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Whole School PaperSouth Shore Charter School: Meeting Needs, Teaching Creatively,
By Rick Small and Pam Cooney South Shore Charter School, Hull, MA
The Massachusetts Charter School Association 2002
HISTORY The South Shore Charter School (SSCS) opened in September of 1995 in Hull, on the South Shore of Massachusetts, with considerable controversy and local opposition. The concept for the school evolved out of the backgrounds and professional experiences of its founders, Timothy Anderson and Pam Cooney, a married couple with school age children and successes in public policy and social service organizations. When the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as part of its efforts at school reform, began its first round of charter school applications, Anderson and Cooney, along with a group of parents, teachers, and community members interested in education reform conceived SSCS. Founders, administrators, staff, parents, students, and other members of the SSCS community are quoted liberally in this paper. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations were provided in interviews the author conducted at the school in May of 2002. Project-Based Learning: Supporting and Enhancing Academics Tim Anderson had worked as a consultant (Dovetail Consulting) for the superintendents of several school systems and had begun a project-based program with Hull High School that was funded by a Youth Conservation Corps grant. This program, the Hull Environment and Service Corps (HESC), incorporated both academics and hands-on, work-based education in ecology and environmental sciences. "Wages, training, and academic credit were all substantial conditions of the grant," said Anderson. The program emphasized the development of skills in leadership, teamwork, initiative and critical thinking as students worked in teams to solve community problems. It would eventually become the prototype for SSCS. At heart, HESC used community-based environmental projects to support and enhance academic studies and achievement. "It was a part of the overall school curriculum. Students and their regular public school teachers would cycle through our program, as a way to encourage innovative problem solving and critical thinking," said Anderson. According to Pam Cooney, the original program had much to offer the students of Hull. "We gave an opportunity to kids with different types of learning abilities and strategies. One girl struggled with academics, but was great in the field. She worked with another girl who had strong academic skills and they became a great team, together benefiting from each other’s strengths." Among the projects in the HESC/Hull High School program were those that focused on local freshwater conditions and contamination and their effect on insect infestation in the area. Another project had students doing assessments of handicap access for local facilities. "These were important and real projects that benefited not only the students, but the town as well. They were not just superficial; they provided worthwhile education and life experience and achievement for the kids," said Cooney. Gaining Support for the Charter School After two years, the HESC/Hull high school program was at risk of losing its grant because the high school would not award academic credit (a formally agreed upon requirement of the grant) for the work and affiliated projects that students had done. Coincidentally, as the original HESC/Hull High School program was coming to an end, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts issued its first request for proposals for charter schools. Anderson, who had been following the development of the charter school movement in other states, and believed that an alliance between traditional public schools and charter schools would strengthen both, approached the Hull superintendent with the idea that Dovetail consulting, a group of concerned parents and professionals, and the Hull School System, would jointly apply for a charter school. The original vision was to incorporate academics within the context of original community-based public service learning projects. By this time, Hull had a new superintendent, and although initially intrigued by the charter school concept, in the end he decided not to participate. "I think the teacher’s union convinced the superintendent that charter schools would be detrimental to the health of traditional public schools," said Anderson. "Don’t get me wrong, we had a number of fine teachers supporting the original program, but on the whole I can say I believe the antagonism for our work came from the state and national teacher’s unions, not the local teachers." "I believed then and I believe now, that traditional public schools fail students because they do not encourage team problem solving and critical thinking among their students. They also seem to be unable to deal well with mixed ability kids," said Anderson. "I thought that a combined effort with the public schools would be an antidote for these failures, especially since we had demonstrated the possibilities for achievement in our conservation and public service education program." Jo Loughnane, a local kindergarten teacher at the Jacobs School in Hull, was interested in the charter school and became one of the early supporters of the initiative. She was interested in multi-age classrooms and innovative educational techniques, and along with