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.
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