Both my sons went/are going to RCHS. (School site)
US News just came out with high school rankings. RCHS is 24th nationally. And it is a charter school, like many of the schools in the ranking.
AND....admission is by lottery. AND the school is in downtown Raleigh.
Why is the minority enrollment so low? (It's not THAT low, it's 10%)
Remember, admission is by lottery, the school is in an urban area where the minority population is 25% or more, and the school has enormous value-added (class size 12, teachers with PhDs, etc).
Overall, NC does reasonably well.
Some people have called RCHS a "segregation academy." That doesn't make sense to me. Why don't more minorities apply? The lottery, after all, ensures that the proportion that apply will be the proportion accepted.
3 comments:
Right on Mike. Charter schools are the best solution to the education problem in this country.
Just wondering thought, are the teachers there members of the NEA or AFT? The NEA has been fighting against charter school since they were thought into creation. Why, one may ask? Because they are a Union first and the Professional Organization second.
If you see this, could you write something about the new Greensboro City Council on this blog or the Palest Ink. I would be very interested on your thoughts on the changes made in the last election, and the how this much of difference local politics can make on the community. Thanks for the great blog, and keep it coming.
"Why don't more minorities apply?"
This is an interesting question. Do you have any thoughts? My instinct is that minority kids are less prepared, on average, when arriving in 9th grade. If the charter school is hard, as I suspect it is, they might fear failing (and rightfully so).
If there is also a lottery for the good elementary school, what does its mix look like? If it's more in line with the racial mix in the population at large, that would be some evidence for my explanation. All you would need, then, would be for white parents to be more likely to send their kids to a expensive/good/private elementary school if they lose the first lottery. So, then you'd end up with disproportionately more prepared white 8th graders.
Looking into it a bit more, Magellan Charter seems like the most likely "feeder", and its ethnic mix is very similar to RCHS. So maybe its not differential prep, unless it is differential prep in preschool-grade 3.
Until recently, Magellan started in 4th grade, and the "information for potential students" flier on their website makes clear that they only want you if you were basically blowing it out of the water at your old school.
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