a number of parents of elementary age children, was also interested in the Core Knowledge Curriculum. As a result, these aspects were also incorporated in the original model as well. In addition, the founders felt that parent involvement, strong home/school communications, and student empowerment were critical to the success of the model. "Jo Loughnane is a great teacher. She had already begun to incorporate some of our parent-involved concepts in her classroom when we began to write the proposal for the charter," said Cooney. "Unfortunately, she too would encounter opposition from her public school peers and eventually decided to remove herself from the charter school proposal. But with her experience in the classroom and her insights, she was a great asset to us in the beginning," said Cooney Although the original proposal for SSCS (applied for in March of 1994 and approved in August of 1995) had been conceived as a partnership between the local school system, Dovetail Consulting, and concerned others, the new school superintendent in Hull and the school committee withdrew their initial support, and the approximately 250 page proposal had to be changed. Amid Challenges a School Is Born The proposal, which had evolved into a K-12 school in Hull, was approved in August of 1995. But no bank would finance the fledgling school, and the $20,000 start up grant from the state was nowhere near sufficient for all that needed to be done. In the end, Anderson and Cooney financed the $250,000 needed for the 15-month development period (from application through approval); they gained family backing and took out a second mortgage on their house During the year of development, before the school opened, many community meetings were held; the initial Board of Trustees was formed; a search committee recommended teachers to be hired; the initial curriculum was developed; students were recruited; buildings were leased; and work began to prepare the facilities. Because the start-up grant provided only limited funding and came in toward the end of the first year of work on the project and because in those pioneering days of the charter school movement there were no established corporations and no organizations to help finance or do the work of establishing a charter school, much of the labor was accomplished by volunteers. There was considerable confusion and controversy accompanying the birth of SSCS. "Hull is a pretty small town (with a population of approximately 11,000). Its largest employer is the public school system. Many families have been here for generations, so it’s easy to understand how something new could appear threatening. And the charter school certainly did appear threatening to some factions in the town," said Cooney. Debate about who said what and when contributed to the school opening in a climate of antipathy from the superintendent of schools and other townspeople. Yet the school did open in the fall of 1995 with Kindergarten through second grade and a high school (grades 8-12). That first year the South Shore Charter School’s high school was housed in a converted motel and a small freestanding commercial building, the Hull Redevelopment Authority (HRA). Property slated for demolition, about a mile from the motel, served as the a grammar school. Initially, classroom furniture was secured by parents and teachers, all donated. During that first year, parents, who were from the start encouraged to volunteer and get involved, were critical to day-to-day operations. This gave a pioneering feel to the endeavor. "Those first days with minimal external [state] controls and making systems as we went along were fantastically exhilarating," recalled Robin Coyne, former lead teacher and current head of the primary school (K-7, Levels I-III). In its second year (1996), SSCS offered a full compliment of classes, K-12. The school leased three buildings: the HRA housed the middle school grades; a converted restaurant housed the grammar school; a renovated motel/aquarium near the MDC beach was to house the high school. While renovations were being carried out, the high school was housed in temporary quarters--two different restaurants in Hull. Capital costs for renovations on all three facilities tallied approximately $420,000, a huge gamble at the time, because SSCS would be up for charter renewal in three years, and there was no guarantee of renewal. Currently, these three buildings still serve as the school’s facilities. Theory, Reality, Cohesion, and Dissent As the teachers and students adjusted to their new quarters, it became apparent to the faculty that theory had to bend to reality. In the beginning years, many of the students, especially at the high school level, were not prepared for the discipline and independence required in project-based learning environments. Additionally, many students were academically ill prepared to take on the rigors of such an education. "You have to figure that kids who leave their high schools to come to a new charter school, must be having some kind of problem, either academic or social," said Michael Manson, former project coordinator and level coordinator at the SSCS. "We had to adjust to meet the needs of these students." Accordingly, the faculty, informally at first, began to revise the curriculum. "One of our great strengths has been our ability to adapt our program to the realities of both our physical plant restrictions and the needs of our students," said Robin Coyne.
The teaching staff determined that the best way to implement the basic concept of project-based learning was to ensure the academic strength of its student body. The class schedule was adjusted substantially, providing sufficient class time in basic subjects. Morning periods in the high school were (and continue to be) dedicated to academics: English, reading, writing, math, and science. Projects were held during the three afternoon hours, and all teaching and project work took place in 3-hour blocks. It is a tribute to the entire SSCS community: parents, students, faculty, administration, and support staff, that everyone embraced these necessary changes. Over time, however, it became apparent to faculty, staff, and administration that the three-hour blocks of projects were too long, for both students and teachers. Presently, projects are held three days a week during 1-1/2 hour sessions. The project work is supplemented on alternate days with electives in the arts and music, courses that enhance both academic courses and basic projects. In those early years, there were also problems of internal dissent, which are common to any start-up organization. Differences of opinion about the vision, mission, goals, and nature of the school began to crop up, especially in the area of curriculum development. Moreover, while originally the school had an excellent 12-person Board of Trustees, including four professional academics from colleges and universities, there was no one, except CEO Tim Anderson with experience in a start up program. "No one on the board at that time could look at situations and problems that normally confront any start up operation and say, ‘It’s O.K.; this is normal,’" said Anderson. Supporting the Mission, Defining Standards, and Creating an Administration Early on, board members had different interpretations of the mission of the school. Some were more inclined to promote the school as almost an elite, or private school, contrary to the charter proposal and the intention of the public school mandate for charter schools. SSCS’s concept included multi-aged and multi-skilled classrooms, project-based learning, and an inclusive learning environment. Eventually those on the board who did not buy into the original mission either resigned or left through attrition, a process completed over much of the school’s second year. From the beginning, SSCS utilized a multi-age concept, integrating traditional grades (K-12) and five levels. In the school’s early stages, however, definitive standards for moving from one level to the next were vague and a work in progress. In the school’s second year, Dr. Diane Miles, an education specialist, was hired as headmaster of the high school. Miles "came on board" at the right time, said Anderson, and Coyne explained further: "We already had levels in place, but Diane contributed more rigorous and defined academic and exit standards for the levels." Over time these exit standards (see Appendix) have been modified with input from administrators, teachers, students, parents and the board of trustees. In the school’s first year, administration was lean. Anderson, as CEO, was also acting as head of both primary and secondary schools. Cooney ran a mentor project for older students, who tutored younger students. From the start, Anderson said his goal was to find the right mix of administrators and skill sets at the primary school, high school, and different academic areas of the school. Anderson also needed to be freed up from the day-to-day administration of the school, so he could oversee long-range planning, resource acquisition, facility improvement, fund raising, community project facilitation, and so, as he put it, he could "deal with the state and all of its requirements and other external resources." Hiring Miles as headmaster of the high school and Coyne as head of the primary school helped assure the continued success of SSCS. VISION, GOALS, AND OBJECTIVES South Shore Charter School’s mission, as included in its original (1994) charter school proposal is "to provide each student with an education which fosters initiative, critical thinking, leadership, teamwork, and communication; to promote life skills for individual achievement in education, career, community, and life; and to disseminate our model of education across Massachusetts." South Shore Charter School’s goals, as outlined in the original (1994) charter school proposal, are:
Objectives for student performance include student demonstrations of:
Objectives in the area of school performance are:
SUCCESS SSCS has been faithful to its mission. The faculty, administration, and board members continue to reflect and evaluate, and the school evolves and improves every year. There are several elements of the SSCS model that have contributed to the school’s success, including but not limited to: community service projects; the Core Knowledge curriculum; inclusive governance structure; multi-age classrooms that are student centered; and an organization that is imbued with the desire to find the best way to meet student learning differences and needs. Service Learning Projects One of the more unique elements of SSCS’s model is our commitment to service learning. The primary vehicles for this are the service learning projects. For two to six hours a week, depending on the level, students work in teams on long term, real world projects where they apply academic skills and provide a needed community service. Almost any academic field and or social service endeavor can evolve into a project as long as there is strong interest on the part of a teacher and students. Mark Veader, a six-year veteran teacher of math and physics, and someone experienced as a level coordinator and project leader at SSCS, frequently jokes (as he did to author Rick Small in May 2002) when a new situation or problem develops at the school, "Tim (Anderson) would say, ‘This could be a project.’" Project accomplishments include: a K-2 garden from which produce has been donated to the local food pantry; educational signage about local flora and fauna for a state park; and yearly visits of high