entrepreneurship-centered high school, Cardozo is preparing every student with a skillset of learning outcomes to secure their financial independence.
Cardozo is part of DC+XQ, a multi-year partnership to reimagine the high school experience in the nation’s capital. This community-led initiative has brought together students, educators, families, and school community members with bold ideas for what is possible for DC’s high school students. Each school’s redesign is unique because every community is different.
Learn More about the DC+XQ partnership.
Since Cardozo joined the first cohort of DC+XQ schools in the fall of 2022, the team has understood the importance of community partnerships. Through Learning Lab Fridays, a 90-minute morning block, students take hands-on courses taught by representatives from local businesses and nonprofit organizations. Options have included small business sustainability, theater and art activism, DJ-ing and music production, and banking and financial literacy.
Students choose between one of four career pathways, each of which is named after a trailblazing and inspiring leader of color:
- Teacher education and training (House of Sonia Sotomayor),
- Culinary arts (House of Jose Andres)
- Graphic and digital arts (House of Chadwick Boseman)
- IT and engineering. (House of Katherine Johnson)
All 9th-grade students take a career exploration course to understand each pathway, envision their future track, and decide which direction they’ll explore from 10th through 12th grade.
Across all pathways, Cardozo is integrating intellectually rigorous work, career preparation, and entrepreneurial skills so all graduates have the tools to take charge of their financial futures. The goal is for all students to graduate with an entrepreneurial mindset and bring prosperity and growth to themselves and their communities.
In their first year of implementing this new model, there was a 5 percentage point increase in Cardozo students saying they felt prepared for their futures.
“The norm is that students graduate from here feeling very confident about what their next step of their life is going be like, and that it includes creating an economic experience for their family, for the generations to follow.”
Arthur Mola
Principal
XQ Tools and Resources in Action
All high schools taking part in DC+XQ used XQ’s Design Journey to bring the community together around a vision for redesign. They also used XQ’s Educational Opportunity Audit (EOA) to analyze qualitative and quantitative data, including student transcripts. The EOA helps schools identify student opportunity gaps to facilitate change, ensuring all students are given equitable opportunities to succeed.
