At the end of their second year at Henderson Collegiate, the school’s rising 6th graders have shown remarkable academic growth from where they started in 2010. After entering the free public charter school significantly behind their peers in reading and math proficiency, these students are now outperforming other students across the state. This cohort of 100 students is more commonly referred to as the “Pride of 2019,” named for the year they are all expected to enroll in college after graduating from high school.
The Pride of 2019, Henderson Collegiate’s first group of students, entered the school well below grade level. As measured by their 3rd grade NC EOG results from the 2009-2010 school year (before entering Henderson Collegiate), only 46% of them were proficient in Reading. The corresponding state proficiency for Reading was 66%. Of the 100 total students in the Pride, 31 had scored a Level I on the Reading EOG. In Mathematics, 75% of the Pride was proficient while the state proficiency was 82%.
Aware of how far behind their students were academically, educators at Henderson Collegiate used extended school days to help their kids make up for lost time. For their first two years, Henderson Collegiate students started school at 7:40 am and ended at 5:00 pm. The students also attended two mandatory Saturday schools per year. As a result, the Pride attended school for 264 more hours (or about 37 extra school days) than a traditional public school each year.
To make this extra time even more effective, the school places special emphasis on building a strong culture. Part of the school’s mission is to enable every student to attend the college of his or her choice. To do this, the staff informs the students that they must work “relentlessly” and “meticulously” to complete collegiate work. The curriculum, much of which is created by Henderson Collegiate teachers, is rigorous enough to prepare students for the collegiate level.
The rest of the mission is to help students become better people who are equipped to change the world with their problem-solving skills. The Henderson Collegiate staff is intentional about every detail and holds students accountable for their actions. The result is a school culture that promotes teamwork and positive character development and does not tolerate meanness or dishonesty. “We believe the most important part of our job is helping kids become great people. We want the community and our kids to be proud of our great culture, where we treat each other like a family. After that, it’s all about academic excellence and being prepared for college,” says Co-Founder and School Leader Eric Sanchez.
– Caitlin Dietrich, Henderson Collegiate, Director of Development
Does this chart say that 3rd graders who entered the school at 46% reading efficiency at 3rd grade testing are now at 87% efficiency, at the fifth grade?
I guess my question is, “is this the same original class and their progress(blue line), compared to each new incoming class from State and Vance County, or is this the incoming scores for each new class at Vance Collegiate compared to each new class/year for State and Vance? Just trying to figure out chart.
Actually, it shows that the average level of “proficiency” of the students increased from 46% to 87% as the students moved from 3rd grade to 5th grade.
Sorry mingo, your 2nd comment was caught in our spam filter for some reason. I’ve just noticed that, and approved it, and let Mrs. Dietrich know of the additional comment as she made her above comment before seeing your comment #2, even though you actually posted #2 before she made her response! But perhaps she answered your clarification anyway in her response. Sorry for the confusion!
In response to the 2nd question: The blue line represents one group of students as they have advanced through the grade levels from 3rd through 5th. The Vance County and State lines represent the rest of the pool of students throughout the respective school systems from which our students have come to us. I hope this helps.
I am personally delighted over here to read these statistics. They’re positive and very welcomed like a breath of fresh air. The “relentless” and “meticulous” culture is certainly something I can advocate. Way to go students and staff!!!!
High standards of accountability reap high level results.
It’s called having Teachers who are allowed to Teach and not worried about an administrator(who in most cases don’t have enough sense to get out of the rain) breathing down their necks. Good Job Henderson Collegiate and I’m quite sure the parents need to be patted on the back as well!!!! It’s amazing that they were able to do this w/o all the $$$$$ makers over on Graham Ave. telling them what they could/couldn’t do!!!! It’s time for some people on the Vance County School Board to get to steppin’ and it’s way beyond time for some of the $$$$$ makers on Graham Ave. to follow suit!!!! Go enjoy your retirement somewhere and let some ‘new’ blood get into the Board Meetings with some new/fresh ideas. The same ole’ farts are seemingly stuck in the 1990’s…..Just in case you don’t know….things have changed DRASTICALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree with Deception–and God bless the dedicated teachers who ARE educating the students despite all the efforts of an inept board and administration to derail their task.
Interesting article in Today’s Daily Dispatch where a commissioner in Oxford named Calvin Harris called out the Human Resource clerk for not interviewing any African American candidates. Granted he doesn’t know this for a fact b/c of personnel confidentiality laws but if this didn’t show that he appears to be more worried about hiring blacks than hiring the most qualified applicants then you need to reread the article. Same commissioner made less than adequate remarks when the kid in Florida was killed by the Zimmerman man. Keep talking Mr. Harris, the more you talk…the more your true color is shining through. Talk about reverse racism…..looks like you have a prime example of it here.