Senior Jasmine Weiss is an educator's dream, an A-plus student who is captain of the basketball team and drum major of her school's marching band. Colleges collectively are offering her $3 million worth of academic scholarships.Weiss might be just the kind of success story that D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) had in mind when he presented his education strategy to the D.C. Council -- in a document that his staff lifted in part from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools.
She is the beneficiary of a school system that is considered one of the best in the nation at educating minority students. Even at such poor-performing schools as West Charlotte High, where Weiss, 17, attends, there are programs to nurture highly motivated students.
"My whole family went here," said Weiss, who has always taken advanced courses. "The course work is hard. I don't think you can judge a school based only on test scores."
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