Baker Mitchell with Douglass Academy student at the school’s annual Kindergarten “I Can Read” ceremony

In an OpEd printed Monday, August, 22, 2016 in the Wilmington StarNews, RBA Founder Baker Mitchell advises New Hanover County Schools Superintendent Tim Markely against his forced busing proposal for low-income, high-minority schools.

Douglass Academy provides an important case study on the achievement possible for low-income and minority students in Wilmington’s inner-city.

“Why is this black, low-income, tuition-free public charter school scoring two or three times better than its adjacent, better-funded schools?”

Read Baker Mitchell’s OpEd in the StarNews: 

http://www.starnewsonline.com/opinion/20160821/cape-fear-voices-roger-bacon-founder-says-busing-not-answer-for-bad-schools

Further Reading:

The following 2016 report reveals that in North Carolina, 12 of 13 student demographic categories pass a higher percentage of End-of-Grade (EOG) tests at public charter schools than at traditional public schools. For example– and mirroring the trend at Douglass Academy discussed above–  low-income students pass 50% of their EOG tests in NC public charter schools versus 42 % in NC traditional public schools.

Report:
http://bakeramitchell.com/2016/08/11/dpi-calculations-reveal-nc-public-charters-better-serve-12-of-13-student-groups/

Douglass Academy info:
http://douglassacademy.net

On May 12, 2016, Douglass Academy students in grades K-4 performed a wonderful adaptation of The Wizard of Oz.

All students took part in the play, which— in addition to acting— featured student talents such as tap dancing and a Kindergartner’s solo of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Thank you to Mrs. Joy Manson and Mrs. Jean Lafave for directing  this year’s play. A video and photo gallery of the production are included below!

Video:

Photo Gallery:

Read the 2016 issue of the Composer below! The Composer is an annual magazine published by The Roger Bacon Academy, Inc. to document and celebrate student life and achievement in our family of schools.

Click here to read The Composer! 

State EOG Averages: Public Charter Students outperform Traditional Public Students

January 2016- According to official state data, how do public charter students compare to public traditional students on state End-of Grade tests? Each year, the NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) publishes the results of state End-of-Grade (EOG) testing. The results include both traditional public students and public charter students, as all public charter schools are required to take EOGs. Each year, NCDPI calculates a state average. The average reflects the percentage of EOG tests passed on the first administration. This year’s state average is 56.6%. This student performance average includes all public students in the state, both traditional and charter.

This average is interesting, as public charter schools are required to have student performance averages of at least 60% or face closure. Thus, students in most public charter schools are performing above the state student performance average—but by what margin? What is the performance average of students in public charter schools?

This important statistic is not calculated by NCDPI, thus we began our work to calculate it.

NCDPI raw testing data for the 2014-2015 school year—the same data by which the all-public state average is calculated— reveals that the state average EOG performance for public charter students is 66.7%. This is ten percentage points higher than the all-public state average of 56.6%. With public charter schools separated out, the state average for traditional public schools drops slightly to 56.1%.

Additionally, when thinking of all public charter schools as a district and ranking it with the 115 traditional districts in the state, the “charter district” average of 66.7% would rank the charter district 10^th of 116 districts.

This data reveals that public charter school students pass significantly more of their tests than do traditional school students. At the criteria for Grade Level Proficiency (EOG scores of 3, 4 or 5), public charter students pass 19% more of their tests than public traditional school students. At the criteria for Career/College Readiness (EOG scores of 4 or 5), public charter students pass 22% more of their tests than public traditional students. These student data explain why there is a higher percentage of A+, A, and B schools among public charters than public traditional. Note also that a recent DPI report revealed that NC public charter schools currently serve equal or greater percentages of minorities than do traditional public schools in four of six minority categories.

Thus, the charter law mandates that charter student performance averages exceed the current traditional student average while also receiving no capital funds for construction, facilities, maintenance, etc. and only 73% of the per-pupil funds provided to traditional public students. These data prove that NC’s public charter schools are exceeding this mandate— providing higher scores for lower cost.

