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and Dr. Georgianna R. Simpson (University of Chicago). Faculty member and former principal Anna J. Cooper would soon receive her doctorate degree from the University of Paris. In 1899 students at M Street High School scored higher than students at white Eastern and Western High Schools in city-wide tests, due in large part to a faculty whose quality was superior to that of Washington's white high school faculties. [[reference]] 22 [[/reference]] Indeed, in the early part of the century Dunbar's principal, Anna J. Cooper, had successfully battled to retain a classical college-preparatory curriculum in the face of pressure from factions that agreed with the vocational and agricultural training philosophy of Booker T. Washington. By the 1920s top students from Dunbar were being accepted into Ivy League schools without having to take special examinations.
  Like most black Washingtonians, Thomas was proud of the Dunbar tradition and through her sisters' experiences gained an insider's knowledge of the school. Yet it was the Armstrong Manual Training School which she attended, not the elite academic institution. An experiment in vocational education, Armstrong had grown out of the business and technical courses which had actually been instituted at the M Street High School at the time of the attempted changeover to the educational goals of Booker T. Washington. To a large extent, the founding of Armstrong had silenced the proponents of technical training at M Street and had permitted the latter to concentrate on an academic curriculum for the college-bound. [[reference]] 23 [[/reference]] In line