Whole School Paper

Roxbury Preparatory Charter School:
Student Achievement is our Bottom Line

By Laura Christian, Director of Development
Dana Lehman, Co-Director
Joshua Phillips, Co-Director

Keeping the Promise: The Massachusetts Charter School Dissemination and Replication Project

Massachusetts Charter Public School Association

2007

ABSTRACT

Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, serving students in grades 6-8, was established in 1999 to address the academic and social needs of underprivileged students living in Boston. By providing a rigorous curriculum in a safe and structured environment, we have been able to fulfill our mission of preparing students to enter, succeed in, and graduate from college. In this paper, we highlight what we believe are the reasons for our students’ overwhelming success, which has been measured by their achievements on internal and external assessments and their high school and college placement results. The paper emphasizes our rigorous curriculum, our strict code of conduct, and the ways in which we support the profession of teaching.

HISTORY

Roxbury Preparatory Charter School was founded in 1999 by Mr. Evan Rudall, Dr. J. Keith Motley, and Dr. Roger Harris. Their goal was to establish a college preparatory middle school that would provide a rigorous curriculum for Boston’s urban students. With only about half of African American and Latino students graduating from high school in four years, (Green & Winters, 2005) Roxbury Prep aimed to address the needs of urban families from communities such as Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan. Our first sixth grade class enrolled in the fall of 1999, and by the 2001-2002 school year, our school had grown to a full middle school, serving students in grades 6-8.

Located on the third floor of the Edgar Benjamin Healthcare Center in Mission Hill, Roxbury Preparatory Charter School currently serves two hundred students. Demographic data from 2006-2007 showed our student body as composed entirely of students of color (Massachusetts Department of Education, Enrollment, 2006). Most students lived in single-parent households, and sixty-two percent qualified for either free or reduced-price lunch. Internal and external assessments of entering sixth grade students have continued to indicate that many of our students arrive lacking basic academic skills--typically one-third of students enroll scoring at least two years below grade level on the Stanford 9 Achievement Test (Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, Annual Report, 2006).

Our teaching and learning model, which is centered on high academic and behavioral expectations, a safe, strict, and structured learning environment, and a professional culture of excellence in teaching has yielded impressive results in our students' performance. According to data from the Massachusetts Department of Education (2006), Roxbury Prep has been the highest performing urban middle school on the state MCAS exams for the past three years (2004-2006). In addition, our students have outperformed students in the most affluent districts in Massachusetts. In 2006, the average difference in statewide failure rates on the eighth grade math MCAS exam between black and Latino students and their white peers was thirty-four percentage points. The average difference in statewide failure rates between black and Latino students and their white peers on the seventh grade English MCAS exam was sixteen percentage points. On the eighth grade science MCAS exam, the average difference in statewide failure rates between black and Latino students and their white peers was forty percentage points (Massachusetts Department of Education, MCAS, 2006). Our school has shown that the under-performance of urban students of color can be eradicated with proper academic preparation. In fact, on six of the seven 2006 MCAS exams, the percentage of Roxbury Prep students scoring Advanced or Proficient was higher than that of the state’s white students, effectively closing the racial achievement gap (Massachusetts Department of Education, MCAS, 2006).

MISSION, GOALS, AND OBJECTIVES

At Roxbury Prep, we always explain that, “student achievement is our bottom line.” Our mission is to prepare students to enter, succeed in, and graduate from college. Roxbury Prep is founded on the philosophy that all students are entitled to and can succeed in college preparatory programs when: 1) the curriculum is rigorous, engaging, and well-planned; 2) the school emphasizes student character, community responsibility, and exposure to life’s possibilities; and 3) a community network supports student academic, social, and physical well-being. Roxbury Prep helps students gain admission to outstanding public and private college preparatory high schools.

KEYS TO OUR SCHOOL'S SUCCESS

Most students enter Roxbury Prep two or more grade levels behind in their math and literacy skills. This makes it difficult for them to meet our high academic expectations. However, our rigorous curriculum, constant communication with families, and interventions such as tutoring, Homework Center, Saturday School, and our Summer Academic Program help ensure that our students achieve academic success. Coupling these interventions with a strict promotion policy helps ensure that students do not progress to the next grade until they have clearly mastered the material. Other elements of our success can be attributed to our structured school setting, which is maintained by a strict code of conduct and explicit character development initiatives. Equally important is the hard work, motivation, and commitment of our teaching faculty and the families of our students.

