Rugby Team Teaches More Than Sport

The New York Times
November 23, 2008

To the Editor:

Re "The Unlikely Scrum," Nov. 15: District of Columbia residents can be proud of Hyde Leadership Public Charter School's establishment of what is believed to be the nation's first all-African-American high school rugby team. This imported sport teaches lessons for life to children from some of the District's most vulnerable communities.

Public charter schools like Hyde educate more than one in three of the District's students. Nonselective, publicly financed and independently run, these schools foster partnership among parents, teachers and students. These schools' independence creates an environment in which parents can be more involved, teachers are free to innovate and students are provided the structure they need to learn.

Economically disadvantaged students in public charter secondary schools are twice as likely to score advanced or proficient on math and reading tests as students in traditional D.C. public schools.

Robert Cane
Washington

The writer is the executive director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools.