Sidwell Friends School

History

19th century

Thomas Sidwell started a "Friends' Select School" in 1883 on I Street in downtown Washington, four blocks from the White House. It opened with just eleven students.

20th century

In 1911, Sidwell began buying property between Wisconsin Avenue and 37th St. Initially, the new property was used for athletic fields—and, with the central campus's downtown location—meant students had to shuttle between the two sites by streetcar. However, in 1923, Sidwell built a building for school dances and other social gatherings on what came to be known as the Wisconsin Avenue campus.

In 1925, the school added a kindergarten, making it the first K–12 school in Washington, D.C. In 1934, the name of the school was changed to "Sidwell and Friends School." In 1938 it acquired the former Washington, D.C. estate of Rear admiral Cary T. Grayson, Highlands, and began its gradual re-location to its Wisconsin Avenue building. By 1938, the transition to the new building had been completed, and the I Street property was sold.

In 1957, the school adopted a formal dress code policy, with requirements and recommendations for boys and girls in Kindergarten, Lower School, Middle School, and Upper School. The dress code continued to evolve to include further restrictions on hair length, skirt length, and types of shoes in the 1960s, but began to relax by 1969. Following student proposals and negotiations, the dress code was modified in the early 1970s and by 1975 permitted jeans to be worn by students. The dress code continued to evolve in the 1980s and by 2000 included restrictions on exposed midriffs and visible underwear. In 2016, students led a change to the dress code to ban clothing with the Washington Redskins (currently the Commanders) football team name and logo.

Previously, all grade levels were in Washington, D.C. In 1963, the elementary school moved to the former Longfellow School for Boys, purchased by Sidwell Friends.

Sidwell became racially integrated in 1964. In the decades following integration, problems faced by black students led to the creation of two parent groups outside the school, which sought to alleviate covert prejudice.

21st century

In 2009, Thomas B. Farquhar became the Head of School after the retirement of Bruce Stewart. Following the 2013-2014 school year, Farquhar was removed from his position as the Head of School.

In 2018, Sidwell, along with seven other Washington metropolitan area private schools, announced that they would be eliminating AP courses, citing the declining impact on one's college acceptance chances that AP courses were having, and a want to diversify their class offerings. This sparked the Department of Justice to launch an antitrust investigation into the schools, which concluded in 2021 after the DOJ stated that "in light of the burden on the Schools associated with the ongoing pandemic, the division will not bring an enforcement action against the Schools".

In April 2020, the school received $5.2 million in federally backed small business loans as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. The school received scrutiny over this loan, which was meant to protect small and private businesses. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tweeted that the schools should return the money, but the school stated they were keeping it, despite having a then $53 million endowment.

As of 2026, the school plans to move elementary grades back to Washington, D.C. by 2028 and consolidate the whole school on the Wisconsin Avenue campus. This was made possible by its purchase in December 2016 of the adjacent property of The Washington Home. That property had been operated as a nursing home under the earlier name of The Home for Incurables. The Washington Home building has been renovated and the Upper School will start there in Fall 2026.

Academics

In 2005, Sidwell's AP English Exam scores were the highest in the nation for all medium-sized schools (300–799 students in grades 10–12) offering the AP English exam.

All students must acquire at least 20 credits before graduating. Students are required to take four years of English, three years of mathematics, three years of history, two years of one foreign language, two years of science, and two years of art. In addition to this, all freshmen must take a full year Ninth Grade Studies course that involves a service project. Tenth and eleventh graders must also take courses corresponding to their grade level.

Sidwell is a member school of School Year Abroad.

Student safety

In 2016, the school revised its policy on sexual misconduct after reports that a teen had been raped by her ex-boyfriend on the school's campus. No charges were filed against the teen, and the school installed more security cameras to deter future assaults. Despite the measures, a year later another teenage female student reported being raped on the campus grounds by a fellow student.

Former Sidwell psychologist and sex ed teacher James Huntington was the target of a 2013 lawsuit for his affair with the parent of a student he was counseling. The case exposed teachers that had made advances towards students.

In 2017, the school fired a middle school music teacher, Michael Henderson, who had been accused of having inappropriate contact with a 14-year-old girl at a previous school. In 1996, the parents of Sara Lawson, a student at the Fountain Valley School, filed a police report that detailed multiple incidents of "unwanted touching and kissing" between her and Henderson while she was 14. She later stated that Henderson once invited her over to his house and made her a drink that caused her to be incapacitated for the rest of the night. In a letter Sidwell's Head of School Bryan Garman sent to parents, he stated that "A former administrator ... was aware that Michael’s departure from his previous employer had been precipitated by his inappropriate conduct, but had no knowledge of the severity of the allegations as they now stand."

