RISC’s performance-based framework, the foundation of the Barack Obama Charter School, locatd in Los Angeles, was featured in a Compton Bulletin (CA) article. In “New Charter Schools Kicks Off First Year: Barack Obama Charter Schools Plans to Move Toward Performance-Driven Instruction,” Bulletin writer Allison Jean Eaton said:
The educational philosophy at Barack Obama Charter School centers on an award-winning system. The Baldrige Core Values and Concepts are at the core of this system and serve as the foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Barack Obama charter school employs as part of its core values and concepts Baldrige-based practices such as the use of data notebooks by students in all grades, including kindergarten. In these books they record their learning goals and action plans for meeting benchmarks. Learning progress is charted in the books, too. . . .
Dubbed the Re-inventing Schools Model, students are not taught in groups based upon age and grade level, but on aptitude level. . . . It is hoped that the move toward performance-based instruction might yield the school’s earning a Baldrige award, itself. The school’s name, coupled with the fact that the president himself announces the awards, could very well give President Barack Obama a reason to visit Compton, Noreen said.
Whether that will happen remains to be seen, but at the very least it is serving as a unifying goal for students and parents alike to work toward a level of learning excellence unparalleled in the city of Compton.
