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Chesapeake Science Point students excel in high school algebra
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All 29 students in the algebra program passed last school year’s Maryland High School Assessment.
“I was expecting the results,” Principal Fatih Kandil said.
“It really has been the dedication of the staff in getting the students to master the content and not just to teach it.”
Only 70 percent of the county’s high school students passed the algebra test, compared with a 64 percent pass rate for the state, according to the state Department of Education.
A big part of the success comes from students’ willingness to come to Saturday tutoring sessions and math clubs, which students don’t even need to attend, Kandil said.
Teachers volunteer at these sessions.
“It’s not just for students who are struggling,” said Darryl Dye, whose daughter Cara, an eighth-grader, has attended the tutoring days.
“It’s almost just to add and strengthen what she already knows and to expand it.”
Donna Waters’ son Zachary, an eighth-grader, is one of the students who excelled on the test and who took advantage of the tutoring.
“He’s gone a few times to the Saturday tutoring sessions, and he can go anytime he wants,” Waters said. “I think it’s very helpful for the kids there.”
In addition to tutoring is the math Olympiad club on Saturday.
Becky Gardner’s son Casey, a student at the school, attends the club.
“I’m very happy with the performance of the school,” Gardner said.
“If it weren’t for the teachers, that’s why they’re doing so well.”
She said teachers don’t push the students beyond their ability but rather to their potential.
“Our students are really pushing us to teach them more and more,” said Ilker Gurbuz, chairman of the math department.
“The main point is that we challenge them and allow them to ask as many questions as they want.”
AT A GLANCE
Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School, established in August 2005, is a public charter school in Hanover that enrolls 220 students in sixth to ninth grade and focuses on science, mathematics and technology.
Source: Anne Arundel Public School System
jkowalkowski@baltimoreexaminer.com
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Concerned Parent... said:
I can't believe what these people are writing on this board. Here they are white washing school violence and completely glossing over the situation at this school. As a parent, I am very concerned about school violence and frankly am bewildered by parents that deride a teacher for trying to ensure a safe environment for their children. What kind of parents are these? Don't they care about their children becoming victims of violence? There are so many accounts of school violence that this shouldn't even be an issue.
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The truth.... said:
Many of the so called parents are really administrators and board members that are apparently terrified of the situation that their school is in. This is a serious matter no matter which school it involves. CSP, like many other schools, has its share of violences and suspensions. It is a small school which has fewer offenses than say a public school of several thousand students. However, if one looks at the number of offenses in relation to the number of students then there appears to be a high ratio of offenses going on. What really is the problem here is not that the school has some problems with behavior but that the administration basically failed to take action when a serious situation arose. This doesn't mean that the school is somehow bad or that the idea of a charter school is ineffective. Its just about administrators being held accountable for failure to ensure a safe environment by taking the correct actions.
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Outraged Citizen said:
Frankly I view education as a failure caused by many factors. Poor schools and lack of monetary support might be one factor. Another is the complete lack of responsibility in parents that simply what a socialized day care system to raise their children. These so called parents are always the first to blame the teachers, the schools, and unions. At the same time do they actually teach their children how to behave in a civilized society? Do they have their children do home work at night? What about be accountable for poor grades? Many instead blame everyone else instead.
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Examiner Reader said:
Wow there are some rapid people supporting this school. What is the deal with these people?
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Examiner Reader said:
Hmmm..a student beaten in the restroom....teachers threatened.......who could it be? Let's see. Is there any particular group which seems to use violence as a way of life, and seem to resort to unbridled emotion?? Which group in our society could these punks belong to? I have a theory.
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WANTED! responsible reporters... said:
September 2007... Glen Burnie High School 3 students beat another boy in the restroom so bad... Victim was hospitilized for a week... Was it in the paper? No... Did you ever see the discipline data on the paper for that particular school. No. Why everything is covered under rug for other schools, and looked through with an electron microscope when it comes to CSP. Can someone spell RESPONSIBLE AND FAIR MEDIA? The case is in th court now.
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LOVE IS THE KEY! said:
In one of the previous articles regarding CSP someone was questioning the supporters of the school other then the students and parents. Well, I believe that is a good point. The CSP staff serves our kids with love and care, and the ULTIMATE SOURCE OF LOVE, loves the ones serving HIS creatures with love. The evil ones whose hearts filled with hatred, have no choice but losing. I think both the school system and the teachers union and their servants can not beat the POWER OF SINCERE LOVE FOR CHILDREN, especially if the only ammo they have is, the love for green!
