Raleigh Charter ranked among nation's best high schools

Raleigh, N.C. — Two national magazines have recognized Raleigh Charter High School as one of the nation’s best high schools.

Raleigh Charter ranked 20th in U.S. News and World Report’s list, and Newsweek ranked the school 34th in the country.

“There’s not a discussion of ‘Oh, we want to have good test scores’ or ‘We want to have good rankings.’ I think it’s a by-product of a focus on learning,” said teacher Lisa Huddleston.

Raleigh Charter, a college-preparatory school, opened in 1999 and currently has 535 students. Students must apply and be chosen by lottery to attend the school, which has children from nine counties across the state.

In its first year, Raleigh Charter attained the state’s highest End-of-Course test scores, and in 2001 became the first high school in the state to be named a School of Excellence, according to school leaders.

The school resides in historic Pilot Mill, a restored textile mill on the National Register of Historic Places, and has freedom to govern a little differently than traditional public schools.

“In many ways, we try to use the Charter Law as an education laboratory to try out new and innovative ideas,” said Principal Thomas Humble.

For example, school officials vary the schedule and build in days with six, 45-minute periods for in-depth learning or community work projects. Also, teachers don't have to be licensed as long as they have industry or academic experience.

Class sizes are small with about 19 students to every teacher. As a college-prep school, many students take Advanced Placement courses and test well, school leaders said.

“My favorite question is ‘What if? What if you did this? What would happen?’ If I can get a kid to buy-in to the what-if question, we’ve got them for life,” Huddleston said.

Raleigh Charter High School is one of 100 charter schools in the state. About 96 percent of its seniors go on to college, according to the school’s statistics.

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Lets try to figure this out. RCHS is a charter school a public school that blindly selects it's students out of a lottery. You can go to watch it! They do have a basic entry level of math. All students must be at least able to do algebra one. The funding that the charter school is about 2/3rds as much per student as the public schools. There is no cost to go to a charter school, but you must provide your own transportation, and there is no lunch served. I am proud of my charter high school student, and her friends. They work so hard and have accomplished so much more than when I was in high school. The work is hard but it prepares this kids to be leaders and competitive in the international market place. Volunteerism is encouraged, but with a group of kids like this it is a joy. These kids deserve the accolades that they receive and so do the teachers at RCHS, they make it all happen!

hawtree
November 5, 2009 11:55 a.m.

MakoII- Your idea sounds a lot like magnet schools, hate to say it but you really didn’t create that concept.

I’ll grant that your idea may has merit though. The question now becomes, what are you going to do to implement that idea and make the education system better? I’ll warn you, it may take some volunteer work, and you may need to get some help from other parents who share the same philosophy. Now, once you work to start providing for the Minds and not the Means, what’s so wrong with requiring other people who are also benefiting from your idea, to contribute to maintaining and perhaps improving upon what you started?

It easy to sit behind a keyboard and lament about what THEY should do, but once you have to start taking action, mandatory volunteer hours from the people who are using the system is not such a bad requirement.

bk3s
October 30, 2009 12:44 p.m.

I stated earlier that the RANKING of RCHS is a farce. It is a comment on sloppy journalism, especially on the part of WRAL.

I have not seen an accurate desciption of RCHS's admission policies, which are much more restrictive than merely being ready for Alegbra I, mentioned in local media stories about the school. Come on, roughly 75% of slots only open to students who have already taken Algebra I or higher in middle school. This is a glaring ommission on the part of the media, IMO.

lesky901
October 30, 2009 12:36 p.m.

Reading these comments, one of the biggest themes I see is a lack of understanding in what a charter school is. To help clear this up, I would like to recommended an essay on charter schools that was written by one of the teachers at RCHS. This essay may be found at: http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/essays/charterschools.html

frank7
October 30, 2009 10:54 a.m.

Some of these comments make me laugh out loud...

"The ranking is a farce." - Lesky901 "Spoiled Kids School" - Professor

You don't have a clue... Raleigh Charter is head and shoulders above every public school I have ever been in. When we attended the open house, tours were given by the students - bright, engaging, and personable STUDENTS. The SAT scores are significantly higher than any public school, even though over 95% of the students take the test (versus Wake's 67%).

The reason it is a success is because the RCHS Staff, students and parents are committed to doing the best job they can - and by all accounts, doing a good job of it.

As for "spoiled", one of my daughter's friends took a year off between HS and college to do public service in Africa - my daughter and many of her classmates tutor at local elementary schools.

If WCPSS really cared about education, they would be dissecting RCHS to find out why - but it's easier to whine and protect the status quo.