NEW: Mayor Taveras Visits Achievement First School
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Mayor Taveras on Monday visited the Achievement First Amistad Academy in New Haven, Connecticut to meet with students, teachers and school administrators and personally view Achievement First’s nationally lauded public charter schools.
Since opening its doors to public school students in New Haven in 1999, Amistad Academy Middle School has been profiled in the PBS documentary “Closing the Achievement Gap” and was named Connecticut’s 2006 Title I Distinguished School after having the greatest performance gains of any middle school in the state.
Achievement First followed on that record of success in 2006, opening the Amistad Academy Elementary School and Amistad Academy High School. In its first year of operation, the elementary school raised the percentage of its kindergarteners reading at or above grade level from 4 percent to 99 percent.
“Today’s inspiring visit to Amistad Academy demonstrated for me the need to increase the number of high-performing, public charter schools in Providence as part of our work to raise the bar on education for every child in our city, and reaffirmed my deep commitment to bringing Achievement First’s successful model to Providence ,” said Mayor Taveras.
Bringing Achievement First schools to Providence provides one more step in building a portfolio of high quality school options for all students in Providence. Mayor Taveras has joined with Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi and Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, Achievement First and Rhode Island Mayoral Academies in submitting an application to the Rhode Island Department of Education for a Providence-based mayoral academy.
Under the application, two elementary schools would be operated by Achievement First serving students from Providence, Warwick, North Providence and Cranston. The first school would open in 2013 and the second in 2014. Acting Providence Schools Superintendent Dr. Susan Lusi and the Providence School Board have affirmed they are ready to work with Achievement First to raise the bar for Providence students.
The new schools would provide a proven, additional resource and opportunity for parents and students. In addition, the state’s new school funding formula limits the district-level fiscal impact of students enrolling at Achievement First Mayoral Academies. For example, if a student leaves the district during the 2012-2013 school year to attend a charter public school, private school, or because of a move out of district, state funding allocated for that student will continue to flow to the district on a phased-out basis for six years after the student departs.
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Comments:
Travis Yowley
8:38am on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
What a scumbag... his own schools are not even properly funded. Do a little research and you will find overcrowded schools, severe lack of technology etc... hey, but who wants to hear about that?
john paycheck
10:06am on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
providence residents will be fighting to get their kids in there....
Aaron Regunberg
11:29am on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
MYTH: Achievement First (AF) has created a network of consistently high-performing charter schools.
FACT: Achievement First’s elementary and middle schools in Connecticut failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the 2010-11 school year, and two AF schools were identified as “In Need of Improvement.”
MYTH: Achievement First schools outperform their surrounding school districts while educating similar numbers of high need students.
FACT: All Achievement First schools have a significant and consistent pattern of serving fewer English Language Learners (ELL) and students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), Students With Disabilities (SWD), and Economically Disadvantaged (ED) students than their surrounding districts.
MYTH: Achievement First has broad community support in Providence.
FACT: Achievement First is supported by a well-funded group of lobbyists working full time to bring its schools into Rhode Island. While there is demand demonstrated generally for charter school seats in RI, there is no grassroots effort in RI to bring this specific “no excuses” model of non-local CMO into the state.
Russ C
2:51pm on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Our neighborhood school in Washington Park was built in the 19th century. How about visting that school, Mayor Taveras?
Joseph Fazio
10:27pm on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Oh No! Mayor Jerry Lewis, have you checked the facts? You're trying to buy discount teaching?
Four charter schools in Connecticut failed to make adequate yearly progress in the last academic year. The schools are run by a company looking to operate a pair of schools in Providence.
Results posted on Connecticut's Department of Education website show that four of Achievement First's charter schools did not make adequate yearly progress, and two of them showed no progress for at least two consecutive years. Those schools are Amistad Academy, Bridgeport Achievement First, Achievement First Hartford Academy and Elm City College Prep
Providence Mayor Angel Taveras is working with Achievement First to bring two elementary schools to the capital city. The goal is for the schools to open in the fall of 2013, pulling students from Cranston, North Providence, Providence and Warwick.