Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Another charter success story

Megan Rolland reports today in The Oklahoman that "three-year contract extensions were approved for two Oklahoma City charter schools [Dove Science Academy and Santa Fe South] that school board members remarked have shown impressive test scores despite serving an impoverished demographic."

That's good news (I've blogged about Santa Fe South here), but it's also encouraging to know that those aren't the only charter schools in Oklahoma City that are succeeding. As it happens, this morning I visited Harding Charter Preparatory High School, a 440-student public school of choice at 3333 N. Shartel. At Harding Charter Prep, some 20 percent of the students are the first in their family to graduate from high school, and a full 65 percent will represent the first generation to attend college. Yet thanks to dedicated teachers and a rigorous college-prep curriculum, 80 percent of the students from the Class of 2009 are now attending a four-year college, 16 percent are attending a two-year college, and two percent are in the military. Though the school is only seven years old, it has already placed graduates at schools like Carnegie Mellon, Westminster College, and the University of Michigan, and is ranked number 195 on the Newsweek list of the 1,500 top public high schools in the country -- outpacing schools like Jenks and Edmond North.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I graduated from Harding Charter last year and am currently a freshman at George Washington University in Washington, DC.

I know first-hand how awesome the school is at preparing students for college. I was honestly expecting college to be much harder, but it really isn't all that bad thanks to HCP. I am all for charter schools!