Philanthrocapitalism_ How Giving Can Save the World - Matthew Bishop [32]
MANY PROMINENT SPORTS figures have foundations that support young people through educational and scholarship programs. The most innovative ones I’ve seen in terms of skills development are the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy and the Tiger Woods Learning Center.
Agassi Prep is a public charter school located in the Las Vegas neighborhood with the city’s highest percentage of at-risk kids. A charter school, while part of the public system, is free to experiment with innovative teaching and learning methods that may or may not be consistent with school district guidelines. There are a few thousand of these schools in the United States, started by teachers, parents, entrepreneurs, retired military officers, and others. School districts are supposed to judge charter schools on results, extending the charter if children show improved educational performance, revoking it if they don’t. By that measure, the school funded by Andre Agassi’s foundation should be around for a long time.
Ninety-eight percent of Agassi Prep’s students are minority, most from low-income families. Many students came to the school testing one or two years behind their grade level. In Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, more than half the schools failed to make “adequate yearly progress” according to Department of Education benchmarks. Agassi Prep has cleared the “adequate progress” bar every year since its inception. In 2005, its middle school was the only school in the county to receive the top-level “exemplary” designation. In recent testing, students in some grades exhibited more than a year’s academic advancement in several subjects in less than four months.
How do they do it? Class size is capped at nineteen students for kindergarten, twenty-one for first grade, and twenty-five for other grades. The school day is two hours longer and the school year is ten days longer than in regular public schools. Students spend one-third more “time on task” than in a traditional public school. Even after the longer school day, 85 percent of the students voluntarily stay another one or two hours for tutoring, elective courses, or extracurricular activities. Teachers, parents, and students sign a compact of commitment to their respective roles, and students recite a “Code of Respect” that reflects the school’s special rules. Teachers and administrators are on yearly contracts with no tenure, but get bonuses for meeting or exceeding performance standards. Within the campus, there are several modern computer labs, two computer and touch screen SMART Boards in every classroom, and laptops that high school students can use anywhere on campus. Parents are encouraged to visit and to make use of the school’s computers after classes are over. The school is developing an internship program with local businesses and a college credit program that will provide high school students a chance to secure credits equal to one year of college by the time they graduate.
These “best practices” are producing extremely positive results. A few are contingent on the generous support Agassi provides, but most could be adopted in any charter school with the backing of parents, teachers, and an effective, committed principal. The Frederick Douglass Academy is a public school within a mile of my office in Harlem. Its student body is 97 percent African American and Hispanic, has a 93 percent graduation rate, scores above the citywide average on the state Regents Exam, and has an 87 percent