Word: parkes
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...With expansive tree-lined streets and stately million-dollar homes, Myers Park is one of Charlotte's most desirable addresses. Its superb high school, which offers the International Baccalaureate program and a rich menu of Advanced Placement classes, is a big part of its appeal. The school serves 3,000 students, 66% of them white, 22% black and 4% hispanic. North Carolina designated it a School of Distinction; Lloyd Wimberley, who headed the school from 1996 to 2002, was named North Carolina Principal of the Year in 2002; and the school has consistently ranked in the top 20 on Newsweek...
...However, like many other high-flying schools with a substantial minority and low-income population, Myers Park has been under increasing pressure to close the achievement gap between students that are white and black, rich and poor. In 2006, only 51% of its black students performed at levels III/IV - proficient and above - on state exams, compared with 90% of white. Under the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, schools that fail to close such a gap are declared "failing schools" - no matter how well the majority are doing - and can face a loss of federal Title 1 funding...
...teachers and even larger bonuses for principals whose schools meet or exceed certain performance criteria. Among those criteria are high school graduation rates, a factor that should, in theory, encourage schools to keep kids in school, not push underachievers out. But school documents obtained by TIME suggest that Myers Park found a way around this: reporting that students who had dropped out had instead transferred out of the district...
...former Myers Park counselor, who asked not to be identified, says that during Anderson's three-year tenure at the school, it was an open secret that underperforming and/or problem students were pressured to leave or told they could not return after disciplinary suspensions. "We all saw the push-out going on," she recalls. "It was almost a joke. In front of the faculty of 150, Anderson would say 'get your attendances in. If the students have excessive absences, we can get rid of them and send them to the school of far, far away.'" The school...
...This is an easy way to deal with a difficult problem," says Wimberley, who became a district assistant superintendent after leaving Myers Park. "They want to get certain kids out because if they're struggling or not attending class, they're going to score low on the tests and blow their whole average." In the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District, he notes, "the principal's evaluation is heavily weighted to student performance and achievement...