school students to El Salvador where they serve as volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, helping to build homes for residents. While solving such real world problems and producing work, students develop skills in teamwork, leadership, initiative, and critical thinking. Project work motivates SSCS students to use what they have learned to make a difference in the world now, not when they graduate, and projects are conceived to help integrate distinct academic disciplines. In the environmental projects, for example, students do lab and fieldwork, earning credits in zoology or biology, and they must write research papers to substantiate their experience, thus enhancing their English composition skills. They must use both biology and English to accomplish their goals. In addition to their project work, all students are expected to do a certain number of hours of community service, outside of school hours (from 5 hours/year on Level I to 40 hours/year in Level V--juniors and seniors). What’s more, the school organizes or promotes a number of community service opportunities in which families can take part. Many families have contacted our Board of Trustees and have written to local papers, sharing their feeling that it is this commitment to community service that makes SSCS special. Curriculum Projects are complemented by a strong academic curriculum that includes the Core Knowledge Curriculum for grades K-7, Chicago Everyday Math, K-12 foreign language instruction, and the Interactive Mathematics Program at the high school level. In addition, SSCS staff have developed a strong portfolio assessment process for student work, and the school continues to improve the rubrics for each type of work for the portfolios. The Core Knowledge Sequence, developed by E.D. Hirsh and promoted by the Core Knowledge Foundation (www.coreknowledge.org) was selected by the parents and teachers involved in forming the school in 1995. It provides a detailed outline of specific knowledge to be taught in grades K-8 in language arts, American and world history, geography, visual arts, music, math, and science. The content specified in the Sequence complements the general skills and objectives typically found in state and local curriculum guides. The first primary school teaching staff adapted the sequence to our multiage setting, ensuring that its rich content would be covered and coordinated so every child would develop a foundation of basic knowledge. Teachers appreciated the fact that they could creatively present information, while parents liked having an explicit plan for covering a wide variety of content. The series of books by Hirsch, beginning with What Your Kindergartner Should Know and covering each grade level, through the seventh grade, has informed our decisions and helped us determine the content covered in each grade. It’s also provided our parents, teachers, and children with an engaging, illustrated introduction to the important knowledge outlined in the Core Knowledge Sequence. The initial group of parents and teachers also decided that the school should offer world language instruction beginning in kindergarten. Families were offered a choice of Spanish, French, or Russian until FY01, when it was agreed that the limited demand for Russian instruction could not justify spending school funds for this choice. Families who want to continue Russian instruction do so on a fee basis. Several programs have been selected by the faculty over the years to provide more structure and rigor to our academic program and to help better prepare our students for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). One such program is the Interactive Math Program (www.keypress.com), which the faculty and administration at the secondary school adopted in 1997. It’s an integrated, problem-based curriculum that teaches challenging content and emphasizes mathematical reasoning. The Interactive Math Program (IMP) was selected because its focus on problem solving helped prepare students for the types of questions included on the 10th grade MCAS Math Exam and because it had been selected nationally as an "exemplary" mathematics education program, because of its demonstrated effectiveness in multiple sites with diverse populations, by the U.S. Department of Education. IMP’s algebra textbook was also among the highest-ranked algebra texts in a review undertaken by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In order to better prepare the primary school students for the MCAS and the Interactive Math Program at the high school, the primary school faculty selected the Everyday Mathematics curriculum (www.sra4kids.com/everydaylearning/math.html). This curriculum encourages teachers and K-6 students to go beyond arithmetic, to explore more of the spectrum of mathematics. In Everyday Mathematics students investigate, gather, and analyze data; they work with probability, geometry, patterns, and algebra. Moreover, at SSCS we work to integrate mathematics into other subject areas, so it is part of ongoing classroom routines, outdoor play, and the spare transitional moments that occur every day. Not only in the area of mathematics, but also in writing, SSCS teachers and administrators have carefully examined student achievement and have modified curriculum to meet student needs. Analysis of our students early MCAS results in the 4th, 8th and 10th grades indicated a weakness in responses to the following items: short answer, open ended, and essay. The faculty and administration agreed that a more structured approach to writing instruction was needed, and the Collins Writing Program (www.collinswritingprogram.com) was adopted school-wide. The Collins Writing Program presents a K-12 model for writing-across-the-curriculum. Central to the program is the belief that writing enhances the learning of any subject at any level. To help teachers encourage students, the program defines five types of writing assignments and the outcomes expected for each. Inclusive Governance Structure Another important component of the SSCS model is governance, which empowers parents, students, and