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Get it Right said:
Pick any surrounding middle school and compare statistics of number of violent threats and/or incidents. You will see that CSP is far below the average. CSP just gets the press. If you remember at Meade High School a student was violently beat up by a gang of students and the principal would not give the names of the perpetrators to the police. Pretend all you want that this school is unsafe. All I know is that my child's math scores (high school math) are higher than any other public middle school's. Name one school where teachers volunteer their time on Saturdays for math tutoring. Bet you can't. Prove to me statistically that this school is more unsafe than any other then I might believe you. The county would never do it. The county said themselves that there is no set time that a school must report an incident. Maybe the CSP administration was still investigating it. They did nothing wrong. At least they let the police know who was making the threat.
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Bill Jokes said:
Let me tell you all what a charter school does. It simply proves that teacher unions are useless by practicing. Further more based on the attacks on CSP, teacher unions are not just useless, but also harmful to US public education. Teacher unions negotiates two things mainly. Teacher work hours and salary. Did anyone heard of a teacher union negotiating student sucess? Did anyone heard of teachers union appreciating any teacher who are working 10 hours a day, caring less about the salary, but caring a lot about my child? NEVER!!! Because they feed on not the hard working teachers, but the losers! The losers and the unions cry that students are failing due to the excessive load and limited pay. In a comment below the parent talks about staff visiting her at home at 7:00 p.m. OMG! Students need real caring schools and teachers, not the parasites of our society.
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Josh AACPS said:
Hey Josh, Are you sure you are being paid by Examiner?
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A student said:
This school is not safe for lazybones only. Because they either fail or GET fired:))) If you are a hard worker, you get promoted no matter what. I LOVE CSP. CSP FOREVER...
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A Proud CSP Parent said:
It is just another avenue of attacking this successful school, via mobilizing some internal and external resources. My other son goes to another public high school, and few weeks ago a fight took place and police have arrrested 4 students. I have not seen it in any paper. I do believe that individuals trying to sabotage CSP, have their personal or organizational agendas, and our children are not part of that agenda at all. Majority of the teachers and administrators at CSP go extra miles everyday, beyond their contracted hours to help our children. Two weeks ago I was visited at home by few of them around 7:00P.M. I believe that talks for the dedication,commitment of these guys at CSP. Majority of the staff at CSP are heros.
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Spear Lancaster said:
Josh our budget is a bit short now but if you keep this up I will have to buy you a new hatchet. You know Josh. when you have to refer to "one employee" without even saying that they were teachers etc. and anonymous at that, you are scraping bottom. Also Bil Jones does not know what he is talking about. Trust me, the violence in most middle schools will far exceed Chesapeake's. I challenge you to porduce any "official " figures. . Spear
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Examiner Reader... said:
There needs be more in depth reporting about this school, its administrators, and why they managed to survive all the previous investigations without a blemish. Someone out there needs find out who really is supporting this school (and I don't mean the parents either). The board members seem to have a powerful supporter that has pulled strings repeatedly to keep this school open.
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The spin is coming out like thick molasses... said:
The parents,administrators, students, and board members are going crazy over these two incidents at CSP. Many posts are being made parents stating that there children are completely safe or that the school safe. Others have come out completely trashing the teacher from the first incident without regard to the facts or the situation. We need the truth instead of just lies being spun from this school.
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Examiner Reader BS said:
Well, If there were more daddies like 6:52 we would not see problems. Parents should dtep up and help students with homework. How can you be prepared for a day without the homework. No faith in your system.
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appalled parent of the public system said:
A student threatened another teacher with a baseball bat? Are you kidding me? Maybe students are beaten up less than in larger schools but it sounds to me like the violence is highly problematic. If the teachers are still happy and the parents are happy then why are the students feeling that verbalizing their violent fantasies is perfectly alright? Could it be the administration isn't firm enough in it's discipline (as noted in an earlier article)? Regardless, this school sounds like trouble to me. Perhaps this speaks to the poor educational system that finds a small school full of threats and teacher's union complaints preferable to a larger school with even more violence? Students and teachers cannot create an environment conducive to learning when violence and lack of administrative support exist. My son's private school sees none of these problems. In the long run, I know my son's education will be far superior to that of a child in a violent environment. How sad.
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Examiner Reader said:
this school just rocks!
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