Public charter schools are entirely tuition-free and any student may choose to attend. Public charter schools are unique in their freedom to select alternative curricula instead of the state-mandated curriculum, which in NC, is Common Core. A purpose of allowing public charter schools to adopt alternative curricula while remaining subject to the same accountability and testing requirements as traditional public schools is to improve public education as a whole by revealing successful curricula or methods that can be used inform state education policies. Further, public charter schools provide choices for parents who, without public charter schools or the ability to pay private school tuition, would likely face a single public school option that is determined by their address.

The NC Alliance for Public Charter Schools is an educational advocacy organization comprised of charter school administrators, directors, and former public school officials as well as other professionals dedicated to improving education in North Carolina. The mission of the Alliance is to be a strong voice that speaks transparently for the good of all public charter schools and their students.

2014-2015 NC EOG Performance Comparison for Traditional Public Schools and Public Charter Schools

Source:
Data used in these calculations is publicly available at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/reporting/ in the first summary report at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/accountability/reporting/acctsumm15.xlsx

Acknowledgement:
The Alliance gratefully acknowledges Sawyer Batten of The Roger Bacon Academy (RBA) for her suggestion to calculate the performance percentage of public charter school students as a component of the total state performance percentage and to Baker Mitchell, Founder of RBA, for extracting and displaying the results at http://bakeramitchell.com/2016/01/23/charter-students-outperform-traditional-students-by-a-wide-margin/ . Both individuals currently serve on the Board of Directors of the Alliance.

Our school is tuition-free, public, and open to all students regardless of income or ability. Our school is a public charter school providing classical education. We are a replicate campus of the current, highest-scoring schools in neighboring Brunswick and Columbus counties. During the enrollment period, enrollment forms will be available for submission online. You may also apply in person at our Main School Office: 507 North Sixth Street, Wilmington, NC 28401. 

Enroll online HERE!

School Features

• Tuition-free, open enrollment public school.
• Located in the newly renovated, historic Peabody building in the heart of downtown Wilmington.
• Replicate campus of Charter Day School in Leland, which is currently and consistently the top scoring school in Brunswick County on state EOG tests.
• Opened in 2013 as a K-2, the school will grow to serve grades K-5 in the year 2017.
• Requires no prerequisite screening/testing.
• Diverse student populations, including special needs students, 91% non-white students, and 85% low economically disadvantaged students.
• Uses research-based, proven Direct Instruction teaching method.
• Curated, rigorous Classical curriculum including Latin, Cursive, and Composition.
• Intensive new-hire training.
• Continuous in-service monitoring to evaluate and optimize instruction.
• Accelerated learning program reviews individual student performance data to promote qualifying students to advanced studies on a subject -by-subject basis.
• Prioritizes the use positive reinforcement in teaching and discipline.
• Student uniforms and professional teacher dress requirements.
• Provides bus services, as well as breakfast and lunch for students.
• Varied extracurricular activities.
• Operates on a traditional public school schedule for compatibility with district schools.
• Regular parent surveys conducted.
• Annual, third-party financial audits conducted.

On December 17, 2015, K-4 students performed in a Christmas variety show which included a comedic version of the play, “Hansel and Gretel, ” various choreographed songs, the reading of a student poem, and a performance by the school’s step team. Thank you to first-year Director, Joy Manson, for putting on a wonderful and well-done play! Mrs. Manson was assisted by Mrs. Jean Lafave.

Pictured left to right: RBA Dean of K-2 curriculum Jennifer London, Highlands Instructor and Assistant Director of Memoria Press Dr. Brett Vaden, RBA Dean of 3-8 English and History Doug Franks, and Director of the Classical Latin School Association Martin Cothran.

Leland—“The Roger Bacon Academy program is one of few that truly understands what education is—and one of even fewer who know how to do it well,” said Martin Cothran, Director of the Classical Latin School Association and author of five classical textbooks.

