An editorial on cleveland.com highlighted the important role that high-performing charter schools — such as Cleveland’s Menlo Park Academy — can play in making up the “lost learning” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The editorial’s author, Aaron Churchill of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, writes that, according to a recent study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, students who attend brick-and-mortar charters in Ohio make significant gains in math and English relative to virtually identical students attending district schools.
Churchill goes on to write, “The study study shows that Cleveland charters shine, producing notable academic gains for their students. To some, this will come as no surprise, as the city has long been home to many of Ohio’s finest charters…There’s even a Cleveland charter school, Menlo Park Academy, that is dedicated to serving gifted and talented students.”
The editorial also notes that low-income students and students of color are often lagging behind their peers in educational achievement and college readiness — areas that the pandemic will likely widen because of the pandemic. Menlo Park Academy’s approach to educating the whole child (academic learning, social emotional learning, and physical learning) is one way the school for gifted children have equal opportunities to succeed in life, regardless of background.
Read the editorial at cleveland.com.