Ask Mastery Charter School in Philadelphia. Mastery has been turning around schools in Philly since 2005 – they’ve taken some of the worst city schools and changed the leadership and the culture, and – working with the same kids as before the turn-around—made huge gains in proficiency on the state student assessment. The largest gain so far has been a 544% increase in the number of students meeting proficiency in 7th grade math since 2006 at their Shoemaker Campus. Here is a quick look at how all of their schools are doing. Their motto says it all- “Excellence. No Excuses.”
Imagine if the 16,000 kids in Delaware’s lowest performing schools had access to this kind of program. The benefits for our state would be colossal!