What’s in a name: A tale of two Roxbury charter schools

Both charter schools have Roxbury in their names but that is about all they have in common.

The Roxbury Preparatory Charter School started its first sixth grade class in 1999, and by all accounts has exceeded its grand expectations.

On the 8th grade math portion of the MCAS, Roxbury Prep had the highest percentage of students scoring advanced or proficient (73 percent) of any predominantly black school in the state, any charter school in the state, and any public school in Boston with the exception of Boston Latin School.

On the 7th grade English test, Roxbury Prep had the second highest percentage of students scoring advanced or proficient (89%) of any predominantly black school in the state and 3rd highest percentage of any non-exam public school in Boston.

Roxbury Prep is well on its way to closing the racial gaps in standardized testing results.

Roxbury Charter High School, on the other hand, is not performing nearly as well and has a major fight on its hand to keep its doors open. Last week, the state Board of Education voted unanimously to shut down the financially troubled school. But Carlos Brossard, the Charter School leader, has defied state orders and opened school doors this week.

In a rambling defense of his decision, Brossard attacked the state Board of Education, calling their charges of financial mismanagement “disgraceful.”

“What we are saying is that (the state) did not have the competent charter school researchers or program evaluators who factually, fairly, and neutrally found the facts as a whole,” Brossard told reporters. “We are not afraid of that confrontation of the facts.”

Neither is the state Board of Education.

But left in the balance are a handful of students now being marked as truant on their official school records because the school they are attending is not officially sanctioned by the state.

That doesn’t appear to bother Brossard who appears to be more concerned with clearing the school’s name – as loudly as possible.

“I know that there is a difference between collecting data fairly and factually and having somebody willy-nilly come without competence to collect data,” Brossard told reporters.

If this sounds like a legal case, it is.