Cothran’s review comes after two days of observations at Charter Day School in Leland and Douglass Academy in Wilmington, two public charter schools using the classical education program of The Roger Bacon Academy, Inc. (RBA). Cothran’s visit is the most recent in a series of visits between curriculum specialists from RBA and staff from the prestigious Highlands Latin School, which last year saw 44 percent of its graduating class named National Merit Scholars—the odds of which are 1 in 300 million.

RBA is an educational management company that provides classical curriculum to four free and public charter schools in southeastern NC. These schools employ similar rigorous English, Latin, and History curricula to that used at Highlands Latin School.

How is it possible for a public school to implement a program with private-school rigor? To close achievement gaps that can be created by a public school’s higher volume of students and diverse student populations, RBA’s program for its client public charter schools has embedded within the curricula heavy usage of the field-proven Direct Instruction teaching method

A credit to these classical programs— in addition to Highlands’ astronomical percentage of National Merit Scholars and Ivy League alumni— the two mature schools managed by RBA are consistently each the highest scoring schools in their respective districts by margins of nearly 20 percentage points.

Of note, Highlands Latin School is a private school serving approximately 600 students in grades K-12. The aforementioned top-scoring RBA schools, Charter Day School and Columbus Charter School, are tuition-free, open enrollment public charter schools serving approximately 900 students each in grades K-8.

In October, RBA Curriculum Author and Latin Coordinator, Jessica Lopez, traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to observe a week of instruction and meet with staff at Highlands Latin School. The objective was to share best practices and learn ways to enhance RBA’s classical education program. Lopez reported on her return that, “We share the same high expectations for all of our students. We share the same rigorous curriculum in History, Latin and English. While, as a public school, we serve a larger and more diverse student population, we are able to provide a similarly rigorous curriculum by combining it with the Direct Instruction teaching method. Direct Instruction provides a highly structured classroom environment and sees that our students are engaged in learning 100% of the time.”

As Latin Coordinator for RBA’s client schools, Lopez described the benefits of Latin classes for all students. “Our Latin curriculum begins in fourth grade and provides students at our client schools with an increase in vocabulary, a better understanding of English grammar and the everlasting gift of logic to advance their high-order thinking skills,” she explained.

In early November, staff from Highlands Latin School traveled to Charter Day School to observe RBA’s classical program at work. In particular, they observed the classical curriculum’s implementation in tuition-free public charter schools—which means serving substantially larger and more diverse student bodies, all while charging no tuition and receiving only limited public funding.

As a result, most often, classical education is only practicable in a private school setting due to the rigor of the program. Also, traditional public schools must use a curriculum determined by the state, which in North Carolina is Common Core. Public charter schools, however, have the freedom to select their own curricula in exchange for receiving limited public funding.

RBA Founder, Baker Mitchell, states, “Highlands Latin School is the pinnacle of what seemingly-impossible achievements are unlocked by classical education. Before graduating high school, the students at their private school are fluent in both Latin and Greek, as well as trained in the disciplines of logic and philosophy. Highlands’ graduates frequently achieve our country’s highest academic designations and university privileges. At RBA, we have brought access to similar K-8 classical education to the public, for free, via public charter schools.”

The four public charter schools that use RBA’s classical education model are Charter Day School in Leland, Columbus Charter School in Whiteville, Douglass Academy in downtown Wilmington, and South Brunswick Charter School in Southport.

“Our partnership with Highlands allows us to work closely with the best in the industry as we work to continually add value for our students. Highlands’ partnership with us allows them to learn about scaling their product for public implementation. RBA continually works to make top education accessible to the public, and free,” Mitchell continued.

The four classical public charter schools managed by RBA will begin enrolling for the 2016-2017 school year on January 1, 2016. For more information, please visit www.rogerbacon.net.

