Education

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Cellist Yo Yo Ma looks over a new piece of music before playing it with students at Savoy Elementary School in Southeast Washington, D.C. during a special workshop on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. Following a private rehearsal, the students and Mr. Ma performed for the entire school along with Damian Woetzel, a former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Damian Woetzel, left, a former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, tries to get Jionni Anderson, a from Savoy Elementary School in Southeast Washington, D.C., to emote during a rehearsal of a poem/performance piece that he and cellist Yo Yo Ma created during a special workshop on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. Following a private rehearsal the students and the artists performed for the entire school. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Savoy Elementary School student Anisa Nedab yawns as she and other students learn ballet positions with Heather Watts, center, a former ballerina with the New York City Ballet, during a special workshop at the school in Southeast Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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World renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma waves hello after being introduced to students at Savoy Elementary School in Southeast Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. He and Damian Woetzel, left, a former principal dancer in the New York City Ballet, performed for the entire school with some of the students. The artists were brought to the school as part of the Innovative Schedule for the Arts, a new program started up at the school only a couple of months ago that integrates the arts into students' everyday schedules. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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While Savoy Elementary School students and cellist Yo Yo Ma look on, Heather Watts and her husband Damian Woetzel, who both used to dance with the New York City Ballet, perform a pas de deux at the Southeast Washington, D.C. school on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. The artists came to the school to lead a small private workshop with some students and then performed with those students for the entire school. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Damian Woetzel, center, a former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, leads a group of Savoy Elementary School students, both on stage and in the audience, in a dance during a performance at the Southeast Washington, D.C. school on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. Mr. Woetzel and world renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma came to the school to work with students in a small private workshop and then perform for the entire school. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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World renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma, right, looks on as Savoy Elementary School students (from left) Kevon Gordon, Jionni Anderson, Anton Gamble and Tanaysia Smith perform a poem called "We are Unique" that Mr. Ma would accompany at varying points during a performance at the school on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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World renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma talks to students at Savoy Elementary School in Southeast Washington, D.C. during a performance on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. Mr. Ma came to the school as part of the Innovative Schedule for the Arts, a new program started up at the school only a couple of months ago that integrates the arts into students' everyday schedules. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Bonita Cacho, right, who works with the arts intensive after-school program at Savoy Elementary School in Southeast Washington, D.C., works wtih two students dressed as Allegaries, or spiritual protectors of the village, to practice their stilt walking in the school's hallway on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Savoy Elementary School students, including Kechell Settles (center), perform Michael Jackson's "Thriller" on stage at their school following a performance with cellist Yo Yo Ma and ballet dancer Damian Woetzel on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. The students had a chance to work with the artists earlier in the day, but wanted to showcase this piece that they have been working on. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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An injured Syrian student lies at a hospital bed after he was wounded when a mortar hit the al-Batiha school in al-Wafideen camp, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 4, 2012. The mortar slammed into a ninth-grade classroom, killing 29 students and a teacher, according to state media, as the civil war closed in on President Bashar Assad's seat of power. (Associated Press/SANA)

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**FILE** Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks on Jan. 12, 2012, at Lincoln High School in Gahanna, Ohio. (Associated Press)

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Prince George's County firefighters work to extinguish a fire caused by a malfunctioning boiler at Gaywood Elementary School. Photo from Prince George's County Fire/EMS news blog.

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Hart Middle School student Timothy Joyner, 11, right, reacts as he struggles to play Phiona Mutesi, 15, a national chess champion from Uganda, left, as Mutesi visits with District elementary and middle school students in the after school group Chess Challenge in D.C. at Hart Middle School in Southeast, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, November 27, 2012. Chess Challenge in D.C. is a non-profit that teaches the game of chess as well as life skills to students in 24 schools in the District. Mutesi, who is now a international chess player who is also on a book tour, was discovered by Sports Outreach Institute, an evangelical organization that feeds, educates and teaches sports. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Young dancers playing the part of the mice get ready to take to the stage in the hallway for The Nutcracker at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax, Va., Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012. This is the final day of the show which is presented by the Fairfax Ballet 2012. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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Police investigate a homicide at Casper College on Friday morning, Nov. 30, 2012, in Casper, Wyo. At least one person was killed and another was wounded Friday in an attack at Casper College, a community college in central Wyoming. It happened around 9 a.m., said school spokesman Rich Fujita. (AP Photo/Casper Star-Tribune, Alan Rogers)