CHAPEL HILL -- The Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP says a new charter school proposing to help black students will actually hurt them.
Chapter President Robert Campbell sent a letter to the State Board of Education's charter school department this month opposing the school because it would divert public money from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district. The state will begin reviewing new charter school applications today.
An application for the Howard and Lillian Lee Charter School was filed Nov. 10 by a team led by Angela Lee, daughter of Howard Lee, the former mayor of Chapel Hill and first black mayor of a predominantly white Southern town.
According to the application, the school would "provide high-quality K-8 education that places each student on the path to college readiness and closes achievement gaps." It would open in August 2012, serving 480 students as an elementary school and expand each year to eventually serve 700 students through eighth grade.
National Heritage Academies, a charter school management company based in Michigan, would own and manage the school. The company's 71 charter schools throughout the country focus on college readiness by setting high standards and expectations, particularly for minority students, according to its website.
The NAACP's letter says the company's other charter schools in North Carolina have not met state testing benchmarks. Four of the company's five schools in North Carolina did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress for this academic year, Campbell wrote.
Joe DiBenedetto, spokesman for National Heritage Academies, said that's true but said the state tests don't fairly measure progress.
"Candidly, it's not necessarily surprising that a group of schools that routinely attract below-grade level students would struggle to meet a blunt proficiency measure like AYP," he said. "NHA's performance on AYP should not obscure the fact that it is regularly increasing student proficiency."
"NHA also has a proven track record in North Carolina," DiBenedetto said. "Over the last three years our minority students in North Carolina have grown 22 percent more than the national student growth average. This has increased the number of minority students at grade-level, going from 38 percent of students in the fall of 2008-09 to 53 percent of students in the spring of 2010-11."
Test emphasis seen
Campbell's letter also criticized National Heritage Academies' approach as too test-centric.
"While we commend the NHA for attempting different approaches to learning in order to 'stimulate' learning, their test score-driven pedagogy is suspect," he wrote. "Students and teachers are beholden to the next upcoming test cycle. The class schedule and seasons are dedicated to students developing habits that center around test-taking. This does not make them engaged 21st-century learners who will retain knowledge of coursework after completing exams."
Testing is important, because many students come to NHA's schools performing below grade level, DiBenedetto said.
"We analyze where students are doing well and where they need help, so we can adjust instruction to meet their needs. This is especially valuable because we serve students who come to us well below grade level," he said. "On average, our students exceed the expected growth curve by about a third."