On Wednesday, October 7, 2015, Former NC Representative Carolyn Justice visited Douglass Academy. Mrs. Justice served five terms in the State’s legislature and was recently presented with the State’s prestigious Order of the Longleaf Pine award. Mrs. Justice is a Wilmington native who currently is a businesswoman in neighboring Pender County. Mrs. Justice visited to learn about the unique public education offered at our school by observing the delivery of our Classical Curriculum through the Direct Instruction teaching method. 

By: Carolyn Justice

I had an enlightening and fun visit to Douglas Academy (Charter school) in Wilmington yesterday. These kids are happy, engaged and excited to learn. I was excited to see first graders diagramming sentences solving math problems, individually, and verbally.

So, how is Douglass Academy doing?

In its first year of End-of-Grade testing (which begins in third grade) and with possible passing scores of “3” through “5”, 100% of Douglass Academy students passed with scores of either 4 or 5. In the recent 2014-2015 school year, Douglass Academy had its entire Kindergarten reading by January, after only four months of instruction.

92% of their students are on free or reduced lunch. So please don’t tell me the reason public schools don’t do as well is because they have a greater proportion of poor children.

Douglas Academy began its third academic year in August. They serve grades K-2, and the school has quadrupled its first-year’s enrollment, now serving around 150 students in grades K-4. Adding a grade level each year, the school will become a K-5 by 2017.

Established in downtown Wilmington to combat the area’s chronically low test scores, Douglass Academy is a replication of Charter Day School in Leland, which is consistently Brunswick County’s highest scoring school on End-of-Grade tests.

Public charter schools are tuition-free and open enrollment. They accept fewer taxpayer dollars in exchange for freedom to offer alternative curriculum and methodologies to state-mandated programs in traditional public schools, while still remaining subject to the same End-of-Grade testing standards.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015-  Today, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) released End-of-Grade (EOG) testing results for the most recent 2014-2015 school year. EOGs are standardized tests taken in grades 3-8 by all public schools in the state to provide a system of uniform achievement measuring and comparison of all NC public schools, whether district public school or public charter.

The released data reveal that in southeast NC, public charter schools are producing the highest student outcomes on EOG tests. What’s more? These top-scoring schools do not use the state-mandated Common Core curriculum which the EOG tests are specifically designed to measure.

Brunswick

Charter Day School (CDS) is a K-8 public charter school with over 900 students in Brunswick County. Public charter schools are free and any NC student may opt to attend. They are not part of traditional school districts, as they accept less public funding in exchange for the freedom to offer innovative or alternative curricula to that mandated by the state. CDS uses a classical curriculum void of Common Core, and its elementary and middle schools are each consistently the highest performing in their county, a distinction that was maintained with Wednesday’s release of 2014-2015 test scores

CDS’ elementary school’s percentage of all students who passed both the Reading and Math EOG—a figure known as the “composite score”— is 74.3%. For comparison, the state average is 56.6%, and surrounding Brunswick County district’s score is 54.6%. CDS middle school’s composite score is 67.9%, with the next highest district middle school performing at 56.5% — a difference of 11.4 percentage points. The average composite score for all CDS students, grades 3-8, is 71.3% — a full 16.7 percentage points higher than the demographically-similar surrounding district.

CDS’ “school performance grade” is a “B”, which was also achieved by the district’s Union Elementary.

Columbus, Whiteville City, Bladen

Columbus Charter School (CCS) is a replicate, sister K-8 campus of CDS, above, established in Columbus County in 2007 to expand parent access to the successful educational model. It, too, consistently provides the highest performing elementary and middle schools in Columbus County, Whiteville City, and Bladen County school districts. Because CCS serves significant populations of students from each of these three districts, all were used in this comparison.

CCS’s elementary school composite score is 64.5%. Its middle school composite score is 63.6%. For comparison, the state average is 56.6% and surrounding district scores are 44.4% (Columbus), 54.7% (Whiteville City), and 39.5% (Bladen). The average composite score for all CCS students, grades 3-8, is 64.2% — a difference in district scores of 19.8 percentage points in Columbus, 9.5 percentage points in Whiteville City, and full 24.7 percentage points in Bladen.

