Meeting Street Schools Producing Results

While the educational establishment wishes to downplay the successes of Meeting Street Schools with poor and at-risk students, as Benjamin Navarro's Letter to the Editor shows, results don't lie.

"We recently began our tenth year operating Meeting Street Academy (MSA), an independent downtown school serving 244 under-resourced kids in grades Pre-K through five who would otherwise be attending a failing school."

"By way of background, we use a standardized testing regime called Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), a rigorous test used across Charleston County School District (CCSD) and by approximately 15,000 elementary schools around the country. We consider two primary measures: how did our students score on MAP at the end of the school year, and how much did our students grow academically over the course of the year?" 

"Well in fact, in the spring of 2017, MSA students scored on par with Sullivan’s Island Elementary and Mount Pleasant Academy — two of the most affluent and highest-performing schools in the district — achieving a median MAP score of 83rd percentile for reading and math combined! And in terms of growth for the academic year, MSA students grew at a median rate of 1.35 years, outpacing these wealthy district schools by a measurable amount."

"Our only requirement is that someone from the family — be it a parent, grandparent or other caregiver — partners with us in supporting what’s required for their child to learn."

"Meeting Street Elementary @ Brentwood (MSE@B) is a public Title One school where, as with all public neighborhood schools, all students who live in the enrollment zone can attend. MSE@B has just begun its fourth year in operation, with an enrollment of 590 students in grades Pre-K-3 through fourth grade."

"These students achieved a median MAP score in the 68th percentile, far surpassing the 36th percentile median score of other North Charleston Title One schools and the national median of 50th percentile. And MSE@B’s students grew at a median rate of 1.25 years, while other North Charleston Title One students actually lost ground — advancing only 0.92 years’ worth for the full year of instruction."

Where's the Op-Ed from Superintendent Postlewait or school board members explaining why all Title One schools can't perform this well?

Waiting. . .