Success in Gaston, NC

Bob Herbert writes this weekend of the success of a KIPP charter school in rural North Carolina, Gaston College Preparatory, that has seen its first graduating class. In a community with few students going onto college and teaching a population of poor children, this charter has achieved remarkable success. There were no secret reforms or magic philosophies. Just a combination of hard work, high standards, and dedicated teachers to helping students achieve their full potential. But the payoff is huge.

I remember being struck by how quiet the school was. It was a disciplined environment, and the schoolwork was approached with the utmost seriousness. I wrote: “The school lasts from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., which allows time for additional classroom work and extracurricular activities. After that, there are two hours of homework. The kids also attend classes every other Saturday. And there are three weeks of summer school.”

The school flourished. The youngsters worked so hard and did so well, so quickly, that the founders of the school felt they needed to create an academically rigorous high school if the hopes raised by the middle school were to be fully realized.

....Nothing about it was easy. High-quality teachers from around the country and abroad had to be persuaded to set up shop in Gaston. An athletic program had to be established. Most important, the kids had to maintain their commitment to a high level of academic achievement.

How has it worked out? Shanequa is in the first graduating class of the new high school. Of the 48 seniors, 48 will be going on to college.

The pride in Ms. Sutton’s voice was as palpable as the joy in Shanequa’s. “All of our graduating seniors have been accepted into at least two colleges,” she said. “One hundred percent of them will be attending college in the fall.”

Most of the kids, including Shanequa, will be the first in their families ever to go to college.

What I thought was interesting was that neither Ms. Sutton nor Shanequa downplayed the difficulties of their respective efforts. The idea that there is any shortcut to real success — in school, in business, in government, in life, anywhere at all — is silly, a figment of the imaginations of those who have never stopped sitting on the sidelines.

Starting the high school was a “monstrous” undertaking, Ms. Sutton said.

And getting through it as a student was no cakewalk. “It has been very difficult,” Shanequa told me. “I had my ups and downs. There were some bad days, but I fought through them. My teachers were always pushing me: ‘Shanequa, you can do it. Don’t give up.’ ”

She then described the payoff: “When the acceptance letters started coming in the mail, I was like, ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ I wish I could do it all over again just to get the letters in the mail that said, ‘Shanequa, congratulations, you have been accepted at this university.’"

I know a bit about this charter school since the universe of charter schools in North Carolina is small. I know that they would like to build on their success and open up similar schools in other communities in the state where there is a deep need for such schools to devote themselves to teaching these students. Unfortunately, North Carolina has a cap of 100 charter schools and we're very close to that limit now. There is some talk of stretching that cap to perhaps a grand total of 106 schools. This is ludicrous. Why, with the budget shortfalls that we face in our state is there so much resistance to opening up opportunities for schools such as Gaston College Preparatory School that will achieve better results for less money? Such schools aren't for everyone. Probably there is a limit to the teachers who want to work such long hours and to the students willing to stick it out. But for the ones who are willing, the opportunity is golden. The fact that politicians and education officials don't embrace such programs is one of the great scandals of our age. They'd prefer to throw more and more money at failed models than to break the mold and allow such opportunities for our state's students.

Watch this news report of the first-ever College Signing Day for these Gaston College Prep seniors and just imagine how wonderful it would be if the state would bend and allow there to be more such schools inspiring students to achieve beyond what their backgrounds and family histories might suggest would be their fates.