Tuesday’s newspaper headlined a story about a charter school with early student success as an example of “great expectations.”
That same moniker could well apply to the story beneath the school piece — one about older Americans being early winners with the Affordable Care Act, another example of great expectations for Americans.
In the charter school story, by Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Kevin Hardy, we learn that urban 6-year-olds can be encouraged to achieve with motivated teachers a visit to a college campus and a basic presumption that college is their future, not just a dream.
“If kids are sitting on their feet or slouching, a teacher might say ‘Is that how you would sit in college?'” Hardy reports.
In two short years, the upstart school has 300 students, a waiting list and test scores rivaling state and county scores even while 90 percent of its students are considered at risk because they live in poverty — too often a predictor of very low scores.