What is Charter and/or Essential?

Charter School Choice

To learn more, please visit:

The Massachusetts Charter School Department of Education

The Massachusetts Charter Public School Association

The Coalition of Essential Schools

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Charter schools are independent public schools that:

  • never charge tuition
  • don’t have special entry requirements
  • are designed to boost student achievement.

Millions of students across America are not getting the education they deserve. Some are limited to attending chronically underperforming public schools, while others struggle to fit their learning styles or personalities into outdated educational models that don’t meet their needs. In either case, these students often leave school unprepared for the workforce or higher education, and limiting their long-term potential.

All children and their families deserve the an education that fit them as learners and people, and public charter schools can provide that option for families. Charter Schools:

  • are closing the achievement gap and raising the bar of what’s possible in public education.
  • are shattering low expectations and breaking through long-standing barriers that have prevented large numbers of students from achieving educational success.
  • show that using the best data and most sophisticated research techniques that Charters outperform comparable traditional public schools.
  • will meet students where they are, offering parents another public school option.

Increasingly, when families are given educational choice, parents are choosing to enroll their children in charter schools. In fact, the demand for charter schools is far outpacing the supply in most communities.

The first charter public school was established in 1991 in Minnesota to allow students an opportunity to choose a different type of public school. Here in Massachusetts, the 1993 Education Reform Act authorized the Department of Education to approve this free alternative to the traditional public school district. Currently there are 83 charter public schools in Massachusetts.

Families who could afford private or parochial always had choices for education. The public charter school option has provided equity and equal access to other public educational opportunities for families. In 1995, the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School serving grades 7-12, in Devens, MA was in the first group of charter schools to open. When members of the Parker community became concerned that few students from the Fitchburg, Leominster and Gardner area were attending that school, they wrote a charter application requesting permission to open another grade 7-12 school, North Central Charter Essential School, now called Sizer School, A North Central Charter Essential School.

The charter application process is very rigorous and only the strongest applications are approved. Even after approval, charter schools are subject to careful oversight from the state including annual inspections and renewal certification every five years. While charter schools have the freedom and responsibility to provide innovative education through organizational structure, mission, and academic program; the state holds the public charter schools to high levels of accountability to the school’s mission, to carefully managing school finances and operations, and to demonstration of student achievement. Sizer opened with 200 students in grades 7-9 in the fall of 2002 and is chartered to serve 400 students in grades 7-12. Our first graduating class received diploma's in June of 2006. Sizer graduates are ready for the world. 95-100% of each of our graduating classes enrolled directly into college or post-secondary program in the fall following their graduation.

Instead of a School Committee, a Board of Trustees made up of business people, educators, and parents oversees the work of the Executive Director at Sizer. Every charter school is organized under its own specific mission, structure or philosophy. Sizer was chartered to provide an Essential School Education for a diverse group of students in grades 7-12. The school has built a strong learning community by following its mission to send graduates into the world who THINK for themselves, CARE about others and ACT creatively and responsibly.

As an Essential School, Sizer is part of a network of more than 1,000 schools across the country that follow a common set of guidelines (The 10 Common Principles, shown below) to make learning more effective, more meaningful and more powerful. Sizer students actively participate in their learning with the curriculum’s guiding principles teaching students to think for themselves. Each student has the opportunity to develop skills focused on personal academic achievement and community responsibility. Sizer School offers a safe environment where each student is valued for their individual contribution and families are encouraged to be partners in education. The school provides a diverse, inclusive, and enthusiastic learning environment with small classes, rigorous academic challenges, and enriching extracurricular activities.

How can this sort of education be free? Reallocating a piece of public education spending from traditional districts to the public charter school funds public charter schools. Charter schools receive an amount for each student that corresponds to what the sending district spends to educate that student. The state reimburses sending districts for the first three years a student is in the charter school at a gradually reduced rate: 100% for the first year; 60% the second: and 40% the third. How can I get in? All public charter schools in Massachusetts must have an inclusive enrollment policy.

Enrollment is by lottery beginning in January each year. The first week in March, we will draw the names of 80 students who will be in 7th grade for the following school year. Additional incoming 7th graders will be placed on a waiting list. Students entering grades 8-12 will be put on the waiting list to fill any openings that may occur in our current grades. That’s it! There are no long applications or essays required. Once we’ve offered you a space and you’ve accepted, we’ll have you come in for some assessments so we’ll know how best to individualize your education. This is part of our personalization process.

