Charter School of Wilmington
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| Motto | Expect the best! |
|---|---|
| Established | 1996 |
| Type | Public (charter) secondary |
| President | Ronald R. Russo |
| Students | 936 |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Location | Wilmington, Delaware, USA |
| District | Red Clay Consolidated School District[1] |
| Campus | Urban |
| Colors | Blue and White |
| Mascot | Lightning the Charter Charger, The Force |
| Yearbook | Expectations |
| Newspaper | The Blue Streak |
| Athletics | 20 sports; 46 teams |
| Website | www.charterschool.org |
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The Charter School of Wilmington is a high school in Wilmington, Delaware, with approximately 1000 students. It was one of the first public/private (self governed, state funded) charter schools in the United States, opening in 1996. It occupies the third floor and a wing of the second floor of the former Wilmington High building. Under the leadership of Ronald R. Russo, the school's novel approaches have led to a successful student body.[Neutrality disputed — See talk page] Over the past 10 years, Charter has risen to one of the premiere secondary schools in Delaware, excelling both academically and athletically.[Neutrality disputed — See talk page] Charter continually comes first in many state academic competitions including Math League and Science Olympiad, as well as sending many students to both All State Band and Orchestra.[citation needed] Charter students continually score high on the Delaware Standardized Test Program every year, leading the State statistics with the most students scoring a 5 (the highest grade on the test) in several subjects including Math and Science.[citation needed]
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[edit] History
Charter schools in Delaware were authorized by Delaware Code, Title 14, Chapter five, enacted in 1995 under the leadership of Governor Thomas R. Carper. The school is operated by a consortium of six companies: AstraZeneca, Verizon, Delmarva Power, DuPont, Hercules Incorporated, and Christiana Care Health System.
The school is located in Wilmington, Delaware. The Charter School of Wilmington was chartered by the Red Clay Consolidated School District, and was directly descended from the 'Academy of Mathematics and Science', an earlier (now defunct) math and science magnet school run by the Red Clay School District. The school is a college preparatory academy that focuses on mathematics and science, including statistics, calculus, chemistry, biology, physics, geology, and computer sciences. Charter also has a strong humanities curriculum as well as offering Advanced Placement courses. Also occupying building that formerly housed Wilmington High School are the Cab Calloway School of the Arts and the James H. Groves Adult High School.
The Charter School of Wilmington is a member of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology.
The school celebrated its tenth anniversary of operation in the 2005-2006 school year.
The Charter School of Wilmington placed 127th in 2006 and 75th in 2007 in Newsweek's Top High Schools. Furthermore, The Charter School of Wilmington placed 41st in 2008 U.S.News' America's Best High Schools, earning the Gold Medal.[2]
[edit] Novel approach to education
[edit] Rotating schedule
Charter has taken a very novel approach to class schedules. Rather than the commonly used block system or a simple rotating schedule, Charter students take part in a rotating schedule with classes of different lengths. The first two periods of the day are both over an hour long, with periods three through five 45 minutes long, and periods six and seven about half an hour long. This system was devised after research showed students' attention spans decreased throughout the course of the day, making it more appropriate to have longer classes in the mornings.
[edit] Shared classes with Cab Calloway
Periods C and E/F at Charter are fixed, including shared periods with the Cab Calloway School of the Arts, a unique opportunity for students located in a math and science school. Students may elect to take Cab classes on museum studies, visual arts, drama, and the musical arts, UD classes or any other Charter classes during these periods. The other five periods of the day (A, B, D, G, H) rotate each day of the week with the period of E/F referring to the class/lunch period. Students either have 5A lunch in which case E is lunch and F is class, or 5B lunch in which E is class and F is lunch. Lunch lasts a half hour and 5th period class is 45 minutes. For example, on a Monday, students follow the schedule ABCDE/FGH. On a Tuesday, students follow the schedule of HACBE/FDG with a Wednesday schedule of GHCAE/FBD. This continues throughout the week and restarts the following Monday so all rotating periods of long and short classes balance out throughout the week.
[edit] Research projects
Students participate in four research projects over the course of their four year education at Charter. During the sophomore year, all students complete a Science Fair project as a necessary requirement of their Biology class. During the junior year, students complete a Research project for their English classes. Phase 5 History classes also complete historical research projects, which may be able to be entered into the History Day competition. These research projects are used to enforce, not introduce the MLA style and teach research for Liberal Arts fields. During the senior year, students are required to participate in a senior research project, involving either performing or investigating an empirical experiment, through creating an invention or shadowing a scientist. The project teaches the APA style and ends with a final presentation in front of faculty members.
[edit] Criticisms from Delawareans
On occasion, Charter's legality has been questioned. Delaware's charter school law defines fairly specific restrictions charter schools may use, including the requirement of a blind lottery after certain criteria have been met. Charter's admissions process operates in part upon an assessment test administered to all prospective students, which critics claim is an exclusionary policy. School representatives claim that a clause in the law allows the school to give preferential treatment to students who show "a specific interest in the school's teaching methods, philosophy, or educational focus", expressed through performance in school, teacher recommendations, and the admissions assessment. Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner and other state politicians have condemned the school's apparent extraction of high-performing students from local schools across the state, citing that this has inflated Charter's statistics while hurting that of other schools.