Rigorous Curriculum and High Academic Expectations

Our program rests upon a rigorous curriculum focused on reading, writing, speaking, and mathematics. We use state frameworks, Advanced Placement exams, and other successful college preparatory programs to establish specific, rigorous, and measurable academic standards. Though our standards do not always correspond directly with the state curriculum frameworks, every Massachusetts standard receives significant attention in our curriculum. Using a Curriculum Alignment Template (CAT--see Appendix A), teachers spend three weeks in August before the beginning of school breaking down every Massachusetts standard into clear, measurable, internal standards, and matching each standard with a learning activity and an assessment. Within this format, teachers answer three critical questions:

• What do my students need to know or be able to do?
• How will I teach the content and skills?
• How will I know if students have mastered the content and skills?

Our approach to curriculum, instruction, and assessment is the key to establishing a level of academic rigor that truly prepares students for success in high school and college. All Roxbury Prep students take six academic classes each year in addition to physical education, computers, and enrichment. Teachers use data from final exams, MCAS, Stanford 9, and the SSAT to determine which standards and skills require the most emphasis, and adjust the curriculum accordingly. In addition, teachers analyze data from comprehensive assessments, tests, quizzes, and informal assessments throughout the year to adjust their weekly and daily plans, and to utilize tutoring effectively. We communicate our expectations to students and their families by distributing weekly syllabi, which include standards to be mastered, daily objectives, activities, and homework assignments. (See Appendix B)

In addition to showing mastery of all the standards in a particular course, students must also pass comprehensive assessments for each class in order to be promoted. A comprehensive assessment or “Comp” consists of a written assignment or project (e.g., lab report or essay) that reflects the content and skill standards of the class, and/or a final exam that measures mastery of the course standards. We administer comprehensive assessments at the beginning of the year to establish a baseline, at the end of first and second trimesters to measure student progress, and in June to determine promotion. Students who do not receive credit for one or two courses (because their coursework or comprehensive assessment average was not above 60 percent) must attend summer school. Students who do not receive credit for three or more courses must repeat the grade.

Roxbury Prep Academic Courses by Grade

Extended Academic Day/Enrichment Program: The school day at Roxbury Prep starts at 7:45 a.m. with twenty-five minutes of school-wide sustained silent reading. On Monday through Thursday, academic classes begin at 8:15 a.m. and end at 3:10 p.m. Our Friday schedule starts with Advisory from 7:45 a.m. - 8:30 a.m., followed by academic classes, Community Meeting, and lunch; students are dismissed at 1:20 p.m. (Please see sections below for more information regarding the Advisory curriculum and Community Meeting). Each academic class is fifty minutes in length. Hallway transitions between classes are silent, and students must line up outside of each class and wait to be welcomed in by a teacher. This practice ensures that the full fifty minutes of class is devoted to teaching and learning.

Students remain in school until 4:15 p.m. for an extended-day enrichment program. During Enrichment, students engage in a variety of extracurricular activities (e.g., dance, art, percussion, knitting, basketball, baseball, etc.). (See Appendix C) We have enlisted the support and expertise of local artists and teachers to give students the much-needed opportunity to express themselves through drawing, painting, music, singing, drama, and athletics. Enrichment helps ensure that students remain engaged in productive and healthy activities after school and gives students exposure to athletics, visual arts, and the performing arts.

We believe that these activities are critical to preparing our students for success in high school and college. In fact, according to a study by the Arts Education Partnership, arts education is directly linked to the development of academic skills; for example, instrumental music lessons improve performance on the verbal section of the SAT, drama strengthens students’ reading comprehension and writing proficiency, and visual arts training helps students with the content and organization of their writing (Catterall, 2002). Our Co-Directors, the Director of Development, and members of the Board of Trustees spend a significant amount of time raising private funds from foundations, corporations, and individual constituents to support Enrichment, along with other Roxbury Prep “givens,” such as Saturday School, Homework Center, after-school clubs, and summer programs.

