A District of Columbia-based Episcopalian school, and Boston- and New Orleans-based charter schools are recipients of the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color’s annual awards.
The Bishop T. Walker School for Boys in the District of Columbia, Einstein Charter School in New Orleans, and Neighborhood House Charter School in Boston will receive $10,000 grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and be honored tonight during the coalition’s annual awards dinner in Memphis, Tenn.
“This year’s ... winners are evidence that when educators create learning environments which are culturally responsive, set high academic standards, engage students and affirm their capabilities, boys of color will respond, achieve and thrive,” Ron Walker, the coalition’s executive director, said in a statement.
Organizers from the Boston, Mass.-based school coalition, a national network of school leaders focused on educating boys and young men of color, say the winning schools demonstrate “consistent success” in educating students of color. The selection criteria included an assessment of how the school aligned with the organization’s research and practice standards.
Here’s a closer look at the winners:
- Bishop John T. Walker is a tuition-free, independent school serving black males from prekindergarten to 5th grade. More than 80 percent of the school’s male students met or exceeded proficiency on mathematics and English-language arts exams based on the Common Core standards compared to half of the schools in the District of Columbia public school system.
- Einstein Charter serves approximately 900 students from prekindergarten to 8th grade. The school is comprised of students from African-American, Latino, and Vietnamese communities. At the STEM-focused school, boys of color score at or slightly above the state average for all students on standardized language arts tests. Moreover, boys scored significantly better than the state average for all students on standardized math tests—a 61 percent proficiency rate for Einstein Charter’s boys of color compared to 40 percent for all students statewide. The state of Louisiana recognized Einstein Charter as a “high performing, high poverty school.”
- Neighborhood House Charter serves 400 mostly low-income students of color from prekindergarten to 8th grade. Boys of color at Neighborhood House have consistently outperformed all students statewide on state standardized tests in language arts, math, and science. Over the last three years, the proficiency rate for boys of color at NHCS has exceeded the rate for all students by an average of 14 percent in math, 12 percent in language arts, and 8 percent in science.