faculty to have a say in the policies of the school. Students have weekly "town meetings," which are run by an elected student who follows "Robert’s Rules of Order." Topics at a Level III (middle school) town meeting have varied from dissatisfaction with the lunch menu or the rules during recess, to a policy issue like reducing the number of hours of community service required outside of school hours. Students from the middle school and high school levels have their own judicial councils, comprised of elected student judges. Any students who feel a staff member has unfairly disciplined them may make an appeal to the judicial council, which can overturn a disciplinary action if it is judged to be unfair or inconsistent with the established rules. Our parents group, a single group formed after the primary school parents group and the secondary school parents group merged, meets monthly and is run according to Robert’s Rules of Order. The parents group has a number of sub-committees, including a Fundraising/Auction Committee, a Health and Safety Committee, an Arts Committee, and a Community Service Committee. It was a parent on the Health and Safety Committee who wrote our initial Health and Safety Policy, and the Arts Committee has advocated and monitored our arts program and coordinated an annual art show in which student artwork from all levels is exhibited alongside work from students from schools that have been invited to participate. Parents also participate on some of the committees of the Board of Trustees, including the Facilities Committee, the Education Committee, and the Development Committee. The meetings of the parents group usually include reports from the various committees and updates and discussions on the various issues and challenges facing the school for the moment. Any student, parent, or faculty member can propose a policy or operational change for the school by bringing it to their respective groups. The head of the primary or secondary school may implement the proposed change, as long as it does not create an inequity with the other level of the school, and it is not specifically opposed by one of the three governance constituencies. If there is disagreement between the three groups of the school or with the head of school, the proposal is brought to a School Council meeting in an effort to arrive at a compromise. A step-by-step appeal process also exists. Critical to the success of our democratic model has been the Update, published every other week by the executive director. This newsletter, which is distributed to all students, families, and staff, provides timely information on school events, student and teacher accomplishments, and needs for volunteers and resources; it also serves to update parents, students, and faculty regarding meetings and issues. Any member of the community can submit items for the Update to the executive director. It is posted on our Web site, e-mailed to parents and faculty, and distributed regularly to students who take home issues to share with their parents. Ballots for constituency votes are usually attached to the Update, with written arguments, pro and con, included on the ballot. SSCS students feel empowered because they have been involved in the development of the policies and rules of the school, and they have the power to appeal a faculty member’s disciplinary action to a judicial council of their peers. Because most students feel empowered, they tend to buy into the policies and rules, and share in the responsibility for maintaining a civil, respectful climate in the school. Moreover, because parents also share power at SSCS, they often help the faculty and administration as they work to solve problems, rather than attack the administration when they feel their needs aren’t being met. Our Classrooms: Limited in Size, Multi-Age, and Meeting the Needs of Students with Differing Learning Styles Small class size, a maximum of 18 students to a classroom, is critical to the school’s ability to provide personalized guidance for each student. Another feature that makes SSCS’s model unusual is multi-age classrooms. Individual needs are met by placing students in a group according to what they are prepared to accomplish in a subject area; rather than according to their age. At the middle school level, for example, there was a group of 7th graders who are using the eighth grade math textbook, while some students use the 6th grade textbook, supplemented by more traditional basic math exercises. Students work at their own level in each subject area; a student can work at grade level on reading, for instance, and at a higher grade-level on math. What’s more, the older students in Kindergarten, first, and second grade classrooms serve as role models for the Kindergartners, helping them integrate into the classroom. From its inception, given the original vision of Anderson and Cooney, SSCS was to meet the needs of students with differing learning styles. The founders recognized that some students learn well in traditional lecture classes, and others do better in hands-on situations (like projects). We were, and are, determined to adapt our teaching methods to the learning methods of our students. This philosophy and practice are part of the school’s culture and have never been questioned by students, parents, faculty, and administration. Other Measures of Success Disseminating the SSCS model is part of the school’s mission as defined in the charter. In the past several years SSCS has hosted a number of visits from other school systems interested in our multi-age classrooms, the Core Knowledge Curriculum, and/or projects. Many of SSCS’s staff members have presented at the annual National Core Knowledge Conferences; one of the faculty members serves on the Board of Directors of the Core Knowledge Foundation, and faculty members are consulting with another charter school on how that school might implement a Core Knowledge approach. Moreover, SSCS faculty members have been selected to document their work and present at the annual Best Practices and Innovations Showcase sponsored by the Massachusetts Charter School