The Benjamin Banneker Public Charter School — Cambridge’s only school focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics — won recognition recently from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on standardized-test results that shows the narrowing of a proficiency gap among students, the meeting of all academic performance targets and significant student improvement between grade levels.
The school has been designated by the department as a Level 1 school, the highest rating a school can get, for overall academic improvement.
“We are thrilled,” said Sherley Bretous-Carre, executive director of the North Cambridge K-6 charter school. “The performance of our third- and sixth-graders — important benchmarks in the development of our students — was strongest. The MCAS tests are very challenging and we are proud of how well our students did on these exams.”
State education officials lauded the school for its student growth, a measurement of how much information a student learns from one school year to the next.
More than half of all Banneker elementary school students scored proficient or advanced on the math section of the MCAS tests, including 75 percent of sixth-grade students, higher than all other Boston or Cambridge schools. More than 79 percent of Banneker students passed the science exam.
Perhaps most impressive was the school’s performance on the English-language arts section of the exam, officials said, on which Banneker students, despite the school’s focus, kept pace with Cambridge public school students and outperformed students in Boston by a wide margin.
Now in its 17th year, the school serves students interested in science and technology from Cambridge, Boston, and many surrounding towns. For information, visit banneker.org or call (617) 497-7771.
This is a contributed article written by a public relations professional.
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