Structured Instructional Approach

Our structured school setting reflects the sense of accountability that is seen throughout Roxbury Prep. Several of our instructional strategies are implemented on a school-wide basis, reinforcing approaches to learning that help our students succeed. These strategies include:

Common Blackboard Configuration: We apply “The Blackboard Configuration (BBC),” developed by Dr. Lorraine Monroe at the Frederick Douglass Academy in New York City (Monroe, n.d). The BBC provides a way for teachers to organize each daily lesson and make their plans and expectations clear to students and their families, who receive components of the BBC on the weekly syllabus. In every one of our classes, teachers display the following items:

• A specific and measurable “Aim” for the day (connected to our CAT standards);
• A “Do Now,” or opening activity that immediately engages students in writing for two to five minutes;
• The “Agenda,” or list of activities for the class period; and
• The “Homework” assignment due the following day.

Common Approaches to Literacy: We have developed common strategies for writing prose and for reading nonfiction texts across every subject. Our writing strategy emphasizes grammatical precision, the use of multiple drafts, and continuous revision to ensure that student essays are well organized, clear, and expressive. We also employ two school-wide approaches to reading instruction. Our adapted version of the Guided Reading strategy, developed by Irene Fountas and Gay Pinnell (2001), and used by our math, science, and history teachers, as well as in our reading classes, is designed to maximize student comprehension. Guided Reading involves pre-reading, identifying textual landmarks, hypothesizing about major themes, and actively reading, reviewing, and answering post-reading questions. We engage in word-study as a school-wide literacy strategy, enabling students in all classes to acquire new vocabulary independently by teaching roots, synonyms, antonyms, shared word-parts, and the use of contextual clues. Since word study strategies are reinforced in every class, students are able to become proficient at figuring out the meanings of new vocabulary and using advanced vocabulary in their writing and speaking. For example, when a science class begins a new unit on photosynthesis, the science teacher will first break down the word into parts (e.g. photo and synthesis). S/he might then ask students to use their previous knowledge to define each part of the word before piecing them together to understand that photosynthesis is the process where plants use energy from sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar and oxygen.

Double Math and Double Literacy: In order to adequately address all the skills students need to be successful in high school and college, each Roxbury Prep student takes two math classes and two literacy classes each day. In math, one class is focused on math procedures while the other is focused on math problem-solving. By addressing both mathematical concepts and problem-solving strategies, our students effectively complete six years of math instruction in three years. In literacy, students take reading and English each day, ensuring that appropriate time is spent on reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing.

Drop Everything and Read (DEAR): Each morning, Monday through Thursday, the entire school begins the day with DEAR, during which all teachers and students read silently and individually for the first twenty-five minutes of school. Educational research has shown that providing students with the opportunity to regularly read for pleasure promotes student literacy (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1996). Students and teachers also correspond bi-weekly with one another on topics related to their reading through DEAR journals. Students are asked to choose their own DEAR books and to make enjoyment the highest priority in selecting their daily reading. With the help of some very generous donors, the Literacy Center (our school library) has developed an extensive book collection to support DEAR.

Homework Center: Our homework expectations are high and unwavering. Each student is assigned 2 - 3 hours of homework each night. Students are required to record their homework on assignment charts distributed to all classes at the beginning of each week. If a student is absent or wants to ensure that s/he correctly recorded the homework for the day, s/he can call the school after 5:00 p.m. to listen to the current day’s assignments recorded on the school’s homework hotline. Students must submit homework on time to receive full credit; late homework may be submitted for partial credit by the start of class the next day. Students who fail to turn in an assignment or who turn in an incomplete assignment are assigned a homework demerit.

We have learned through experience that not every student has a home environment that is conducive to helping him/her meet our rigorous and strict homework standards. Our Homework Center prevents students from slipping into a cycle of incompletes or demerits. Monitored by teachers, it provides the quiet space, supervision, and academic support needed to make sure that struggling students complete their homework to the best of their ability every night. The program produces a near perfect homework completion rate, thereby helping to improve students’ academic skills and grades. Approximately twenty-five students are mandated to attend Homework Center each year. Homework Center runs Monday - Thursday from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. When students develop independent homework skills, they are promoted from Homework Center, leaving room for new students to take their places.

Individual and Small Group Tutoring: Teachers provide individual and small group tutoring to students before school, during school, or after school for one hour each day as part of their teaching responsibilities. This provides students with multiple opportunities to receive support in their academic subjects. In addition, mandatory Saturday School sessions are provided for students who could benefit from additional support in a particular subject area. Saturday School is taught by Roxbury Prep teachers when they feel the extra instruction is needed. Students are identified for tutoring and Saturday School by their teachers; in addition, students can request tutoring when they need additional assistance.

