Today’s MinnPost article, In search of the ’secret sauce’: Educators dissect how ‘beat the odds’ schools successfully raise test scores, reports on the July 1, 2010 Star Trib four column inches of coverage of the “eye popping” results of
"The beating-the-odds list shows the potential of the charter model to deliver better results. But we're not satisfied with these results. We know better is possible. 65% is good, but the best of the bests are reaching 80% plus."
some Minnesota schools, which named the top 10 high-poverty metro-area performers in math and reading. Seven of the schools on each list were charters and the remaining three on each were St. Paul public schools. Five schools made both lists. At seven of the schools, most students are learning English.
Meanwhile, three articles in yesterday’s Pioneer Press (here, here and here), one of which is headlined Seven high-poverty schools defying the odds, DOESN’T EVEN MENTION A CHARTER SCHOOL! How bizarre is that?
Another weekend piece was the Star Tribune’s editorial headline A lack of progress in too many schools in which they argued for faster action needed to get more state students to grade level. The success of charter schools was mentioned.
Here is the Star Tribune’s Beating the Odds chart and the schools that showed the The Biggest Gains over 2009.
One plug here for one of Charter School Partners most successful Beating the Odds schools that did not make the list. It appears as though the Star Tribune did not report the solid success of the Concordia Creative Learning Academy (CCLA), a k-8 St. Paul charter school serving 84% free and reduced lunch (FRL) population because their cut-off was 85% FRL. If CCLA was included they would have been in the top five for math (68%) and number one in reading proficiency (77%) serving students in poverty. Perhaps most impressive was school leader Mary Donaldson’s response to the test scores: “we improved but not near where we need to be”. Congrats to Mary and her magnificent team at CCLA for their ongoing commitment to achievement!