CCS is the only school— elementary, middle or high— that achieved a school performance grade of “B” in any of these districts.

Douglass Academy

Douglass Academy is the second replicate campus of CDS, established in 2013 in downtown Wilmington. Replicate campuses begin as K-2 schools and add a grade level each year until achieving K-5 or K-8 maturity. EOG testing begins in third grade.

In 2014-2015, Douglass Academy’s first class of third graders took the EOG tests. 100% of their third grade students passed, all with scores in the highest-designated “College and Career Readiness” standard. Because the size of the sample was fewer than five students in this first testing year, DPI did not report these results. They are, however, further evidence of the consistent success of the educational model in place at the family of schools.

No Common Core

Let’s recap. The top two elementary and top two middle schools in a span of FOUR local districts:

1. Outperformed Common Core-using district schools on a Common Core test by margins up to 24.7 percentage points.
2. Are identical sister-campuses using the same classical curriculum and instructional methods.

So, what is this classical curriculum?

CDS and CCS are the eldest members of a family of four public charter schools spanning the southeast region, all identically operated by the non-profit Charter Day School, Inc. The non-profit founded its first school, CDS, in 1999, with the goal of finding the most effective method for educating children. They chose to open a charter school rather than a private school so that any NC student, regardless of socioeconomic status or ability, could attend the school for free.

CDS, Inc. partnered with the educational management company, The Roger Bacon Academy, Inc. (RBA) to select the most effective curriculum and most proven instructional methods. This yielded an educational model using a classical curriculum that is delivered with the Direct Instruction teaching method.

Classical education is the basis of university education. It’s traditional; it requires cursive and memorization. Schools in the family begin grammar in Kindergarten, and by second grade, students are diagramming sentences into their parts and clauses. Cursive begins in third grade and Latin in fourth. Literature and electives are integrated with History courses. RBA employs content-area specialists in all core subjects to assess or formulate curriculum, lesson plans, and support teachers in their respective subjects.

Students at the schools also receive instruction on their unique performance levels on a subject-by-subject basis. For example, a third grader who can read on a fourth grade level is promoted to a fourth grade reading block. Promotion or remediation is fluid and determined on a quarterly basis, a unique service made possible by RBA’s student data department.

“Our students’ performance-based placements are in stark contrast with Common Core practices, which aim to maintain and even encourage status quo student performance,” stated RBA President and former university department head, Baker Mitchell.

“I heard this week from a parent who has been discouraged by her district school from working with her children outside of class to prevent them from getting ‘too far ahead’. That is a terrifying request from the state’s public education system,” he continued. “Our client schools allow our students to excel as quickly and as fully as they can.”

CDS parent, Shirley Stefanakis, states that, “There is no curriculum that can even compare to what they’re doing, so we’re really thrilled for my middle school student. They focus a lot more on building up the basics in children and giving them a strong foundation, particularly in mathematics and subjects that have been lost, such as handwriting and composition. Math skills are superior here.”

This parent sentiment is mirrored in an August 2015 poll by national education organization EdNext, which saw only 28% of parents express that Common Core was having a “positive” effect on education. Only 32% of teachers responded that Common Core was affecting their students positively. 53% of parents expressed that Common Core was having a negative effect on their child’s education.

“As a profession, teachers are the most dedicated and hard working group that you can find –whether in traditional or charter schools. However, if they are forced to use curricula and methods that are unproven and often counter-productive, all their good efforts are in vain,” explained Mitchell.

Thus, Mitchell continued, “Charter schools give both parents and teachers public options. To the 68% of teachers who do not feel positively about Common Core, our schools provide an escape from the mandate to teach it, while still allowing them to work in a public school. We provide a curriculum and teacher support department so that a teacher used to teaching Common Core would be extensively trained and supported in our curriculum if they chose to switch.”

“The same free, public option applies to the majority of parents who feel that Common Core is negatively affecting their child. Any NC student can enroll in a public charter school,” he continued.