Association. SCHOOL-WIDE ASSESSMENT From the beginning SSCS made a commitment to school-wide assessment using multiple measures and "exit standards." As noted earlier, exit standards, standards that students must meet before moving from one level to the next, were instituted during the second year of school operation under the guidance of high school head, Diane Miles. These standards continue to be refined and developed as experience dictates. In addition, in its first five years, the school administered the California Achievement Test (CAT) to students in every grade twice a year (fall and spring). This year the school has changed over to the Terra Nova in the fall, which is more compatible with SSCS’s curriculum (and the MCAS), and the MCAS in the spring, which is required by the state. SSCS began with a mix of fairly general standards and some very specific requirements for minimum scores on the California Achievement Tests (and now the Terra Nova). The emphasis has shifted to more specific measures of student work. Students must receive a passing grade (C- or better) in all Core Curriculum courses: language arts, math, social studies, science, and world language. Because the SSCS levels concept is a multi-age program, benchmarks have been developed for each grade within a level, so that students don’t leave too much work for the last year that they are in a level. In addition to using the John Collins "Writing Across the Curriculum" standards, specific types of written work are required for student portfolios at each level and across disciplines, and the faculty have developed detailed rubrics for each form of writing. Much work has been done in the area of portfolio assessment at all levels of the school. Currently, in order to be promoted to the next academic level, all students must have a portfolio of work that is reviewed by at least one faculty member and one level coordinator (similar to a curriculum coordinator). At the middle and high school levels, in order to move up to the next level, students must make a formal presentation of their portfolios. They present before a review team, composed of the student's advisor, project leader, invited teachers, student peers, and sometimes parents and outside experts, and explain why they selected each piece of work. This presentation provides an incentive for students to present work in which they take pride. As the quality of the student work has improved, we have begun to provide examples of the best portfolios as models for current students. This showcasing of models has helped to improve the overall quality of student work done at each level. Students are also required to do two public exhibitions of mastery of work related to the projects in which they participate. Each exhibition must involve work in three different academic disciplines (for example, English, math, science, art, music). Students must be prepared to make a presentation to a panel of judges (faculty, students, support staff, and sometimes parents and guests) and answer their questions. At the upper levels, panels frequently include professionals from related fields of work, and these individuals often give valuable feedback to our students. Most second semester seniors use their public debate performance (see Appendix) as their second exhibition of mastery for the year. However, project leaders may also require seniors to do a project-based exhibition of mastery, in order for them to complete the year’s requirements for the project. Each year a longitudinal study of the progress of continuing students is conducted; we track each student’s progress on the California Achievement Test and the MCAS over multiple years. We believe that this type of study is a better measure of the effectiveness of our program than a comparison of the scores of all students in each grade, from year to year, which compares different groups of students and as a result reflects the difference in the groups of individuals rather than the effectiveness of the program. In part, we feel measuring individual student performance over time is valuable because despite the fact that our requirements are extremely challenging, many students who’ve experienced failure at their previous schools try our program as a last resort; they are new to the school, but their test results become part of our overall average scores. We prefer to examine the test results of students who have been with us for years. For our charter renewal process, we did a study of the California Achievement Test results over three years, 1997-1999. We included every student who took the test at SSCS in 1997 and remained in our school and then took the test in 1999. Our goal was to determine whether students who had been with the school had made or lost progress. When we look at the groups of continuing students, those who took the MCAS with us in 8th grade and again in 10th grade, rather than those who are new to our school, in general our students have improved on their MCAS scores. Another important measure of success is the acceptance rate of graduates to good colleges and universities; at SSCS this rate is high. Graduates have received full scholarships to UMASS Amherst, Bard College, St. John’s College and Bowdoin College. Other graduates have received substantial academic grants from Wentworth Institute, Marymount College, and Valley Forge Military Academy. Finally, our school as an organization has established a detailed accountability plan, based on its goals, which is used to measure student and school performance. Students, parents, and faculty evaluate the school on these and other measures every year, and the findings are summarized in the school’s Annual Report. Student performance measures include the percent of students at each level who: meet their project goals and complete project requirements; meet community service requirements; pass all their academic courses; meet the proficient or advanced score on the MCAS; respond on the annual student satisfaction survey that SSCS provides opportunities for students to show initiative and leadership. Some of the school performance