Athletics

Sidwell's athletic teams are known as the Quakers; their colors are maroon and gray. The Quakers compete in the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAC) for boys' sports (after previously competing in the Interstate Athletic Conference (IAC) until 1999) and the Independent School League (ISL) for girls' sports. Sidwell offers teams in volleyball, golf, boys and girls cross country, football, field hockey, girls and boys soccer, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls swimming and diving, wrestling, boys and girls tennis, baseball, boys and girls lacrosse, boys and girls track, ultimate frisbee, crew, movement performance and choreography, and softball.

Basketball

The women's basketball is consistently a top program in the DMV area. The Quakers completed an undefeated season from 2021 to 2022 and were ranked the #1 best girls' basketball team in the nation by recruiting website MaxPreps as well as by ESPN. In the 2022–2023 season, the team won their second straight DCSAA state championship in a 68–49 win against St. Johns. Led by Coach Tamika Dudley and Duke commit Jadyn Donovan, the consensus #3 recruit in the class of 2023, the team was once again ranked as the top team in the nation by various recruiting websites and sports journalism pages after compiling a 28–3 record.

The men's team is another program in the DMV area, finishing the 2022–2023 season with a state championship, two conference championships (regular season and tournament) and 27–4 record.

Current profile

For the 2022–2023 school year, 1,142 students are enrolled.

57% of the student body are people of color.

21% of the student body receives some form of financial assistance.

The school employs 273 full-time teachers and staff.

84% of faculty hold advanced degrees.

Tuition for the 2022–2023 school year ranges from $47,200 for grades PK-2, to $51,650 for Upper School.

The school does not compute GPAs or assign rankings to its students, nor does it release score averages for the SAT and ACT. However, it does publish a list of institutions at which recently graduated students have matriculated.

As of 2023, Sidwell Friends School is rated the 14th Best Private K-12 School in the US by Niche.

Campuses

The Middle and Upper School campus is located at 3825 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20016-2907

15-acre (6.1 ha) Wisconsin Avenue campus in the North Cleveland Park section of Northwest Washington

Earl G. Harrison Jr. Upper School Building

Middle School building with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certification, designed by architect KieranTimberlake Associates and landscape design by Andropogon Associates. The wood-clad building was designed around a sustainable use of water and energy, exemplified by a constructed wetland in the center of the campus, with many species of plants, as well as turtles and fish, part of a wastewater recycling system designed by Biohabitats. On the interior, the building uses thermal chimneys and louvers that admit diffuse light to limit the need for artificial light and thermal control. Lastly, the building contains a centralized mechanical plant that uses less energy than normal, much of which is produced by photovoltaic banks on the roof. The materials used and the environmental technology are referenced architecturally and made accessible to students, either physically, or by explanatory signs, as an educational feature.

Kogod Center for the Arts

Richard Walter Goldman Memorial Library

Zartman House (administration building)

Sensner Building (Fox Den Cafe and school store)

Wannan and Kenworthy Gymnasiums

Three athletic fields, five tennis courts, and two tracks (one 2-lane indoor track indoor for bad weather and an outdoor 6-lane track for competitions).

Parking facility with faculty, student, guest and alumni parking (2 floors, 200+ parking spaces), as well as offices for security, IT and maintenance

Notable alumni

Activism

Tracye McQuirter (1984), vegan activist

Vanessa Wruble (1992), co-founder of 2017 Women's March

Arts

Oteil Burbridge (1982), bassist for Dead & Company and the Allman Brothers Band

Alyson Cambridge (born 1980), operatic soprano and classical music, jazz, and American popular song singer

Sonya Clark (1985), artist

Liza Donnelly (1973), cartoonist for The New Yorker

Jeffrey Mumford (1973), composer

Malinda Kathleen Reese, YouTube personality, actress and singer

Business

Tom Bernthal, American marketing CEO and former NBC News producer

Nick Friedman (2000), entrepreneur

Daniel Mudd (1976), former CEO of Fannie Mae

Omar Soliman (2000), author and entrepreneur

Crime

William Zantzinger, convicted killer and subject of the Bob Dylan song, "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"

Education

George A. Akerlof, Nobel Prize winner for Economics and current faculty member at Georgetown University

Alida Anderson (1987), American University special education researcher.