Charter has also come under scrutiny for its expulsion practices. Charter officially publishes a 0% expulsion rate, which many students claim to be false. They suggest that Charter, rather than officially "expel" an unwanted student, "asks the student to leave" without an actual choice. Purportedly, this is done in order to prevent expulsions from appearing on the school's records.
It has, however, been reported that Steven Lord, a New England University graduate, was expelled promptly at the end of his freshman year at Charter.
[edit] Classes
[edit] Mathematics
Mathematics courses offered include the Integrated Math Series, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, Analytic Geometry and Calculus C, and Ordinary Differential Equations. AP Statistics and Discrete Math may be taken in lieu of the calculus classes, with four math courses needed to graduate. Precalculus, Probability and Statistics, and Calculus Concepts are often substituted for those that consider college level math courses to be too rigorous.
[edit] Science
Freshmen usually enroll in the Introduction to Science courses, three semester-long courses in Physics, Chemistry, and Geosystems. Sophomores usually enroll in full-year biology, while juniors usually enroll in full-year chemistry and seniors usually enroll in full-year physics. There are a variety of AP courses in each of the respective sciences available that hold the normal courses as prerequisites. The Charter School of Wilmington offers AP Biology, AP Chemistry, an AP Physics C class that covers topics on both the Mechanics and Electricity/Magnetism curricula, and an AP Environmental Science course. Electives include Digital Electronics Design Lab, Introduction to Robotics, Advanced Robotics, Astronomy, Oceanography, Anatomy, Forensics, Introduction to Engineering, Biogenetics, Modern Physics, and Human Life Cycles. Students also are given the opportunity to earn credit by serving as Lab Assistants. See Challenge Tests for more information on science requirements.
[edit] English
Required English courses include Freshman English, British Literature, American Literature, and World Literature. AP English Literature may be taken in lieu of World Literature. Electives include AP English Language, Myths and Legends, Journalism I-IV, Creative Writing, Philosophy, Advertising and Marketing, Shakespeare, and College Preparatory Writing.
[edit] Social sciences
Required social studies courses are Integrated Social Sciences, World History, and United States History. AP United States History is offered in lieu of the standard US History class. Electives include standard and AP Economics classes, a military history class, courses on pre-Civil War and modern American history, a stock market lab, a standard psychology class, and AP United States Government and Politics.
[edit] Foreign languages
A minimum of two years of foreign language is mandated, although four years are recommended. Many students elect to continue language studies up until the AP level, in Latin, French, and Spanish.
[edit] Computer science
A computer science course is required for graduation. Freshmen enroll in either the Technology Utilization class that teaches basic usage of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Programming in Java. The Computer Science department at the school features Java and AP Computer Science classes and electives including data analysis, computer graphics, engineering drawing, and network programming. Charter also offers a course through the UD, which a student can take if they receive a three or above on the AP computer science exam.
[edit] Advanced Placement
The school offers many advanced placement classes which allow students to earn college credit while still attending high school. Advanced placement courses include Calculus (AB & BC), Statistics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics C, Environmental Science, Computer Science A/AB, English Literature, English Language, Latin Virgil, Spanish Language, French Language, U. S. History, U. S. Government, World History, and Economics. Many students choose to independently study other AP exams or elect to take AP courses through the Cab Calloway School of the Arts.[1]
[edit] General graduation requirements
Delaware state standards mandate semester-long health education and semester-long sophomore and junior gym classes. The Technology Utilization class satisfies the Delaware state standard for computer literacy. Three years of history and four years of math, science and English exceed the state requirements for these subjects. A senior research project completes the graduation requirements.
[edit] Special tests
A challenge test administered to incoming freshmen allows prospective students to bypass mathematics classes up to Integrated Math III, the Introductory Science courses, or the introductory foreign language courses. These tests are not used to determine the phasing of students in each subject (Math, Science, English, History, and Foreign Language), which are determined by the admissions test. Phases range from 3-6, with non-academic classes (i.e. Driver Education and Gym) at phase 4, phase 5 being considered as honors, and AP and UD classes designated as phase 6.
[edit] University of Delaware classes
The Charter School of Wilmington offers several University of Delaware courses taught with University curricula and professors through the University's Continuing Education program. The UD Analytic Geometry and Calculus C and Ordinary Differential Equations classes have been successful due to the high number of students who finish AP Calculus BC before their senior year. The school introduced a UD Survey of Organic Chemistry class during the 2004-2005 school year, and a Data Structures class for the 2005-2006 school year.