measures include: the degree to which we correlate the Core Knowledge Sequence and the upper school curriculum to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks; the progress of continuing SSCS students on the Terra Nova Tests, as shown through longitudinal analysis; the percent of annual survey respondents (students, parents, and faculty) who state that they agree that SSCS promotes a respectful culture and a responsive family partnership; annual enrollment information; fiscal audits; teacher retention; and the participation of the school community in voting and governance. CHARTER SCHOOL STATUS The biggest challenge SSCS currently faces, as do many charter schools, is finding a permanent facility and raising the funds necessary to support that facility. The lack of a financing mechanism for charter school facilities is a major problem. SSCS will probably need to move to a new town, given the limited properties available in Hull and its out-of-the-way location. Because about 60% of SSCS’s students live in Hull and receive bus transportation, this will be a difficult decision for the community to make. The perpetual shortage of funds also means that salaries at SSCS are relatively low compared to compensation offered by surrounding communities. Finances also affect relationships between SSCS and surrounding communities. As noted earlier, SSCS opened in a climate of local hostility. That started to change as the community realized that SSCS was here to stay. The fact that the state reimbursed Hull for the full cost of SSCS’s Hull students for the first few years helped relationships, but the climate may change again as reimbursement formulas change, and sending schools are reimbursed less or not at all for students attending our school. Some challenges of being a charter school also bring us benefits, and some aspects of being a charter school that others may perceive to be negative, have turned out to be positive. Due to the shortage of funds, for example, SSCS has learned how to operate very efficiently. The school’s teachers, administrators, and parents are all bargain hunters, and what funds that are available are spent only after careful consideration. What’s more, the governance structure of the SSCS Board of Trustees, which is shared among faculty, students and parents, is complicated and can be time consuming and frustrating, as sometimes board members who are also parents of students confuse their roles, and self-interest (as in any institution) gets in the way of objectivity. Nonetheless, the board’s structure and function foster a sense of partnership among faculty, students, and parents, something we feel, along with the civic education it provides to all parties, makes it worthwhile. Our faculty and staff are not paid as well as their peers in district schools, but they stay here because they love the mission, the school model, the school’s sense of community, and the culture that has evolved, a culture in which teachers are respected and heard by the administration. Teachers serve on the Board of Trustees and as advisors to the various student governance components, like the Judicial Council. There are weekly staff meetings with agendas open to both administrators and teachers, so problems and situations can be discussed. Teacher interests and talents largely drive the curriculum–both project and academic--and the school's administrators always have their doors open to teachers. Teachers are consulted in all areas of the school from the social to the academic and we know that our voices are heard and listened to. The fact that original charter school legislation did not require charter school teachers to be certified (though that legislation was amended in 2000) has had a positive effect on staffing and decision-making, as has the fact that charter school teachers are not part of the civil service/union system. Tim Anderson, in a conversation with author Rick Small at the school’s spring of 1997 auction, ironically described the faculty of the SSCS as, "a herd of iconoclasts." The truth is, we benefit from the beliefs and variety of backgrounds of our teachers and project leaders, some of whom come from private schools, others from different professional fields, and some who come with certification. To sign on at SSCS involves making a commitment to working long hours and supporting a culture in which parental involvement and communication are sought on many levels. At least in part due to our charter school status, SSCS also, in those first few years, experienced a relatively high percentage of special needs students, and SSCS’s counseling staff and budget to support that staff increased accordingly. Board members, administrators, and faculty were aware that some school districts (SSCS students come from more than 20 communities) saw the charter school as a place to send students they would prefer not to deal with, either academically or fiscally. At the time, Tim Anderson, commented on the challenge. "If we cannot help these special needs kids," he told the faculty and staff at their September 1996 meeting, "what’s the use of our school?" This attitude continues to this day as part of SSCS’s culture. In recent years, SSCS’s special needs population has decreased. In the first few years, our special needs population was more than 30% of the student body, as compared to a more typical public school population, which averages approximately 15% special needs. Over time, our special needs population has leveled off to its present 17%, according to Maureen Gaughan, the school’s director of Special Education. Interestingly, some students who might require an IEP in a more traditional public school are able to thrive without one in SSCS’s smaller, multi-age, multi-ability classrooms. Although charter school status brings with it challenges, much of the school’s success is due to its status as a charter school. Charter school status has allowed faculty and students to experiment, attempting what would be difficult in a more traditional public school system. Some of these experiments, naturally, were out and out failures (like our experiment