First-grade students Ronald Dessources and Wiktoria Ahamefule read together at the Paul Cuffee Charter School in Providence.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman Andrew Dickerman

PROVIDENCE — The Paul Cuffee School has been named one of the best charter schools in the country by the Center for Education Reform, a national education policy and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

Cuffee, a K-8 charter school built around a maritime theme, was of one of 53 honored during the National Charter School of the Year program held at the National Press Club last Wednesday. Chosen from hundreds of charter schools nationwide, the winners hailed from 24 states. Cuffee was the only school chosen from Rhode Island, which has 11 charter schools.

Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, a pro-charter group, said all of the honorees have at least one thing in common: they are high-fliers who typically perform better than conventional public schools in their neighborhoods.

Critics argue that charter schools achieve at higher levels than their traditional public school peers because they take the “cream of the crop” of the students from the area, but Allen is quick to counter that claim.

“The reality is that charter-school parents aren’t any better educated and their children aren’t any less at risk,” she said. “Charter schools have to convince parents to send their children there. They don’t have a captive clientele.”

If anything, charter schools often get children who have struggled in the regular classroom and so may be entering their new school performing below grade level. What makes charters effective, she said, is that they are flexible and nimble enough to respond to a child’s academic needs.

IN CUFFEE’S CASE, student improvement over time was exceptional, Allen said, adding that the school’s math scores last year were 40 percent higher than comparable public schools in Providence.

“Cuffee has an incredibly positive community culture,” she said in a telephone interview last week. “The school has low teacher turnover, and their parent and teacher satisfaction rates are off the charts. There is a positive culture among the teachers and incredible commitment from the parents.”

The Center for Education Reform also praised Cuffee for overcoming significant odds during the start-up years. Months before the school opened in 2001, the building lease fell through, forcing the school to scramble to find a new home.

“A lot of folks would say, ‘OK, we’re done,’ ” Allen said, “but they overcame obstacle after obstacle, and it didn’t compromise the [quality of] their program.”

Cuffee, on Promenade Street in the Smith Hill neighborhood, now has 432 students. According to Allen, the school’s admittance rate, at 9 percent, is second only to Brown University among Rhode Island schools. Admission is by lottery, and the only standard is that enrollment must match the racial makeup of the city as a whole.

The Center for Education Reform also honored Cuffee for creating robust partnerships with local colleges and community organizations such as Save the Bay, where students take classes in ecology or environmental science, and the YMCA, where they learn how to swim. Johnson & Wales University teaches after-school classes in nutrition, while The Music School offers lessons in instrumental music.

Julia Karahalis, the school’s director of development, said, “Our students’ education isn’t limited to these four walls. It is expanded throughout the community.”

ABOUT 4,000 charter schools were invited to apply for the recognition, and a few of those respondents were asked to submit more detailed information. The candidates were judged on the following criteria: student achievement, percentage of at-risk students, meeting their mission and goals, parental involvement and teacher and parent satisfaction.

On Friday, Cuffee’s head of school, David Bourns, talked about the common threads shared by all high-performing schools.

“We are not trying to be a special school or one that is particularly innovative,” he said. “Our goal is to be a high-quality public school that can be duplicated. There is a spirit about this place that makes parents want to be part of it.”

According to Bourns, all good schools share the same values: a common culture, high expectations for student and staff, the ability to hire competent teachers (Cuffee interviews 80 people for every four or five openings) and small classes. In addition, parents sign a letter of commitment that binds them to certain rules and expectations, from coming to school on time to creating a quiet place where children can do their homework.

Respect is the cornerstone upon which Cuffee rests. During its formative years, the staff developed a list of human rights modeled after those created by the United Nations. They include the right to be safe and the right to pick friends of one’s own choosing.

“There is a constant need to reaffirm these rights every day, in morning meeting and in the classroom,” Bourns said. “It’s not a poster on the wall. It’s more like a family addressing the needs of that family.”

Cuffee also works hard at performing frequent evaluations of students and teachers. Teachers meet weekly to discuss issues and concerns, and they have yearly “fireside chats” with their directors — an opportunity for faculty members to share what went right and what went wrong.

Finally, Bourns readily acknowledges that size matters. It’s much easier for a teacher to respond when he or she is responsible for 16 students rather than 25 students. And it’s much easier for a principal to provide feedback to a new teacher when that principal has 10 teachers versus 40.

“A school’s spirit grows out of its small size,” Bourns said. “We get to know each other. That’s almost impossible to do in a large system.”

lborg@projo.com