It looks like we can now close the book on SPARC Academy.

A federal judge has thrown out SPARC's lawsuit alleging the State Board of Education didn't renew the school's charter because its students and management are predominantly African American. Click here for a prior post.

What may not have helped the Raleigh charter school's case is that its attorney didn't show up for the hearing. It had been rescheduled to that day at his request. A week later, the judge dismissed the case.

The new ABCs report shows some unusual results.

For instance, SPARC Academy made high growth, exceeding expectations on state exams. SPARC is now closed after the State Board of Education refused to renew its charter. The school's lawsuit is moving along in federal court.

Franklin Academy, a charter school with radically different demographics, didn't meet ABCs goals this year. You don't hear so much about it now but charter advocates used to regularly complain about being forced to follow the state's testing standards.

You see similar things in the Wake school system.

For instance, Broughton and Leesville high schools both didn't meet the state's academic expectations. But Fuquay-Varina High made expected growth.