A Charter School Offers Hope for One Community and a Model for Another
At the soul of the East Lake model is education. Where once stood a windowless bunker that looked more like a cellblock than an elementary school is the Charles L. Drew Charter School, an airy, open and gleaming building where 800 students attend kindergarten through eighth grade, 90 percent of them from the Villages, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Before the school opened in 2001, only 5 percent of fifth graders at the elementary school could pass the state math exam. In 2007, 78 percent met or exceeded state standards in math, and 88 percent did so in reading.