Hanna Holborn Gray (1947 or 1948), historian and Provost of Yale University and later the President of University of Chicago

Philip S. Khoury (1967), Ford International Professor of History and Vice Provost, MIT

Government and law

David W. Dennis (1929), Indiana congressman

John Deutch (1956), Central Intelligence Agency Director, MIT professor

Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. (1969), Federal Reserve Board Former vice-chairman

Michael Froomkin, academic lawyer

Doug Gansler (1981), State's Attorney for Montgomery County, Maryland (1999–2007), Attorney General of Maryland, (2007–2015)

William Henry Harrison III (1914 or 1915), Republican Representative from Wyoming and great-great-grandson of President William Henry Harrison

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (transferred to Georgetown Preparatory School), Secretary of Health and Human Services

Nancy Reagan, former First Lady (attended the elementary school 1925–1928)

Oleg Alexandrovich Troyanovsky, Soviet ambassador to the United Nations

Edward Tylor Miller (1912 or 1913), Maryland congressman

Katherine Tai, US Trade Representative

Elizabeth Wilkins (2001), director of the office of policy planning at the Federal Trade Commission

Health

Sarah Szanton (1984), dean, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

Journalism

Anne Applebaum (1982), journalist and author

John Dickerson (1987), journalist, political commentator, and writer.

Dan Froomkin (1981), journalist and Huffington Post columnist

Anand Giridharadas (1999), journalist and author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World

Charles Gibson (1961), ABC World News Tonight anchor, host of ABC's Good Morning America

James K Glassman (1965), editorialist, syndicated columnist, and author

Tony Horwitz (1976), journalist and author

Clara Jeffery (1985), editor of Mother Jones magazine

Literature and poetry

Elizabeth Alexander (1980), poet

Ann Brashares (1985), author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series of books

Margaret Edson (1979), Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Wit

John Katzenbach (1968), author

Campbell McGrath (1980), poet and winner of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius Award"

Brian Pohanka, Civil War author and historian

Susan Shreve (1957), professor, author and novelist

Lorin Stein, editor in chief of The Paris Review

Andrew Szanton (1981), author

Philip Terzian (1961–66) Author and journalist, Literary Editor of The Weekly Standard

John Dos Passos, (attended 1902–1903)

Gore Vidal

Film and television

Jon Bernthal (1995), actor

Ezra Edelman (1992), Emmy Award-winning documentary producer and director

Ana Gasteyer (1985), actress; cast member of Saturday Night Live

Davis Guggenheim (1982), film director, An Inconvenient Truth among others

Thomas Kail (1995), director

Nana Meriwether (2003), Miss USA 2012

Robert Newmyer (1974), film producer

Eliza Orlins, contestant on Survivor: Vanuatu, Survivor: Micronesia, and The Amazing Race 31

Scott Sanders (1986), director of Black Dynamite

Baratunde Thurston (1995), comedian

Alexandra Tydings (1989), actress

Robin Weigert (1987), actress

Children of U.S. presidents

Chelsea Clinton (1997), daughter of President Bill Clinton and future Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Tricia Nixon (1964) daughter of future President Richard Nixon

Julie Nixon (1966) daughter of future President Richard Nixon

Malia Obama (2016), daughter of President Barack Obama

Sasha Obama (2019), daughter of President Barack Obama

Archibald Roosevelt (1907), son of President Theodore Roosevelt

Royalty

Setsuko, Princess Chichibu, member of the Japanese imperial family (attended 1925–1928)

Science and technology

Stephen Chanock (1974) physician, geneticist

Walter Gilbert (1949), Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry

Charles Lindbergh (attended 1913–1915)

Bill Nye (1973), science communicator

John Terborgh (1954) Biologist, conservationist

Ward Watt (1958) evolutionary biologist

Sports

Saddiq Bey (2018), professional basketball player, Washington Wizards

Jadyn Donovan (2023), college basketball player

Paul Goldstein (1994), professional tennis player, 4-time NCAA Champion and All-American at Stanford, 2-time USTA 18 & Under national champion.

Josh Hart (2013), basketball player, New York Knicks first-round selection of 2017 NBA draft

Kara Lawson (1999, left in 1996), head coach of Duke Blue Devils women's basketball, former WNBA player and star at the University of Tennessee, 5th pick of the 2003 WNBA draft.

Acaden Lewis (2025), college basketball player

Jair Lynch (1989), gymnast, 1996 Olympic Silver Medalist in parallel bars

Roger Mason (1999, left in 1996) NBA player for the San Antonio Spurs and star at the University of Virginia, 31st pick of the 2002 NBA draft.

John Patrick (1987), basketball coach

Natalie Randolph (1999), former football coach Coolidge High School in Washington, D.C.

Kiki Rice (2022), college basketball player

Walter Rouse (2019), college football player

Ed Tapscott (1971), former American University basketball coach and Washington Wizards interim head coach

Sister schools

High School affiliated to Fudan University

The Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University

Ramallah Friends Schools

Moses Brown School