The public charter school choice may not be for everyone. There are advantages and disadvantages of a small school environment. While we have a variety of sports teams throughout the year, there’s no football team at Sizer. While public school bussing is available for students from Fitchburg, families from other towns must make arrangements for car-pooling or private bussing. As well, some students don’t do well with the freedom and independence in the Sizer curriculum. However, if you are looking for a school that is diverse, personalized, rigorous or would simply like to know more about the charter school choice at Sizer, we encourage you to come to one of our Information Sessions starting in January. More Information Sessions will be posted on our website calendar.

Enrollment begins January of each year for the upcoming Fall

We are located at 500 Rindge Road in Fitchburg, MA. Our students attend this combination middle and high school from close to 30 towns across Central Massachusetts. Our new building has allow us to reach full capacity at 400 students. Join us!

Sizer families travel to Fitchburg from as far away as Athol, Orange, Rutland, Barre, Groton, Harvard and Sudbury to access our innovative learning environment. Enrollment interest forms for the coming school year are available on the "Future Student" portion of our website. Open lotteries for fall enrollment will be held throughout the spring until all slots are filled. If you want more information about the school and how it may be able to serve your family, or if you would like to find out about limited openings available for the current school year, please call (978)345-2701 or e-mail [email protected]

The 10 Common Principles

These Principles serve as a guiding philosophy rather than a replicable model for schools and describe the core beliefs and characteristics of Essential Schools.

ENGLISH:

1. Learning to use one’s mind well: The school should focus on helping young people learn to use their minds well. Schools should not be "comprehensive" if such a claim is made at the expense of the school's central intellectual purpose

2. Less is more, depth over coverage: The school's goals should be simple: that each student master a limited number of essential skills and areas of knowledge. While these skills and areas will, to varying degrees, reflect the traditional academic disciplines, the program's design should be shaped by the intellectual and imaginative powers and competencies that the students need, rather than by "subjects" as conventionally defined. The aphorism "less is more" should dominate: curricular decisions should be guided by the aim of thorough student mastery and achievement rather than by an effort to merely cover content.

3. Goals apply to all students: The school's goals should apply to all students, while the means to these goals will vary as those students themselves vary. School practice should be tailor-made to meet the needs of every group or class of students.

4. Personalization: Teaching and learning should be personalized to the maximum feasible extent. Efforts should be directed toward a goal that no teacher have direct responsibility for more than 80 students in the high school and middle school and no more than 20 in the elementary school. To capitalize on this personalization, decisions about the details of the course of study, the use of students' and teachers' time and the choice of teaching materials and specific pedagogies must be unreservedly placed in the hands of the principal and staff.

5. Student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach: The governing practical metaphor of the school should be student-as-worker, rather than the more familiar metaphor of teacher-as-deliverer-of-instructional-services. Accordingly, a prominent pedagogy will be coaching, to provoke students to learn how to learn and thus to teach themselves.

6. Demonstration of mastery: Teaching and learning should be documented and assessed with tools based on student performance of real tasks. Students not yet at appropriate levels of competence should be provided intensive support and resources to assist them quickly to meet those standards. Multiple forms of evidence, ranging from ongoing observation of the learner to completion of specific projects, should be used to better understand the learner's strengths and needs, and to plan for further assistance. Students should have opportunities to exhibit their expertise before family and community. The diploma should be awarded upon a successful final demonstration of mastery for graduation - an "Exhibition." As the diploma is awarded when earned, the school's program proceeds with no strict age grading and with no system of credits earned" by "time spent" in class. The emphasis is on the students' demonstration that they can do important things.

7. A tone of decency and trust: The tone of the school should explicitly and self-consciously stress values of unanxious expectation ("I won't threaten you but I expect much of you"), of trust (until abused) and of decency (the values of fairness, generosity and tolerance). Incentives appropriate to the school's particular students and teachers should be emphasized. Parents should be key collaborators and vital members of the school community.

8. Commitment to the entire school: The principal and teachers should perceive themselves as generalists first (teachers and scholars in general education) and specialists second (experts in but one particular discipline). Staff should expect multiple obligations (teacher-counselor-manager) and a sense of commitment to the entire school.

9. Resources dedicated to teaching and learning: Ultimate administrative and budget targets should include student loads that promote personalization, substantial time for collective planning by teachers, competitive salaries for staff, and an ultimate per pupil cost not to exceed that at traditional schools by more than 10 percent. To accomplish this, administrative plans may have to show the phased reduction or elimination of some services now provided students in many traditional schools.

10. Democracy and equity: The school should demonstrate non-discriminatory and inclusive policies, practices, and pedagogies. It should model democratic practices that involve all who are directly affected by the school. The school should honor diversity and build on the strength of its communities, deliberately and explicitly challenging all forms of inequity.

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