City Journal notes that a cohort from one Harlem charter school is ready - and well-prepared - for the trials and tribulations of middle-school:
Seventy-three kids who entered Sisulu-Walker as kindergarteners in 1999 left as newly minted fifth-grade graduates last week. The school has now educated part of New York’s first small generation of elementary charter-school kids. And the kids have done well...A full 90 percent of those fifth-graders could read at or above grade level this year. By contrast, only 69 percent of the fifth-graders who attended the regular public schools citywide did as well. In math, 77 percent of Sisulu-Walker’s kids scored well, compared with 54 percent of regular public-school kids.
Sisulu is a public school, but not one run by the city. Each New York charter school receives about 70 percent of the public funding that a traditional public school gets. Each school must rent its own space; Sisulu’s kids learn in makeshift classrooms owned by a neighborhood church. Sisulu-Walker chose its inaugural kindergarteners through a citywide lottery, from several hundred five-year-olds whose families had applied. Nearly 90 percent of the kids are poor.
What has Sisulu done that works so well for these kids? According to the NYC Charter School guide, they use the Core Knowledge program. Note here that third- to fifth-graders cover pre-algebra, optics, elements of music, art of the Renaissance, Shakespeare, and Greek and Roman mythology. Not too shabby.
Since we've had a few math-related posts of late, here's what's covered in CK's third-grade math:
Fractions
Recognize fractions to one-tenth
Identify numerator and denominator
Write mixed numbers
Recognize equivalent fractions (for example, 1/2 = 3/6)
Compare fractions with like denominators using the signs <, >, and =Geometry
Identify lines as horizontal, vertical, perpendicular, parallel
Polygons: recognize vertex; identify sides as line segments; identify pentagon, hexagon, and octagon
Identify angles: right angle; four right angles in a square or rectangle
Compute area in square inches and square centimeters
I won't be snarky here and overlap this curriculum with what's required to pass the Praxis I exam. That would just be too mean.
Posted by kswygert at June 28, 2005 08:13 PM