[edit] Students
The student body is made up of 936 students as of 2005, including 68% of students coming from area public school districts, and 32% of the students coming from Catholic and other private schools. A dress code barring jeans was enacted in the first year of operation and has since been expanded. The current dress code requires students to wear a school shirt (available in a variety of solid colors) and "Khaki" or "Docker" style pants, shorts, slacks or skirts. Students are permitted to wear sandals, athletic or dress shoes year round. However, the last Friday of each month is a dress-down day. 98% of students attend college upon graduation, with approximately half of each graduating class going to the University of Delaware. Alumni have also attended such schools as Brown University, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, Harvard, Johns Hopkins University, MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Rice University, Stanford, the University of Virginia, Washington University in St. Louis, and Yale. Individual students have won many state and national awards in mathematics, general science, biology, physics, journalism, French, Spanish, Latin and forensics competitions. In addition, students have also gained recognition in Odyssey of the Mind, and sports.[2]
There is a generally acknowledged rivalry with Cab Calloway School of the Arts, located in the same building. This rivalry is generally seen as light and good-natured, as the two schools co-mingle quite well. Many of the Charter students call the students from Cab Calloway "Cabbies". There are inter-school friendships and relationships, with Charter students appearing in Cab Calloway theater productions, while Cab Calloway students play on Charter sports teams, as there are no sports teams at Cab Calloway.
[edit] Faculty
The student to teacher ratio is 18:1, with an average class size of 24 students. Members of Charter's faculty were Delaware's English Teacher of the Year in 1997, Conservation Teacher of the Year in 1999, recipients of the Science/Math Excellence in Teaching Award from the Science Alliance in 1999, and Delaware's History Day Teacher of the Year in 2002. One member of the faculty even helps to write supplemental math activities that relate to some of the episodes of the hit television show Numb3rs.
[edit] Extra-curricular activities
[edit] Clubs
The clubs at Charter include:
- Academic Bowl - Five consecutive championships in Comcast Academic Challenge Delaware and five time state champion in the NAQT format. The Club ranked 2nd in the 2008 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament, 5th in the 2007 and 11th in the 2006 National Academic Championship.
- Chess Club
- Drama Club
- Dungeons and Dragons[3]
- Engineering Competition- Three time state champion and two time national champion for Division 4 Varsity
- Envirothon- Perennial state champion
- Math League- Perennial state champion since 1999, national champion of Math League Press in 2005, 2008
- Mock Trial- 3rd Place National Mock Trial 2008 - State Champions 2006, 2007, 2008
- Model United Nations Club
- Newspaper- The Blue Streak
- Physics Olympiad- Twenty-four semifinalists, nine finalists, and two traveling team members in the selection of the U.S. Physics Team over the past five years
- Science Olympiad- State Champion since school's inception
- Ski Club
- Support our Soldiers- Raises funds and goods to be given to soldiers.
- VEX Robotics - Top 10 nationally in 2006
- Yearbook- Expectations, A potential candidate for the National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker Award and Columbia Scholastic Press Association Crown Award.
- Young Republicans
- Young Democrats
[edit] Music
- A Cappella
- Concert Band at Cab Calloway School of the Arts
- Jazz Band at Cab
- Marching Band at Cab
- Kymera Indoor Colorguard right after marching band, through Cab
- Red Clay Secondary & Select Orchestra
- Red Clay String Quartet
[edit] Sports
[edit] Boys
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Cross Country
- Football
- Golf
- Lacrosse
- Soccer
- Swimming 2007, 2008 State Runner-up
- Tennis
- Track- Indoor & Outdoor
- Volleyball 2005 State Champions
- Wrestling
- Skateboarding
[edit] Girls
- Basketball
- Cheerleading- Fall and Winter-2006 state competition cheerleading champion
- Cross Country
- Field Hockey
- Lacrosse
- Soccer- 2005 State Champion
- Softball
- Swimming 2007 State Runner-up, 2008 State Champion
- Tennis
- Track- Indoor & Outdoor
- Volleyball
[edit] Club sports
- Fencing
- Martial Arts
- Roller Hockey
- Ski
- Table Tennis
- Ultimate Frisbee
[edit] Newspaper
The school newspaper, The Blue Streak, was originally a small newsletter, written by students and printed on 8.5x11 inch paper. In 2002, Journalism was offered as a class and the paper received more funding. Now standard newspaper size, The Blue Streak has dozens of reporters and editors, and is published approximately eight times annually. The paper won 20 awards in the 2008 [http://www.delawarepressassociation.org/student/winners.htm The First State High School Press Contest including 2 first place awards.
[edit] Standardized exam achievement
All freshmen, sophomores and juniors at Charter take the Delaware Student Testing Program exams. Test scores at The Charter School of Wilmington are consistently the highest in the state with 100%, 99%, and 100% of Charter students in 11th grade scoring at or above expectations in reading, writing, and mathematics, respectively. [4]
- Top-scoring Delaware high school in Math Assessments (1998-2004)
- Top-scoring Delaware high school in Reading Assessments (1998-2004)
- Top-scoring Delaware high school in Writing Assessments (1999-2004)
- Top-scoring Delaware high school in Science Assessments (2000-2004)
- Top-scoring Delaware high school in Social Studies Assessments (2000-2004)
[edit] References
- ^ Charter School of Wilmington. Charter School of Wilmington: Quick Fact Sheet. Retrieved on 2005-12-30.
- ^ "America's Best High Schools", U.S.News, 2007-11-29. Retrieved on 2007-12-02.
