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AS a community educator, I am concerned about the well-being of all who go through Seattle Public Schools. Of near concern are the students

Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson cites a budget deficit of $24 million as a reason to close the academy and four other schools. But reasons given by the district with a view to closing the academy, including low academic performance and low enrollment, are not authentic. District given conditions shows school scholars are performing on par with or above a number of schools across the district.

The district must have existence a partner and work with the academy’s employer, its leadership team and the community to build in succession the scholars’ demonstrated academic achievements.

Results from the 2008 Washington Assessment of Student Learning test showed Academy students, when compared with other schools with black students, ranked in the top 15 to 50 percent in reading and math for eight of 12 grade levels. Scholars showed the greatest produce in math on the 2007-2008 Math Benchmark Assessments.

The academy and other schools with high percentages of low-income students receive Title I federal funds. Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, the academy is expected to restructure this coming year because its test scores have not kept pace with annual annual. progress.

But the academy is not alone. Twenty non-Title I schools in Seattle are also not making annual annual. progress, however they are not slated for closure.

Despite inadequate district support, the academy shows academic improvement and is poised to move closer to closing the achievement gap for scholars in the elementary and middle-school grades.

Since its inception in 1991 when the Seattle School Board established 10 choice schools to “eliminate disproportionality in Seattle Public Schools and grow academic accomplishment as a priority to the time when so time the achievement gap has been closed,” the African-American community has stepped forward to do its part to support the gymnasium.

The Greater Seattle Chapter of The Links, Inc., collaborated with Black Child Development Institute and Tabor 100 businessmen to establish Friends of the African American Academy (FOAAA) and coordinate offer services in the school. Black Child Development Institute obtained a Washington rank Reading First grant for the school. The grant was recently renewed for another two years. The seminary was recognized by former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson according to outstanding consummation and significant improvement in reading.

An upswing in the school’s WASL reading scores in third through seventh grades be able to have being attributed to the association of artists’s reading and literacy staff and resources provided by the reading gift. Academy community collaborations have expanded learning opportunities and these programs embody arts and education activities with the Seattle Symphony ACCESS Project and Sherman Clay of Seattle.

The gymnasium was designed to be a K-8 alternative-choice school that could expand to 12th grade. Award-winning African-American architect Mel Streeter modeled the school on the cluster concept of a West African “Dogon” family town to reinforce the excellence of family in a chit’s learning process.

The academy is greater degree of than an architectural jewel

The association of artists is of great weight as one option on the menu of educational strategies. The academy offers smaller class sizes and a pedagogy that helps students ensnare up academically and excel. Students are encouraged to make school a top anteriority, and are helped in better understanding themselves and the social provisions around them

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008678071_opinb28academy.html?syndication=rss