Attached, please see the Roxbury Prep schedule (Appendix D).

Summer Academic Program: Students who receive coursework grades or comprehensive assessment scores below sixty percent in one or two courses are required to attend our Summer Academic Program and pass a second round of comprehensive assessments in order to receive course credit and be promoted. Students who meet the school’s standards for promotion, but could benefit from academic reinforcement and additional review also may be required to participate. Through this extra intensive instruction and support, students gain an opportunity to meet and exceed course promotion standards. Our Summer Academic Program, which is funded through private donations from individuals, foundations, and corporations, takes place during the month of July at the school. Teachers use assessments from the school year to develop curriculum to address the needs of the students attending, and class sizes are small (less than ten). This approach has been highly successful, resulting in a nearly one hundred percent promotion rate over the past three years.

High Behavioral Standards

Code of Conduct and Dress Code: We believe that student achievement is dependent upon a positive, safe, caring, and vibrant school community. Creating a safe and structured environment allows Roxbury Prep teachers to use every minute of class effectively to nurture each student’s academic and personal talents and accomplishments. To this end, our school enforces a strict code of conduct, which does not tolerate disruptions, disrespect, threats, fights, weapons, drugs, and alcohol. We articulate our behavioral expectations to students and their families before the start of sixth grade at information and orientation sessions, and we continue to emphasize the importance of these behavioral standards throughout the year. In order to promote a shared sense of responsibility and accountability for complying with these standards, students, family members, and a Roxbury Prep staff member must all sign a Roxbury Prep Family and School Contract.

Our dress code creates a strong sense of community, and also helps to ensure that students focus on learning instead of clothing. For boys, the dress code consists of navy blue or tan-colored dress pants, light blue long-sleeved Oxford-style dress shirt, brown or black belts, brown or black dress shoes, and a necktie. The same is true for girls, although ties are optional; girls can wear navy blue or tan skirts that cover the knees. Students not in compliance with the dress code are not allowed to attend class. Their parent is contacted, and they must be picked up from school, brought the appropriate clothing, or given permission to leave to get the appropriate clothing.

Both the dress code and the code of conduct (see Appendix E) are effective because they are transparent and consistently enforced throughout the school. Our students respond positively to these policies, because they understand that the systems are in place to allow them to focus on their learning. Consistent enforcement enables students to know what to expect from teachers and staff members in and out of class every day; in essence, there are no surprises.

Character Development and Community

Advisory Curriculum: Roxbury Prep students follow a character development curriculum that helps deepen their understanding of such concepts as dignity, community, and leadership. The Advisory curriculum provides an opportunity for students to read, write, reflect, and discuss the elements of the Roxbury Prep Creed as they relate to current events or their individual experiences. Every Friday, students meet in their Advisories from 7:45 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. to participate in activities that help them develop good character, create community, and become positive participants in their own and their peers’ education. The Roxbury Prep Creed (see below) gives the school community a common language with which to discuss character development.

The Roxbury Prep Creed

1. Scholarship: We think critically and aspire to and achieve academic excellence.
2. Integrity: We are honest and ethical in our words and our actions.
3. Dignity: We have self-respect and honor our heritages.
4. Responsibility: We are accountable for our decisions and our actions.
5. Perseverance: We are resourceful, work hard, and always strive to do our best.
6. Community: We use our talents to make positive contributions to our communities.
7. Leadership: We act on the principle that if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem.
8. Peace: We resolve conflicts with compassion and help others to do the same.
9. Social Justice: We endeavor to make our society more just.
10. Investment: We are reflective, act with foresight, and invest in our futures.

Creed Deeds: “Creed Deeds” are awarded for actions that reflect specific values addressed in the Roxbury Prep Creed (e.g., volunteering to clean up the classroom after a lab, completing an extra-credit project, or helping a peer study for a test). Only staff members can award Creed Deeds to students, and students are able to see their cumulative creed deed points (as well as their number of demerits) updated and posted daily at school. Students “cash in” their Creed Deeds at bi-monthly auctions where Creed Deeds can be redeemed for gift certificates and prizes. Students who earn the most Creed Deeds in a set period of time are honored at Community Meeting. In this way, our school further develops good character and fosters a sense of community among students and teachers.

