By Michael Mroziak
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wbfo/local-wbfo-975065.mp3
Buffalo, NY – While Buffalo's public school district is struggling with a graduation rate below 50 percent, one of the City's charter schools, the Charter School for Applied Technologies, is celebrating its third consecutive 100 percent graduation rate.
Last Friday, the Charter School for Applied Technologies graduated 93 high school students - or 100 percent of the class. Success, school officials insist, comes from the way teachers take on their jobs. Adam Gregoire teaches Social Studies at CSAT.
"One of the big things that continuously pops up about our school is this sense of community, that within our staff we are very, very close..it's more of a team philosophy," said Gregoire.
Administrators said it is a myth that charter school students are different than in public schools. Their students come from similar economic backgrounds and often times have the same disciplinary issues.
More than 80 percent, for example, are eligible for free or reduced-cost lunches. CSAT superintendent Efrain Martinez said the difference comes from the school's philosophy - that they will not call it teaching and learning until the students are actually learning.
Martinez said if a student fails a test, it does not end there.
Students will instead be kept after hours and undergo additional help until they are retested. He adds that students, knowing the extra work facing them, will then work harder to get it right the first time.
He said other schools can turn around their graduation rates, if they are willing to change their culture, and stop making excuses.