Testimony to the Black and Latino Caucus

Christina Grant
Superintendent Great Oaks Charter School
January 21, 2015
Good evening Chairman Morris and members of the Black and Latino Caucus. My name is Christina
Grant and I am the superintendent of Great Oaks Charter School.
Great Oaks-Bridgeport opened last summer and the need for our school quickly became abundantly
clear. We had more than 400 applicants for just 125 seats, including many Spanish-speaking students.
In fact, we recruited our English Language Learners. We were heeding the call from the Connecticut
State Department of Education when it called for more charter schools to serve ELLs in 2013.
We offered a lottery preference for this population and set aside 25% of our seats for ELLs. The
response in the community was huge 29% of our inaugural class comes from non-English speaking
homes.
Its a huge success for us. We wanted to educate the hardest to reach students.
Studies have shown that children who come from non-English speaking homes graduate and achieve at a
lower rate. We are working to close this gap.
At the same time, we are actively dispelling some of the myths about charters and proving critics wrong.
As part of our emphasis on our ELL kids, we have incredibly dedicated staff that includes 18 full time
tutors. The Great Oaks team goes above and beyond.
I know I am biased, but I can easily say that the students at our school are lucky to have so many
teachers and staff members who care about their future and their wellbeing.
I want that opportunity for all of our states children.
Charter schools in Connecticut are working tooth and nail to close the achievement gap. But we cant do
it alone. We need the help of our communities and our state lawmakers to support charter schools and
their growth. That means providing the funding necessary to increase the number of charters in the
upcoming biennial budget.
Charter schools are giving parents choices and empowering them to play an active role in their childs
education.
We owe this to our communities. It is my sincere hope that we can work together to expand our
families access to school choice. We look forward to a day when zip code, race, and ethnicity do not
play a role in how a child is educated.
Thank you for your time.