Local Schools Nominated for SCORE Prize

This past week SCORE announced its nominees for the annual SCORE prize, given to schools who are, in SCORE’s words, “rising to the challenge of preparing each student for success in the next grade and in life after graduation.”

SCORE nominates three schools each in the elementary, middle and high school divisions, as well as three districts.

This year, two local schools were nominated for the SCORE prize: Delano Optional School and the Soulsville Charter School’s high school (full disclosure: I work at Soulsville).

Here are SCORE’s profiles on the two schools:

Delano Elementary is a technology option school in Memphis that serves approximately 225 students in grades K-5. Delano students have made strong gains in math and science over the past three years and score well above the state average in both math and science.

The Soulsville Charter School serves close to 600 students in grades 6-12 in Memphis. Students at this public charter have made noteworthy gains in Algebra I and II as well as strong gains in English II and Biology over the past three years. Almost 80 percent of students have gone on to college over the past three years.

Also worth noting is the fact that three of the nine nominees are charter schools (KIPP Academy Nahsville and New Vision Academy were the other two nominees). This is good news for the charter school sector, which is starting to see its schools be recognized right up there with optional and magnet schools for these awards.

Congratulations to both schools, and all the other SCORE prize nominees as well.