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I Promise is a public school in the Akron Public Schools district, but it receives funding from the LeBron James Family Foundation, which funds more funding so that class numbers can be kept to a minimum. According to Keith Liechty-Clifford, Akron's director of school development, the school typically receives around $1.4 million from James' foundation each year to pay for more staff. The school also offers an extended academic year, more summer and at-home tutoring assistance, and a variety of in- and outside-of-school resources to assist families with basic requirements.
Some members of the Akron Board of Education, who heard an update on the school's accomplishments since it opened in 2018 during a presentation on Monday, were disappointed by the apparent lack of improvement for most children on state exams in spite of those increased resources.
As a part of the Akron Public Schools system, the I Promise School debuted in 2018. But according to a report from the Akron Beacon Journal, several years have passed since the school's fall eighth-grade class achieved passing levels for Ohio's mathematics test.
According to the research, the last time the pupils passed the state maths test was in the third grade. One representative of Akron Public Schools called the exam findings "discouraging." The board members are not impressed with these results at all and are outraged.
School board President Derrick Hall stated his disappointment about the school's failure to complete expectations. "For me as a board member, I just think about all the resources that we're providing," Hall said. "And I just, I'm just disappointed that I don't think, it doesn't appear like we're seeing the kind of change that we would expect to see."
However, the 'I Promise School' was established to provide impoverished children who were having difficulty in the traditional educational system with a place to flourish. As a result, the outcomes of these exams shouldn't be used as a yardstick to determine if LeBron James' school is succeeding if the kids are regularly attending and catching up with their peers.
