Kudos to MATCH (and a tale of the MATCH lottery)

Kudos to the MATCH charter school in Boston! From the Center for Education Reform Newswire:

MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN. The MATCH Charter Public High School is reaching new heights, which says something, considering the school has already been recognized by Newswire's parent organization as a charter school of the year and its founder Michael Goldstein has been named one of "13 leaders who perform." The school's students are number 1 out of 35 open-admission schools in Boston in which 100 percent of the students passed both reading and math standardized tests. On top of that, 83 percent of the students were advanced or proficient in English and, for the first time, 100 percent were advanced or proficient in math.

I visited MATCH (and Roxbury Prep) in Boston earlier this year -- for my comments, see: http://edreform.blogspot.com/2007/03/visits-to-two-charter-schools-in-boston.html. And here's a heart-breaking story from a friend at MATCH about the school's lottery, in which 500 or so students are turned away, forced back into utterly failing schools -- http://edreform.blogspot.com/2007/03/story-from-match-charter-school-lottery.html. Here's an excerpt:

I am not over-stating this when I say that 65 students' lives were changed tonight. 65 students are going to come to the MATCH School and be pushed harder than they ever have in their life to do work that they never thought they could do. If they stick with us, they will be accepted to college, and they will graduate prepared to go to college.

They very well may be the first in their family to graduate from college, and they may be the person to break a cycle of nter-generational poverty, drug use, alcohol addiction, or other such problem that has plagued their relatives.

As far as the 500+ students who do not have this option, I don't know what will happen to them. Some will be accepted to other charter schools (some of these students enter multiple lotteries, although the Match ottery far exceeds other charter schools for number of applicants), some may get into exam schools, but most will probably end up at their local Boston public high school. The parents know this. That is why they cry when their child's name is called. That is why some parents stayed long after any hope of their child being accepted to Match had ended; they were just hoping that another alternative to this situation would present itself.

This is a crime. Flat-out. Our educational system is pitiful. In this city, parents are screaming for other options for their children.