MARCH 24, 2014 ATLANTA Pre-K Teacher Caroline Murphy works with students Travarian Stephens (from left), Jack Lovell, Patricia Cox and Victor Nunnally as they learn to count at Charles R Drew Charter School. Photos showing Drew Charter School and the surrounding East Lake area including construction on a new middle/high school, Monday, March 24, 2014. One Atlanta charter school has found a way to break through barriers to education created by poverty and turn out high-achieving students. Although nearly two-thirds of its students come from low-income families, Drew Charter School outperforms many of the city's other elite traditional schools in wealthy neighborhoods, with at least 98 percent of Drew students in grades 3-8 meeting, or exceeding, state standards in reading, language arts and math. Drew Charter, founded in East Lake in 2000, focuses on early education in school, developing nearby property, reducing crime and involving parents outside of school. KENT D. JOHNSON / KDJOHNSON@AJC.COM