Community Meeting: Every Friday, students and teachers gather for Community Meeting, which is led by students and celebrates their academic and extracurricular achievements. Community Meeting is a highlight of the week, allowing students the opportunity to share what they are learning in their classes, improve their public speaking skills, and build a strong sense of community. At our community meetings, we recognize Creed Deeds and award a “Spirit Stick” to a student whose actions during a given week are most emblematic of the values of the Roxbury Prep Creed.

Summer Enrichment: In addition to after-school enrichment activities, we also offer an extensive enrichment program at our Summer Institute, which is funded through the generous support of several donors. Members of our staff as well as outside experts teach Institute classes in three-week sessions. A few of our previously offered classes have included “Overnight Camping,” “Science Tricks and Field Trips,” “Tennis,” and “Write What You Like.” In the summer of 2006, fourteen percent of Roxbury Prep students participated in Summer Institute classes; in 2007, fifteen percent (30 students) participated in Summer Institute classes.

Family Involvement: Families are our school's most important community partners. Since Roxbury Prep is a school of choice, our families have consciously sought out the college preparatory experience that we provide. At information sessions, orientations, and family meetings, we make our academic, homework, and behavioral expectations extremely clear, and discuss how the fulfillment of these expectations is crucial to accomplishing our mission, asking for their support. Families play a critical role by monitoring homework, communicating on at least a bi-weekly basis with their child’s teachers, and supporting our school’s high expectations.

Faculty: Our school has a diverse staff that is incredibly talented and extremely hard-working, and who reflect the backgrounds and experiences of our students. Our collegial environment and supportive structure enables us to attract and retain outstanding and experienced teachers. During the 2006-2007 school year, we received more than one thousand applications for six openings for the 2007-2008 academic year. The Co-Directors spend nearly every Saturday from January through June interviewing numerous candidates for an average of four vacancies per year. Roxbury Prep’s hiring process -- similar to most elements of our school -- is both transparent and explicit. The inherent challenges in taking students who are one to four grade levels behind and ensuring that they meet and ultimately exceed grade level expectations are made abundantly clear to prospective teachers. Individuals who sign teaching contracts understand the commitment they are making and, in fact, we hire those teachers who are actively seeking such a commitment. Eighty-six percent of our staff holds an advanced degree, and all have experience and a passion for working with urban middle school students. Our leadership team, as well as parents, often point to the Roxbury Prep staff as THE reason for the success of students.

“We feel very privileged to have the opportunity to send our child to such an outstanding school. We are confident the RPC experience will advance our child academically and assist him in maturing into the student that exemplifies the RPC standards. The entire RPC staff is very loving, enduring, able and dedicated group of educators” -- 6^th grade parent (Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, Annual Report, 2006).

INDICATORS OF OUR SUCCESS

We measure our success through internal and external assessments, family and alumni feedback, and high school and college placement results.

External and Internal Assessments

Our external assessments include the MCAS exam, the Stanford 9 exam for sixth grade students, and the SSAT for seventh and eighth grade students. For the third consecutive year, Roxbury Preparatory Charter School -- an Intel and Scholastic School of Distinction (Intel & Scholastic, 2006) -- stands as the highest-performing urban middle school in the Commonwealth. On the 2006 eighth grade math MCAS test, our school outperformed every school district in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and ranked second out of 458 schools in the state (Massachusetts Department of Education, MCAS, 2006). (See Appendix F)

We administer the Stanford 9 Achievement Test to incoming sixth grade students each September to establish their baseline skill levels. Then we administer the test again in April to measure student progress. During the 2006-2007 academic year, all sixth grade students, including those with Individualized Education Plans, took the test with impressive results. (See Appendix G) In fact, the sixth grade class made an average of 2.4 grade levels of progress in reading, 3.0 grade levels of progress in English grammar and usage, and 5.3 grade levels of progress in math (Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, Annual Report, 2007).

Our students take the Secondary School Admissions Test (SSAT) in both seventh and eighth grade as a way of assessing their abilities in mathematics, language, and reading comprehension. The SSAT is widely used in the application process for independent college preparatory schools, and gives students practice taking rigorous high school and college entrance exams. Teachers address the skills assessed by the SSAT and incorporate appropriate learning into their curriculum. As seen in Appendix H, Roxbury Prep students make significant progress between their seventh and eighth grade years in the reading, verbal, and math portions of the SSAT (Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, Annual Report, 2006).

