NEW ORLEANS – Last Thursday, April 23, 2015, the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color (COSEBOC), the only national network of school leaders focused on educating boys and young men of color announced the national recipients of the prestigious 2015 COSEBOC School Awards.
Among the three Award winners this year was Einstein Charter School in New Orleans.
The school was honored during the COSEBOC School Awards Dinner on Thursday during a special ceremony at the 9th annual COSEBOC Gathering of Leaders conference at the University of Memphis. As part of their recognition, the school will be awarded $10,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
This year’s awardees were selected after a rigorous three-part evaluation of the academic success of boys of color over a three-year period. The criteria for selection includes an assessment of how the school aligns with the research based COSEBOC Standards. The 2015 awardees share many of the common characteristics of successful schools – strong school leadership, rigorous curriculum, a culturally responsive school climate, high expectations and a supportive community. Boys of color in all three award-winning schools consistently met or exceeded proficiency on standardized tests in math and language arts, often outperforming a majority of their peers statewide.
“This tremendous honor is the direct result of the scholastic achievement of the young men under our roof,” said Shawn Toranto, CEO of Einstein Charter Schools. “We could not be more delighted that their hard work and love of learning is being recognized and celebrated across this nation.”
Einstein Charter School serves approximately 900 boys and girls in pre-kindergarten to grade 8 in Michoud community of New Orleans East comprised of students from African-American, Latino and Asian (Vietnamese) communities.
After taking over the site of a failing inner-city school in 2013, Einstein Charter’s robust curriculum with social, behavioral, and cultural-awareness programs employed a rigorous, integrated curriculum focused on math and science. Teachers used diagnostic student tests to continuously devise targeted interventions to meet the social and emotional needs of each student including Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) as well as restorative practices for conflict resolution. Staff explicitly acknowledged both significant traumas and negative stereotypes that affected male students of color and provides assistance and support to overcome them.
Results include:
• Boys of color score at or slightly above the state average for all students on standardized language arts tests. Moreover, boys scored significantly better than the state average for all students on standardized math tests – 61% proficiency rate for Einstein boys of color compared to 40% for all students statewide.
• Based on these successes, Einstein Charter was recognized by the state as a “high performing, high poverty school” and a “Top Gains School.”
The 2015 Award recipients were honored at the COSEBOC Annual Gathering: I am a Young Man, Honoring My Past, Celebrating My Present and Anticipating My Future hosted by the University of Memphis in Memphis. TN. Over 500 educators and school leaders from across the nation were in attendance. The lead sponsor for the Gathering of Leaders is SchoolSeed with additional support from American Reading Company and the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation.