Chapter President Robert Campbell sent a letter to the State Board of Education's charter school department this month opposing the school because it would divert public money from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district. The state began reviewing new charter school applications Tuesday.

An application for the Howard and Lillian Lee Charter School was filed Nov. 10 by a team led by Angela Lee, the daughter of Howard Lee, the former mayor of Chapel Hill and first black mayor of a predominantly white Southern town.

According to the application, the school would "provide high-quality K-8 education that places each student on the path to college readiness and closes achievement gaps." It would open in August, serving 480 students as an elementary school and expand each year to eventually serve 700 students through eighth grade.

National Heritage Academies, a charter school management company based in Michigan, would own and manage the school. The company's 71 charter schools throughout the country focus on college readiness by setting high standards and expectations, particularly for minority students, according to its website.

The NAACP's letter says the company's other charter schools in North Carolina have not met state testing benchmarks. Four of the company's five schools in North Carolina did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress for this academic year, Campbell wrote.

Joe DiBenedetto, spokesman for National Heritage Academies, said that's true but said the state tests don't fairly measure progress.

"Candidly, it's not necessarily surprising that a group of schools that routinely attract below-grade level students would struggle to meet a blunt proficiency measure like AYP," he said. "NHA's performance on AYP should not obscure the fact that it is regularly increasing student proficiency."

"NHA also has a proven track record in North Carolina," DiBenedetto said. "Over the last three years our minority students in North Carolina have grown 22 percent more than the national student growth average. This has increased the number of minority students at grade-level, going from 38 percent of students in the fall of 2008-09 to 53 percent of students in the spring of 2010-11."

Campbell's letter also criticized National Heritage Academies' approach as too test centric.

"While we commend the NHA for attempting different approaches to learning in order to 'stimulate' learning, their test score-driven pedagogy is suspect," he wrote. "Students and teachers are beholden to the next upcoming test cycle. The class schedule and seasons are dedicated to students developing habits that center around test-taking. This does not make them engaged 21st Century learners who will retain knowledge of coursework after completing exams."

Testing is important, because many students come to NHA's schools performing below grade level, DiBenedetto said.

"We analyze where students are doing well and where they need help, so we can adjust instruction to meet their needs. This is especially valuable because we serve students who come to us well below grade level," he said. "On average, our students exceed the expected growth curve by about a third."

The NAACP's letter follows a similar one from Chapel Hill-Carrboro Superintendent Thomas Forcella last week disputing statements in the school's application.

The Lee Scholars applicant team says the charter school would help to close an achievement gap that remains wide in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. The application cites district test scores from 2009, but those numbers don't reflect the strides the district has made, Campbell writes.

The NAACP also says the school wouldn't include the poorest black students, the student group that needs the most help.

"The NHA does not provide free transportation or free and reduced lunches for its students. This will result in the poorest, neediest families and their children, not enrolling in the NHA school," he wrote.

According to its application, the new school would be available to those who can afford private transportation, lunch and other costs, Campbell wrote.

"The school will be tuition free, but in terms of public control and accountability for all intents and purposes, it is a private school with no risks to the profit-making corporation that proposes to run it," he wrote.