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Teaching at a Higher Level

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teaChing at a higher levelProduced by Eric Gunn & Written by Jim Barlow

Try telling students of the Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School (CSP) in Hanover, Maryland, that Americans fall short in math, science and technology and they may laugh in disbelief. Every line but one of the school’s recap of 2008 Maryland State Assessment tests boasts in red ink that “CSP is better by…” with success-bursting percentages in reading and math when compared with proficiencies at other state and county schools.

CSP doesn’t teach to state or federal grade-level assessments required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act and is not worried about them, says Turkish-born Fatih Kandil, principal and director of the 6th through 8th-grade school since 2006. “As a staff, we have the philosophy that we should not teach to the tests,” he said. “We teach toward the standards and make sure that our students master them.”

Visitors to the school’s Web site, however, will see time ticking, by days, hours and seconds, to the next state test. It is important to realize, for example, that sixth-graders are taught at a ninth-grade level, so exceeding actual grade-level assessments is a “piece of cake,” Kandil said. “We don’t worry about these standardized tests, because we teach at a higher grade level.”

Scores have exceeded state standards for three consecutive years. By the time CSP students go to high school, Kandil said, they have already met high-school math requirements, and some have taken pre-calculus and high-school-level biology. In all, CSP students can earn five high-school credits.

Hanover is in the technology-heavy Baltimore-Washington corridor in Anne Arundel County. CSP, which operates on a $2.3 million budget with 199 students and a staff of 20, was founded in 2005 in response to parents, many of them highly educated, who were concerned about the lack of a science-focused magnet school. Another big promoter for the school’s inception was the non-profit, education-focused Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation.

CSP admits 66 students a year, but some vacancies go to siblings of current students. There were 45 spots open for the 2009 through 2010 school year with 400-plus applicants. Admissions are based on a lottery; any county student can apply, and hundreds do each year. Each fall, CSP distributes 40,000 copies of its annual fall newsletter to parents of all schoolchildren in the county.

Once accepted, one-on-one assessments determine new students’ strengths and weaknesses. The process often finds dormant potential that can be awakened, encouraged, and realized.

“Many of the parents felt their children were bored, not challenged up to their capacity,” Kandil said. “After a point, many children had lost interest and were failing or getting into trouble because they were bored. Parents have said that these problems were solved once their kids got into Chesapeake Science Point. We have the capacity to challenge all of our students.”

CSP’s mission is to exceed the school district’s SAT averages and the state’s proficiency scores on mandated testing, as well as to achieve high college acceptance rates. Part of this plan is to provide “intense, individualized instruction in science, math and technology.”

CSP clearly knows how to engage its students in this intense environment. In 2008, a seventh-grader the school’s science

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fair and finished fourth nationally -- the highest finish ever for a Maryland student. The student was admitted to CSP as a sixth grader with no interest in science or math. The in-take assessment suggested untapped potential in science. Two years later, the child had studied environmental conditions of West Virginia streams, where he kayaked with his family. His project detailed the presence of high acidity levels and a plan to reduce them. So successful was this project that the student was honored with a visit to Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes’ office at the U.S. Capitol.

It could also be argued that CSP holds a science fair like none other in the state. The most recent fair had a price tag of $15,000 that was shared with the University of Maryland at College Park and CSP’s parent-teacher organization. Prizes included laptops and iPods -- “attractive awards to feed initiative,” Kandil said -- and 185 of their students, or 93 percent, competed.

The school, which is managed by an eight-member governing board, draws support from parents, nearby educational institutions, and a variety of high-tech companies. Despite that, “our resources

are limited,” Kandil said. In Maryland, charter schools operate privately with public money, as well as oversight, through the county school system. That interplay, along with concerns over CSP’s first-year budget deficit and its facilities -- converted office space in an industrial park -- led to three years’ probation, which ended in March 2009.

Dedicated Teachers

Many of the school’s 16 teachers arrive by 7 a.m. and stay until 4:30 p.m. or later, do so voluntarily beyond union-defined work hours for public schools of 7:45

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a.m. to 3:15 p.m. There are before- and after-school tutoring

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sessions and extracurricular activities led by teachers, including Saturday sessions from 9 a.m. to noon, attended voluntarily by teachers and more than half of the student body.

“Our teachers spend extra time with their students in relationships that are different than what they have during the day. The students interact with teachers in a less formal setting,” he said. “They know that teachers are sacrificing their personal time, and students respect them for that.”

“The most important factor in our educational approach is providing the most positive climate possible,” Kandil said. “It’s unseen, but it diffuses into everything you can accomplish in the school. The level of ownership is amongst everyone. People aren’t mandated to come here. Everyone chooses to come here. That generates a tremendous amount of positive energy.”

Currently, school officials are hoping that positive energy and academic successes will evolve into CSP’s expansion to include the high-school level. “This high school should be able to offer accelerated growth for the students,” Kandil said. “Our students would earn college credits. Some schools offer AP courses, but our goal is to exceed the number of credits that public schools can offer.”

Kandil envisions a CSP High School with “a 100-percent graduation rate and 100-percent college acceptance; our goal is to have at least 20 percent of those graduates be accepted by IVY League universities,

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www.mycsp.org

Established : 2005Staff : 20

Students: 199Leading the School : Faith Kandil

SCHOOL AT A GLANCE

and at least 40 percent of the total graduates to receive their acceptance with full scholarship.”

More urgent are proposed facility improvements in which CSP’s landlord is offering $1.2 million toward construction. Pending state

and local district approval, the work could be completed by fall.Performing above the average and seeking out the challenging, Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School doesn’t have small goals; but it is certainly positioned to be successful in what they seek to accomplish.

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Chesapeake Science Point PublicCharter School 1321 Mercedes Dr., Ste. Q-S

Hanover, MD 21706United States