In addition to Charter Day School, Columbus Charter School, and Douglass Academy, this family of schools opened its fourth campus, South Brunswick Charter School, in 2014 in Southport. The open enrollment period for each of the schools for the 2016-2017 year will run the month of January, 2016. For more information, please visit www.rogerbacon.net

August 24, 2015

This week, Douglass Academy, a classical public charter school in downtown Wilmington, began its third academic year. Opened in August 2013 serving grades K-2, the school has quadrupled its first-year’s enrollment, now serving around 150 students in grades K-4. Adding a grade level each year, the school will become a K-5 by 2017.

Established in downtown Wilmington to combat the area’s chronically low test scores, Douglass Academy is a replication of Charter Day School in Leland, which is consistently Brunswick County’s highest scoring school on End-of-Grade tests. Charter Day School was previously replicated in Whiteville, NC in 2007. In the 8 years since that replication, the school—Columbus Charter—has grown from a K-2 to a K-8 and also become the highest scoring elementary and middle school in both the Columbus County and Whiteville City school districts. The success rate of Douglass Academy’s predecessors in achieving best-in-county performance is 100%.

The family of schools, which in 2014 added its fourth campus (South Brunswick Charter School, in Southport) is managed by The Roger Bacon Academy, Inc. (RBA), a provider of curriculum and administrative support to public charter schools.

Public charter schools are tuition-free and open enrollment. They accept fewer taxpayer dollars in exchange for freedom to offer alternative curriculum and methodologies to state-mandated programs in traditional public schools, while still remaining subject to the same End-of-Grade testing standards.

The classical curriculum offered at RBA schools includes courses in Latin, Cursive, Shakespeare, Drama and Debate. Students receive instruction at their unique performance level on a subject-by-subject basis. This means that a first grader who reads on a second grade level would take their reading block with second graders. If a student is struggling, the inverse occurs until the student is brought back up to grade level.  Jennifer London, RBA’s Dean of K-2 Curriculum, explained that the company has a designated data department which weekly monitors student performance on each lesson and component of its curriculum, so that “each student is always challenged at their unique performance level.”

RBA spokeswoman Sawyer Batten adds that the company “employs both subject-area experts experienced classroom educators to research, select—and even author— targeted and effective curriculum.”

So, how is Douglass Academy doing?

In its first year of End-of-Grade testing (which begins in third grade) and with possible passing scores of “3” through “5”, 100% of Douglass Academy students passed with scores of either 4 or 5. In the recent 2014-2015 school year, Douglass Academy had its entire Kindergarten reading by January, after only four months of instruction.

In April, Douglass Academy was selected to be the subject of a film launching a statewide education project called “Voices for Choices,” which promotes public charter, private, and home schools in NC. The film launched in July and is linked at the conclusion of this article.

Featured in the film is Natalie Bowser, grandmother and guardian of Douglass Academy third grader, Xavier. In a separate interview, she explains why she is “grateful” for the school:

“For Xavier, it is amazing. He has grown up without a father, without a mother—the people that normally shape the foundation of a child. I see him turning into a young man, though. He’s learning things here besides academics—tips, tools, and how to become a successful human being, which is something in the school’s daily pledge. They pledge to become upstanding citizens and talk about how to, and I’ve watched him become those things, just by going to school at Douglass Academy. I’m not worried about him going to college, or getting through any future school.  He has grown far and above many students his age, working with his siblings in middle school and high school on homework, and even correcting their behavior. Becoming a successful human is stressed at Douglass Academy on a daily basis.”

Douglass Academy is a free, public school that any NC student may choose to attend. It offers a bus service and meal program in addition to its proven academic approach. Though the 2015-2016 school year began on August 24, 2015, the school has a few availabilities remaining in grades K-2 that it hopes to fill in the second week of school to prevent new students’ loss of instructional time. Interested parents should call the school office at 910.763.1976.

Watch the film HERE!

Highlights from our First Day of 2015-2016!