Millennium Charter Academy has earned “School of Distinction” honors from the results of the State ABCs of Public Education report.

Academy Headmaster Kirby McCrary said that the school had met all 15 of its Annual Measurable Objectives (AMO) as well as meeting the state’s expected academic growth standards and earning an 83.7 on its Performance Composite score.

The Performance Composite score is the percentage of students at or above grade level targets on the test.

“It’s a good report for us, but our goals are higher even though I think the results are good,” said McCrary. He explained that part of the academy’s philosophy is to teach students something beyond test-taking skills.

“We do not teach to the test,” continued McCrary. “Out goal is to produce well-educated students not students who do well on a test.” He stressed that one important philosophy of the academy is that delivering good information and knowledge to students with a correct and well-founded holistic educational methodology would naturally result in good test scores.

“Our whole goal is beyond the test,” added McCrary. “We seek to educate children who have the knowledge in their minds to think well. We are educating students not training students to take a test.”

He said that 65 percent of state charter schools had met all the AMOs. McCrary indicated that 46.2 percent across the state had met annual educational objectives for all Trial Public Schools. He also said that 78 percent of charter schools in North Carolina had met or exceeded state High Growth goals. Qualifying for the high growth goal means at least 60 percent of students in a school district met the high growth targets.

According to results listed on the “Education First North Carolina School Report Card” website, Millennium scored 77.3 in meeting expected academic growth targets while the percentage is 70.7 statewide. The academy had an 84.2 percent in math in its growth targets. Statewide, the percent of students at or above grade level in math is 82.4.