College vision will be ingrained at new mayoral academy

Morgan Carter is the founding principal of the new Achievement First Providence Mayoral Academy. The charter school is scheduled to open in August with 176 students, chosen by lottery, from Providence, North Providence, Cranston and Warwick.
The school is the second mayoral academy in the state, following the Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy.
Charter schools tend to create controversy wherever they are, in large part because education funding follows the student, so dollars are taken from traditional public schools. In cash-strapped Rhode Island, controversy arose over plans for the Achievement First Mayoral Academy initially proposed for Cranston. The Cranston plan did not get approval.
But an expanded proposal, also opposed by teachers’ unions, won support with the backing of Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee, Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist and community leaders in the affected communities. Last week, Achievement First won approval from the Providence City Council to lease the decommissioned Oliver Hazard Perry Middle School on Hartford Street.
Achievement First operates 21 other charter schools, all in New York and Connecticut.

PBN: What’s your vision for the school?
CARTER: The biggest goal I have in mind is putting students on the path to and through top colleges, from day one. Students will begin learning about college the day they set foot in our hallways. The classrooms will be named after the colleges their teachers attended. They will learn chants and cheers from college, about going to college, about graduating from college. College will be real in our students’ lives, with goals starting in kindergarten. … We view parents as partners in this effort and we’ll be working side-by-side with parents and the community in this journey to provide all of our students with the education they deserve.

PBN: One of Achievement First’s goals is to make sure no child falls through the cracks. How will you approach keeping them all moving forward? CARTER: It is a big responsibility and it’s an exciting responsibility. We have a very high bar and the bar doesn’t change, but the path each child takes may look different. Through regular, ongoing assessment and data collection, we will be able to diagnose each student’s strengths and areas of growth. Then we will use this information to adjust our actions to meet each child’s current needs.

PBN: How will the school do the data collection?
CARTER: There are standardized assessments in different subject areas to see where a student is at any given time. Some of the information is from teachers, one-on-one with students, some of it from assessments.

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PBN: Have you worked with other charter schools where it was governed by a mayor-led school board?
CARTER: I spent some time with [Providence] Mayor Angel Taveras. The mayor and I are very aligned on providing an exceptional college preparatory education to all students.

PBN: There have been more than 850 lottery enrollment forms for the school and you’re to enroll 176 – 88 in kindergarten and 88 in first grade. How are those students to be chosen?
CARTER: Our students are chosen through a public lottery. If a student can attend a public school in any of the four communities then the parent can fill out an application for our lottery. The names are drawn though a blind lottery, so it’s the equivalent of pulling names out of a hat. We go through enrollment numbers and once we have our full enrollment, then we start a wait list, in order of how they’re pulled from the lottery.

PBN: Is the student body planned to be diverse, or do the schools have a cross-section of students?
CARTER: The lottery is open to students and family in Providence, North Providence, Cranston and Warwick. We anticipate a large majority of our student population to be from Providence, from what we’ve seen in the applications, so far.

PBN: There’s been controversy about charter schools in Rhode Island, particularly because public schools are in desperate need of money. How do you respond to those people?
CARTER: We just passionately believe in answering the call to join the momentum around education reform in Rhode Island. The community support I’ve seen for Achievement First, thus far during the process, has reinforced my vision for my school around community involvement, and making sure our students are the current and future leaders of these communities.

PBN: What are some of the plans you have for your school, as far as academics, technology, music and art and physical education?
CARTER: Our students will have more than three hours of literacy each day, and that includes reading and writing. They’ll have two math blocks each day and they’ll also have social studies, science and time to socialize throughout the day. There will also be, every day, one enrichment class – and one of those enrichment classes will be physical education.

PBN: How many teachers will you have? Will they be allowed to be in unions?
CARTER: In terms of staff, we’ll have 23-to-26 on staff and we have hired eight, a mix of school leaders and teachers. Everyone has the right to organize, but from what I’ve seen as a teacher and leader at Achievement First, teachers feel their voices are heard and they don’t feel a need to organize. Teachers have a strong voice and our evaluation system was developed by teachers. And we have an open-door policy right up to the CEO.

PBN: Do you think you’ll encounter opposition in Rhode Island, now that you will be opening?
CARTER: So far throughout this process, my personal experience is, I’ve seen a great deal of community support. That’s promising to me and reinforces, for me, why we are opening our school, and how we can really become a meaningful part of our community. •INTERVIEW
Morgan Carter
POSITION: Principal, Achievement First Providence Mayoral Academy
BACKGROUND: A West Coast native, Carter helped found Achievement First’s Amistad Elementary in New Haven, Conn., as a kindergarten teacher seven years ago. She’s also worked at the school as academic dean for kindergarten and first grade. She is currently a principal-in-residence at Achievement First Bridgeport Elementary.
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s in history with an education teaching endorsement from University of Washington in Seattle; Master’s degree in elementary literacy and mathematics from Walden University, 2010
FIRST JOB: Subway in Washington State
RESIDENCE: New Haven, moving to Providence this spring
AGE: 28

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