with flexible vacation times for families and teachers), while many others have led to success. Our management structure, something unique to charter schools, is non-bureaucratic yet organized; it’s equitable and flexible when needed. Unlike in other school systems, at SSCS we are able to respond quickly, as an organization, when we need to make changes. At SSCS the management structure facilitates responsiveness. The management structure is also very much from the bottom-up, an empowerment model, and as a result the administration has to be responsive to the needs of its teachers and families. Whenever the school has moved away from this bottom-up paradigm, the parties (students, faculty, parents) most directly affected enforce self-correction. A measure of the involvement of students in the process occurred in the spring of 2000 when a group of parents recommended that SSCS lessen the community service hours required for level 4 and 5 (high school) students. It was the students, in open debate, who determined that the community service hours were a unique part of their SSCS education and should be maintained. The 1999 Renewal Inspection Report, done as part of the school’s first 5-year charter renewal, included comments on the school’s participatory governance structure: "The extensive participation by students, faculty, and parents in the school’s democratic governance effectively advances its mission. Both in its ethos and its political structure, the school invites, if not requires, the participation of everyone in the school community" (SchoolWorks 1999, 6). Extensive parental involvement is another positive aspect of SSCS, which like many charter schools, encourages parents to be involved in the life of the school. At SSCS, parents volunteer as tutors and chaperones for projects, even those overseas where parents come along at their own expense. Parents volunteer to drive on field trips, and they serve as teachers' assistants in classrooms. They prepare and serve appreciation luncheons, and they also take a lead in fund raising for the school, in our annual goods and services auction, for example. In a conversation with Tim Anderson during a spring of 2000 site visit to SSCS, Gary Baker, Superintendent of the Hingham Schools, remarked, "I wish we could establish the kind of parental involvement you have here." By nature, charter schools are pioneering endeavors and inculcate a "can do" attitude in most members of their communities. This seems like a natural development. At SSCS parents, teachers, and students all have pragmatic problem-solving mentalities, instead of blaming each other when things get tough. There is a sense among parents, faculty, and students that we are different from most traditional public schools; we require different perspectives, and not only faculty and staff but also parents and students are involved in decision-making. As a charter school, we have a mission, and a direct result of that mission, and the work we do to uphold it, is the positive atmosphere that pervades our school. Many visitors to SSCS are struck by the culture of caring and respect that has developed and been nurtured between students at every level, particularly at the high school level. There are several factors, all linked to the school’s mission, which enable this to happen:
The South Shore Charter School’s charter was renewed in the spring of 2000 for another five years. The school has evolved into a viable organization, which improves upon its education program every year. "That first year was so much fun," said Robin Coyne in personal communication with the author in May 2002. "Parents, teachers and students contributed to the school community, and that tradition continues."
About the Authors Rick Small is a professional writer whose work has been published in the Boston Globe, Publishers Weekly, Connecticut Ledger, TABs, and a variety of community newspapers. He has taught for seven years (World Cultures, Writing, Modern and Political History, Ethics, and Classics) at SSCS, where he also coaches the Poetry Slam Team. He is currently working on a non-fiction book, The Last Suburban Wolf. Pam Cooney has a Masters in Public Administration from Boston University. She worked for ten years for the City of Boston and for ten years consulting with non-profit and government agencies before she and her husband, Tim Anderson, co-founded South Shore Charter School. Currently she is operations manager of World Computer Exchange (www.worldcomputerexchange.org), a non-profit organization helping to bridge the digital divide by collecting used computers and shipping them to schools in developing countries. World Computer Exchange also partners U.S. schools with schools in developing countries.
Contact Information: South Shore Charter School
Appendix: Samples of Exit Standards
Level I [grades K-2] Exit Standards By the completion of Level I, each student must meet these minimum standards Internal and External Performance Evaluations
Portfolio:
Arts: Perform in at least two public performances per year, such as the Winter Solstice Concert or History Play in the second grade year. Community Service: A student must complete and document 5 acts of community service for each year enrolled at Level I. For students with an IEP, please consult IEP for details on any modification of Exit Standards.
Level V [grades 11-12] Exit Standards By the completion of Level V, each SSCS graduate must meet these minimum standards:
Portfolios: Present a portfolio to a panel of judges, which must include a faculty member, guidance counselor, Asst. Head or Head of School. (Scoring rubrics must be attached to all student portfolio pieces. A minimum score of 70% must be obtained.)
Technology: Attain Microsoft User Certification. Community Servic:e A student must complete no less than 40 hours during senior year and 35 hours during junior year. For students with an IEP, please consult the IEP for details of modified Exit Standards.
Works Cited SchoolWorks. 1999. Renewal Inspection Report, South Shore Charter School. Hull, MA: Author.
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