About a year ago NBA icon LeBron James opened up the I Promise School in Akron, Ohio where he’s from in an effort to constructively improve the lives of and education received by ‘underserved’ children. Despite negative criticisms based on his celebrity status and the perceived “irredeemable” status of the children , LeBron’s vision has proven to be beneficial to the children and the community.
“These kids are doing an unbelievable job, better than we all expected,” Mr. James said in a telephone interview hours before a game in Los Angeles for the Lakers. “When we first started, people knew I was opening a school for kids. Now people are going to really understand the lack of education they had before they came to our school. People are going to finally understand what goes on behind our doors.”
New York Times – LeBron James Opened a School That Was Considered an Experiment. It’s Showing Promise.
This is excellent in my opinion. Kids that were more or less “abandoned” by the educational system in the Akron, Ohio area are not only being ‘rehabilitated’ but are excelling.
According to a News One report: “When many of the students started their journey with the school they were at least one grade level behind and now they are outperforming other students in their district. Results from Measures of Academic Progress testing showed that 90 percent of students met or surpassed expectations in math and reading, their test scores increased at a higher rate than nearly 100 other schools, and students who were reading below grade level are now within or above the 25th percentile. Furthermore, fourth-graders went from the second to 30th percentile in math and third-graders made improvement in that area as well going from the first to the 18th percentile.”
