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Whole School Paper

Read Article

Courage, Discipline, and Perseverance:
MATCH Charter Public High School

By Danny Clark, Grantwriter
with Catherine Egan, Grantwriter

For Keeping the Promise:  The Massachusetts Charter School Dissemination and Replication Project, a project of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, 2007.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This paper was written as a dissemination tool to spread the best practices of the MATCH Charter Public High School.  The school is located in Boston, MA, and serves a mostly low-income, almost exclusively minority population from various neighborhoods around Boston.  The MATCH School opened in 2000 with a mission of success in college and beyond for all students, especially those who have not been led to expect a university education.  Students typically enter MATCH performing below grade level in math and reading, and with MCAS scores below the state average (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2007; Boston Globe, Top 10th Grade, 2007). To increase student academic achievement, our school has adopted a rigorous academic curriculum coupled with a strict behavioral code of conduct that is grounded in the creation of a strong school community. 

Our academic program includes a massive individual tutoring effort that is spearheaded by the MATCH Corps Tutoring Program, in which college graduates from top universities from across the country volunteer for one year to tutor 4-6 students daily in two-hour blocks.  This individualized tutoring helps students attain grade-level standards, and then participate in AP classes as juniors and seniors, which all students are required to take.  All seniors also take two classes at nearby Boston University to prepare for college-level coursework.

Thus far, our school has shown exceptional results, noted by increased MCAS scores, college acceptance and matriculation rates, attendance rates, parent satisfaction, and internal measures of student performance.  There are a number of innovative aspects of the school that have contributed to these results, and these are detailed within the paper, in addition to lessons learned in implementing these practices.

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