Lawrence Family Development Charter School, an early K-8 Commonwealth public charter school founded in 1995, achieved Level One status for academic achievement that placed it in the top 10% of all public schools in the Commonwealth based on Spring 2012 ELA (English Language Arts) and Mathematics results released on September 19, 2012 by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

LFDCS, which enrolls the highest percentage of children who are poor of any K-8 school in the state and also enrolls one of the highest percentage of students whose first language was not English, also earned designation as a 2012 Commendation School from Commissioner Mitchell Chester Ed. D. for significantly increasing student performance and reducing the achievement gap for high needs students. Only 64 of 1,587 public schools in Massachusetts earned this designation which recognizes a small number of exceptional public schools who have demonstrated and sustained high student growth over the past four years.

LFDCS attained a school-wide CPI (Composite Proficiency Index) of 89.9 in ELA outperforming the state median of 86.7. In Mathematics LFDCS attained a school-wide CPI of 90.4 well ahead of the state average of 84.1. These are demonstrated by exceptional rankings of students attaining Advanced and Proficient levels across the grades from Grade 3 where the youngest grade of students assessed attained a 78% in ELA and 75% in Math to Grade 8 which achieved 94% in ELA and 81% in Math, both grade levels out-performing all public schools in Lawrence.

John Housianitis, President of the Board of Trustees and one of the school founders in 1995, stated at a reception to honor the school staff, “Anyone who believes that youngsters who come from economic poverty or enter school where English was not their first language somehow cannot succeed must see that these results fly in the face of their mistaken understandings. The achievements of our teachers and students prove that the combined attention to quality education at school and in the home build a partnership for student success.”

Mr. Housianitis further noted that: “Family is at the center of our name, and it is in working with parents who support our policies of attendance, homework and participation that we are able to achieve beyond the expectations of demographics.”

Ralph Carrero, the Superintendent of the school, stated “Poverty has never been a deterrence at LFDCS. In fact, it is one of the reasons we push our students so hard. We don’t have a second chance; the quality education they receive at LFDCS is their ticket to a quality secondary high school and their opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.”  

Ms. Katherine Allen, Head of the Lower School, attributed the impressive rise in student growth to the rigor of teacher lesson plans, the focus on building background knowledge and vocabulary knowledge and the school’s RTI model which allows grade level staff to meet monthly and assess student performance with particular attention to students in Tier II and Tier III, those just below benchmark and those at Warning. Teachers create individual learning plans and put interventions and additional teaching time in place to eliminate learning gaps and improve performance. As a result of the RTI and the three tier model of instruction, the school reduced the percentage of students at Warning to below 5% during the 2012-13 school year.

The following comparisons show the CPI attained by LFDCS students in each of the grades tested alongside the state average which includes students in every community.