- [Teacher] Be.

- [Students] Be.

- [Teacher] Go.

- [Students] Go.

- [Teacher] Do do do.

- [Students] Do do do.

- Be.

- Be.

♪ Go - [Dara] You'll immediately feel the energy inside Kareem Benson's character education class at Sugar Creek Charter School.

- Fancy, give me the fancy one.

- [Dara] From his sing song phrases.

- I love how we raised thine Khalil.

- [Dara] Animated gestures to his upbeat personality.

- 'Cause everything we're gonna start talking about today, we eventually are going to put it into action.

- [Dara] Every student looks engaged.

- I'm just an energetic person, I don't like to be bored, you know what I'm saying?

So growing up I was always the talker in the classroom.

So of course bring that to education.

Alright, anybody else?

I love about y'all please, I'm getting hungry.

- [Dara] To outsiders, it may seem like they're just having a good time with students outta their seats and eagerly shouting back.

But there are powerful lessons being taught.

- With care development it comes from, of course you hear about showing responsibility, showing respect, but I take it a step further.

I teach you how to control yourself.

Sometimes you have to think, step back, you have a problem.

Just take a second, have a moment, then come back and be able to express yourself positively.

All right, cool, cool.

- [Dara] Classes like this.

- Should be written down someplace.

- [Dara] Are a portion of what superintendent Cheryl Turner says sets their school apart.

- We have such a focused mission.

It's very easy for us to be able to target the things that our kids need.

- [Dara] Data from the North Carolina Department of Instruction shows that last school year, 49.5% of African American students were grade level proficient in reading compared to CMS at 17.4%.

For Hispanic students at Sugar Creek, 39.8% were grade level proficient in reading compared to CMS at 15.2%.

This is an accomplishment Turner can be proud of because in the mid two thousands they almost had to close their doors due to poor test scores.

- Our first five years the state talked about closing us because we were low performing.

- [Dara] She tells me school officials were given five months to improve, which required her to go into immediate action.

- There were a lot of people here who just didn't need to be in front of kids, so was turning that over.

- [Dara] Turner says as they fired teachers who were ineffective, they replaced them with those who were committed to the school's mission of eradicating generational poverty in the lives of students by providing a rigorous education.

However, she didn't stop there.

She created a plan for effective instruction, implemented a weekly coaching model for teachers, and visited multiple successful charter schools to learn what they were doing that worked and implemented those changes at Sugar Creek.

- There's a charter school in Henderson called Henderson Collegiate.

They've been the highest performing minority charter school in the state.

And I just kept saying, "Okay, what in the world are you doing that you're able to pull this off at 90% proficiency?"

- [Dara] Sugar Creek officials tell us they have nearly 1500 students, 81.86% are African American, 15.04% are Hispanic, and the remaining are other races.

Turner says it was vital to study charter schools where the demographics are the same.

- The overwhelming majority of our students are from low income homes, but we currently have a caseload of 65 kids who are homeless.

- [Dara] The superintendent tells us she's up for the challenge.

- Our kids were not born defective.

They can learn just like anybody else.

And if your expectation is that they will learn, they will.

- [Dara] We asked 11th grader Mason Riley about his experience at the school.

- One of the ways that they helped me learn better is by, especially in math, if I need help, which usually I do, my teacher will personally sit down one-on-one and help me personally.

- [Dara] Riley has been there since he was in kindergarten.

- [Riley] I like the family aspect of Sugar Creek.

The teachers, they care so much about me compared to what my friends say about their own public schools.

- Alright, table manners.

Who remembers what table manners is?

- [Dara] That difference between Sugar Creek and other public schools is something teacher Kareem Benson noticed as well.

He pulled his own son out of public school and brought him over to Sugar Creek.

- I had to bring him here because I love what Sugar Creek stands for.

I love the whatever it takes approach that we have.

And I'm a teacher here and most times you see parents work at a school where their son and daughter's not there, not me.

I saw all this greatness and I was like, my son needs to be a part of this.

- Benson says, after switching his son, he saw significant improvements in how he did academically.

- What made you pick Dallas?

The Sugar Creek has helped me get out my shell.

'cause I was always just very to myself.

I didn't wanna be outta my shell.

Being an all A student, that's all I wanted to see.

I had tunnel vision towards being all As.

- [Dara] As a senior with her focus on higher education, Mikalah Adair says Sugar Creek's College Career and Readiness program has equipped her for the future.

She's received over 20 acceptance letters.

- We have specific days where we actually just focused on applications, talking through with your counselor what occupation you wanna do, and they just help me like, don't limit myself.

- That's one of the things.

- [Dara] As a parent of four Sugar Creek students, Amber Martin tells us it's what teachers have done outside the classroom for she and her husband that means the most.

- My mom just had a stroke.

A couple of the teachers that know me, they actually check on me.

That actually means a lot.

- [Dara] From teacher involvement to rebounding from poor test scores, school officials and parents we spoke to say they're proud to see where Sugar Creek is today.

For "Carolina Impact", I'm Dara Khaalid.