Examiner | D.C. charter schools succeed with poor kids

Go HERE to read the full article by Harry Jaffe.

Excerpt:

Two years ago Shantelle Wright started the Achievement Preparatory Academy public charter school in Congress Heights, certainly one of the roughest neighborhoods in the nation's capital.

When the charter board published its list of top tier schools last week, Achievement Prep was number one.

When I asked Wright why she left lawyering to run a school, she said: "It was time to quit complaining about schools and start doing something about it. Too many children are stifled because of their zip code."

Not if their zip code is 20032 and they are one of Shantelle Wright's 138 "scholars," in grades four through eight.

Achievement Prep is not the only charter school that's proving that zip codes do not consign a poor student to a poor education. There's Center City Public Charter in Trinidad, that has classes from Kindergarten to Eighth; Elsie Whitlow Stokes elementary in Ward 5; and two high schools -- KIPP DC and Thurgood Marshal, both in Ward 8. They are among 22 charter schools that the school board lists in its top tier.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2011/12/dc-charter-schools-succeed-poor-kids/1997756#ixzz1gR6T1KoS

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