We also administer internal comprehensive assessments to measure student progress toward our set academic standards. As explained earlier, in addition to the coursework, each student must receive passing grades on the comprehensive assessments that are developed for each course taken. These assessments generally include a written assignment or project (e.g., lab report or essay) that reflects the content and skill standard of the class, and a final exam that measures mastery of the course standards. We administer the final exam for each course in September, as well as in June of each academic year, in order to compare student performance and assess how much learning has taken place. The difference in average scores for each comprehensive assessment between September and June (see Appendix I) demonstrates that students have indeed made significant steps toward mastering academic standards.

Family and Alumni Feedback

Roxbury Prep keeps families involved and well-informed through orientations, family nights, family/teacher conferences, family breakfasts, advisory/family phone calls, monthly academic progress reports, evening programs, and the Family Involvement Committee. Annual surveys also help us keep family concerns in mind; feedback from families helps inform what we do on a day-to-day basis. (See Appendix J)

The Family Involvement Committee (FIC) provides opportunities for families to interact and become more involved in Roxbury Prep and their student’s educational experience. The FIC holds meetings approximately once a month on such topics as Literacy at Home, Children and Nutrition, and Saving for College. In 2006-2007, ninety-two percent of families surveyed found Family Involvement Committee Activities very useful (Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, Annual Report, 2007).

Another effective way to assess family feedback and community reputation is through our application process. (See Appendix K) This spring, over 150 families -- many who heard of Roxbury Prep through word of mouth as indicated on the application for our lottery -- applied for 75 sixth grade openings for the 2007-2008 school year. The fact that the desire to attend Roxbury Prep far outweighs the number of openings available clearly demonstrates that families in our community continue to demand a rigorous school with a track record of promoting student academic success.

High School and College Placement

Admission to the most successful college preparatory high school programs is based on competitive and often complex application processes. Barriers can exist in the form of application fees, geographic distance, lack of awareness of high school options, standardized test preparation, and language. Our High School Placement Coordinator helps to address these issues by assisting families throughout the entire high school application process. In the spring of 2007, sixty-six percent of our eighth grade class gained admission to college preparatory independent, parochial, and exam schools; and one hundred percent gained admission to high schools with an explicit college preparatory mission. (See Appendix L) In the process, these students earned over $400,000 in scholarships and financial aid.

In addition, eighty-four percent of Roxbury Prep’s first graduating class -- the Class of 2002 -- has matriculated to two-and four-year colleges and universities, while over eighty-seven percent of Roxbury Prep’s second graduating class -- the Class of 2003 -- will begin college in the fall of 2007. (See Appendix M) This is an impressive figure, considering that nation-wide only forty-three percent of students of color graduate from high school ready to enter college (Green & Winters, 2005).

When our first graduating class -- the Class of 2002 -- left for high school, nobody knew the long-term impact Roxbury Prep would have on those students and successive graduating classes. We were somewhat surprised when, at a minimum, two graduates per week were returning to Roxbury Prep -- to volunteer, to talk to teachers, and to ask for help. To effectively address our alumni's needs, we created the Middle School Aspirations and Pathways (MAPS) to College Program. This program offers Roxbury Prep alumni continued guidance and support in their preparation for college through tutoring, SAT prep classes, college application assistance, and summer programs. Staff members make weekly phone calls to Roxbury Prep alumni and visit their high schools to meet with teachers and administrators. The goal of the program is to teach Roxbury Prep alumni how to advocate for themselves; to that end, staff members work with each Roxbury Prep graduate to create an individualized plan for successfully navigating high school.

Alumni feedback on their subsequent experience continues to help inform, strengthen, and enhance our middle school program, providing a valuable perspective for our current students, teachers, administrators, and Trustees. When our graduates return to speak with current students about their high school and college experiences, their testimonials encourage our students to set their goals high and to work diligently in order to achieve them. We are most pleased that our alums still subscribe to our culture of achievement and have used the values they have gained at Roxbury Prep to attain continued academic success. In addition, our alums' continued support, interest, and participation in our MAPS program is an enormous indicator of our school's success.

