Newsweek Magazine has just published an excellent opinion piece written by Baker A. Mitchell Jr., founder of The Roger Bacon Academy (RBA) in Leland, NC.

When COVID closed the regular public schools in the area, the four charter schools that RBA manages remained open and were faced with an overwhelming number of transfer requests. They were able to accommodate just under 500 of the requests, boosting enrollment by 25%, up to over 2,500. Almost half of the new first and second-grade students could not pass the basic assessment for entering a beginning reading program. Through careful teaching utilizing DI programs, many of these students realized “two and in some cases three to four years of growth in reading from the time they stepped through our doors.”

Click here to read the full article.