This is a follow-up to a three-part series about Renaissance West, an attempt to revitalize a west Charlotte neighborhood through an education village approach.
Educators at Renaissance West STEAM Academy were beaming as camera crews and officials from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools streamed into their school on Wednesday.
The school represents a collaboration between Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and a group of public and private partners committed to reviving the neighborhood that was once Boulevard Homes public housing. The Renaissance West community now includes mixed-income housing, an early childhood center, a senior center — and a preK-8 school that’s supposed to help break the cycle of poverty.
But ever since it opened in 2017, test scores had been so low that the state rated Renaissance West an "F" school.
On Wednesday CMS officials invited news media to the school to announce results of the 2023 exams. Renaissance West had moved up to a "D" — which doesn’t sound great until you consider the progress it made in the past year.
CMS strategy chief Beth Thompson announced that the school ranked 29th in North Carolina for growth.
“I get chills,” she said. “And a few tears.”
North Carolina’s school performance grades rely heavily on proficiency, which tends to reflect the advantages and disadvantages in students’ lives. High-poverty schools like Renaissance West, where 75% of last year’s students were classified as economically disadvantaged, can get a boost from a growth rating. That’s a complex calculation done by a private contractor that measures each student’s academic level at the start and end of a school year, then rates whether each school made a year’s growth for their students.
Renaissance West not only exceeded the target but was topped by only 28 of almost 2,600 schools that received grades.
That’s why Principal Dwight Thompson was invited to host the CMS news conference and discuss the gains. He described himself as ecstatic: “Nearly six years of 'F' status, and what we have done in a very short amount of time is a testament of the team.”
To put what the team has done into clearer terms: In 2022, 17% of Renaissance West students were proficient in reading; last year 28% were. Math proficiency jumped from 19% to 39%. Gains were even more dramatic at some grade levels, such as fourth-grade math, which went from 6% proficiency to 47%.
Thompson became the school’s third principal in 2021, right after a pandemic year disrupted by remote and hybrid learning. He inherited an inexperienced faculty with high turnover, and set out to recruit veterans and provide more support.
“We coach everyone. So you can be a first-year teacher or you can be 30 years in, everyone is going to be coached,” he said at the news conference.
He said later that the fourth-grade teaching team that made such striking math gains consisted of two teachers he recruited from Tuckaseegee Elementary School, where he was principal before coming to Renaissance West. CMS has a teacher leader program that offers significant pay hikes to teachers with proven results who are willing to take on extra duties; Thompson has used that to help build his staff.
More work ahead
While everyone was eager to celebrate progress, the reality is that more than half of Renaissance West students remained below grade level on last year’s exams. Thompson says he and his faculty are ready to build on the gains and work with community partners.
The Renaissance West Community Initiative is a group charged with recruiting donors, volunteers and agencies that can support the school and the community. Thompson says they’ve signed off on one project for the coming year: Counseling for parents.
“We’ve already had some things that worked with our kids, as far as mental health needs and things of that nature,” Thompson said. “So we get to be really outside the box and the Renaissance West Initiative said, ‘Sure, let’s do it.’ ”
Mack McDonald, CEO of the Renaissance West Community Initiative, was in the audience Wednesday. The group is what’s known as “the community quarterback,” responsible for pulling together agencies that provide services and donors who can help foot the bills. McDonald says the "F" label was discouraging to some families, who can choose magnet or charter schools over Renaissance West STEAM, and to some businesses or philanthropies that want to see evidence of success.
“To hear wonderful news about the progress of our school, that is extremely important to us really in being able to fulfill our mission,” McDonald said.
Seeking stability
One of the biggest challenges for Renaissance West STEAM Academy has been leadership instability — in the principal’s office and in CMS, which has had seven superintendents since the school board first voted to work with the community groups in 2009.
Crystal Hill had just taken over as interim superintendent in January when she unveiled a sweeping plan to restructure schools. It included turning Renaissance West STEAM Academy into a middle school and reassigning the elementary grades. Hill, who was named superintendent in May, quickly scaled back the plan, but she hadn’t been willing to talk about her vision for the school until this week.
“It’s not going anywhere,” Hill said Wednesday. “It’s here to stay.”
Hill says said she knew nothing about the school and its history in her early months. Since then, she says, she has committed enthusiastically to working with the team: “This is just an amazing place. It’s a great partnership.”
That means that even if the district goes back to plans for breaking up some K-8 schools, she won’t recommend splitting up Renaissance West.
But the bigger challenge is how to create stability in the principal’s office and among the teachers who have made gains at the school. Hill says Principal Thompson shared some ideas.
“One of the things that he called out is taking a look at our emerging leaders, our assistant principals, and hand-picking some of those and really putting them through an intensive (program), so we are always ready to go with leaders who have the experiences, who have what it takes to serve in a role like Ren West,” she said.
And Thompson says he’s not looking to change jobs soon, given the school’s need for stability. The ability to turn to community partners for extras that aren’t available at all schools is an incentive to stay, he said.
Hill says she’s also looking for new incentives to get the most effective teachers to serve in high-need schools. That’s a tough challenge … and one that many superintendents before her have wrestled with.
For now, Renaissance West educators are celebrating one small but important step forward.