IMPLEMENTATION -- SUPPORTING TEACHING AND LEARNING

There are multiple factors that contribute to the successful implementation of the strategies and structures outlined above. Our rigorous curriculum, the Enrichment Program, and the Creed Deed system are just a few elements that visitors to Roxbury Prep inquire about in hopes of replicating our success in their school settings. However, those strategies and structures do not function in a vacuum. They function only because we have created an environment that is focused on teaching and learning. In other words, our systems are effective only because of our unwavering commitment to teachers’ teaching and students learning one hundred percent of the time. With student achievement as their ultimate goal, our teachers are given the support they need to constantly work to improve their teaching. Our school schedule provides teachers with the planning time they need to be effective in the classroom, and enables them to expand their skills through collaboration and professional development. In addition, our distributed leadership model provides teachers an opportunity to expand their knowledge and skills in a variety of pedagogical and administrative areas.

Planning and Collaboration Time: For three weeks prior to the start of school, our teachers meet in grade-level teams, subject area teams, and as an entire faculty to engage in data analysis and the writing of the upcoming year’s curriculum. By the time school begins, teachers have designed their entire curriculum, including their first and second trimester Comprehensive Assessments and Final Comprehensive Assessments. More importantly, they have worked collaboratively to set the tone for the school year and to ensure that the academic bar for all classes is consistently high. Since teachers plan out the standards and assessments for the year in August, teachers use their planning time during the year to refine activities and lessons based on the individual needs of their students, rather than to create them from scratch. Many members of the faculty note that the August planning time is a major highlight of the school year. August planning time is financed by a combination of state and federal grants, as well privately raised funds.

In addition to the August planning time, our daily schedule reflects the priorities and needs of high-performing teachers. Each day, teachers teach either three academic classes and an Enrichment class, or four academic classes. As a result, teachers are left with four 50-minute periods a day to tutor, plan, grade, call families, meet with colleagues, or observe a fellow teacher. This realistic approach to scheduling, even if it is a more costly model and requires additional funding (private funds are used to support the additional math class and additional literacy class), is necessary for student achievement and teacher efficacy. In addition, teachers are allotted time to take part in four meetings on a weekly basis: each academic department meets for one period to discuss curriculum, instruction, and assessment; and on Friday afternoons, students are dismissed at 1:20 p.m., so that teachers can meet in grade-level teams, inquiry groups, and as an entire staff. Over the course of the school year, teachers use these meeting times to continue data analysis projects and incorporate their analysis in a way that improves instruction. By providing a schedule that allows for frequent collaboration, we instill in our faculty a commitment to excellence and camaraderie, which results in our teachers being invested in their lessons, in their colleagues, and ultimately in their students. Our teachers are willing to devote a great deal of time and energy to do the work necessary to ensure students’ academic success because of their commitment to our school-wide culture of excellence.

Inquiry Groups: We enable our teachers to take full advantage of the best educational resource in any school building: other teachers. One of the ways teachers collaborate and develop is through inquiry groups, which meet weekly for one hour. In these shared leadership groups, teachers analyze student work and engage in dialogue about best practices to achieve student learning goals. The benefits are significant: time to reflect on teaching, improve pedagogy, and collaborate and learn from each other to make sure that their instruction continues to engage, challenge, and motivate students to achieve academically. The teachers who lead Inquiry Group meetings meet regularly with the Co-Director for Curriculum and Instruction and use a specific protocol for overseeing each week’s session. Inquiry groups give our teachers the support, space, and flexibility to alter their curriculum to most effectively meet the needs of our students.

Distributed Leadership: Since Roxbury Prep is a small school with a fairly lean administrative structure, our teachers often take on leadership roles such as Enrichment Coordinator, Grade-Level Team Facilitator, or Department Coach. This is another way that our school's structure promotes the profession of teaching. For example, both of our current Co-Directors were initially teachers at the school. Past teachers who took on leadership roles at Roxbury Prep have gone on to start their own schools. And many of our teachers have used the opportunity to develop their leadership skills in order to become master teachers and/or to mentor newer teachers.

CHARTER SCHOOL STATUS, CHALLENGES AND NEXT STEPS

As a charter school, we have the freedom to establish a clear mission and foster a culture of academic rigor and high expectations. Our Co-Directors have complete control over the hiring process and, if necessary, have the ability to let staff members go. In addition, we are free to set policies for students such as a formal dress code and to require 2 Ω hours of homework each night. In exchange for these freedoms, we face greater accountability. If we do not produce satisfactory results, we could face the non-renewal of our charter by the Department of Education. However, we embrace this high level of accountability and believe that all educational organizations should be held to extremely high standards.

As with all schools, there are inherent challenges that we must continuously work to overcome. Each year, a new group of sixth grade students enters Roxbury Prep lacking the basic skills necessary to succeed academically. Our program must constantly be refined in order to respond to the ever-changing needs of our students. And while we have achieved excellent improvement in our students' performance, we need to assure that our students make even more progress in literacy to be truly ready for the most rigorous high schools and colleges.

It is also a challenge to have one hundred percent family buy-in to all the rules, regulations, and workload at Roxbury Prep. In order to fulfill our mission, we must make sure that all families truly understand the amount of energy and the level of commitment that it takes to be successful and prepared for college and beyond.

Finally, in order to provide students with the enriching experiences that are typically scarce for urban low-income students, we must continue to raise private funds from individual donors, foundations, and corporations. To operate such programs as Enrichment, Summer School, Summer Institute, Graduate Services, Homework Center, and Saturday School, we raise approximately fifteen percent of our operating budget ($450,000 per year) from private sources. Although this is a difficult task, we believe strongly that these activities are an essential component of preparing students to enter, succeed in, and graduate from college. These types of activities are part of the “normal” experience of students attending private schools or affluent public schools; therefore, we believe that they should be part of our students’ experiences as well.

CONCLUSION

Our community has done a tremendous job of helping to fulfill our mission of preparing students to enter, succeed in, and graduate from college. High expectations, consistent systems, and defined structures are elements that are clearly evident when an individual visits Roxbury Prep. What is more difficult to define, yet infinitely critical to our school's success, is a culture of achievement that is promoted by the school’s leaders, embodied by the staff, and embraced by families and students. It is this internal, consistent vision focused on student achievement that motivates teachers, students, and families to invest in three intense years at Roxbury Prep.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Laura Christian is the Director of Development at Roxbury Preparatory Charter School. Prior to joining Roxbury Prep, Ms. Christian served as a Project Director for Mass Networks Education Partnership and taught sixth grade at the Hillbrook School in Los Gatos, CA. Ms. Christian holds a B.A in Psychology/Sociology from Middlebury College and an M.A. in Education from Lesley University.

Dana Lehman is Co-Director at Roxbury Prep, where she previously served as an eighth grade science teacher and the Enrichment Coordinator. Before coming to Roxbury Prep, Ms. Lehman taught Physics at Fort Worth Country Day School in Forth Worth, Texas and Radnor High School in Radnor, MA. She also served as Director of Summerbridge Fort Worth, a non-profit academic enrichment program located in Forth Worth, Texas. Ms. Lehman holds a B.A. in Physics from Swarthmore College and an M.A. in Educational Studies from Tufts University.

Joshua Phillips is Co-Director at Roxbury Prep, where he previously served as the Enrichment Coordinator and sixth grade world history teacher. Mr. Phillips also was a history teacher-intern at the John D. O’Bryant School of Math and Science in Roxbury, MA while earning an Ed.M. in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard University, and served on the fifth grade team at the Brunswick School in Greenwich, CT. Mr. Phillips received his B.A. in Political Science from Colgate University and his M.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

SCHOOL CONTACT INFORMATION

Roxbury Preparatory Charter School
120 Fisher Avenue
Roxbury, MA 02120
(617) 566-2361

www.roxburyprep.org
office@roxburyprep.org

Appendices

Appendices are included in this document in PDF Form, Please click on the link below to view.

Appendix A thru M

References

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Roxbury Preparatory Charter School. (2007-2008). Academic schedule. (Available from Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, 120 Fisher Avenue, Roxbury, MA, 02120)

Roxbury Preparatory Charter School. (2006). Annual report, 2005-06. (Available from Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, 120 Fisher Avenue, Roxbury, MA, 02120)

Roxbury Preparatory Charter School. (2007). Annual report, 2006-07. (Available from Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, 120 Fisher Avenue, Roxbury, MA, 02120)

This paper was developed under a grant from the U.S. Dept. of Education, CFDA #84.282N, Award #U282N060005. The content does not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and endorsement by the Federal government should not be assumed.