A child-centered, progressive, urban, democratically-structured K-8 public school, supporting students with diverse learning abilities.

Problem

In the words of the Mission Hill K-8 School (MHS) Statement of Purpose: "To help parents raise youngsters who will maintain and nurture the best habits of a democratic society, be smart, caring, strong, resilient, imaginative and thoughtful. It (the school) aims at producing youngsters who can live productive, socially useful and personally satisfying lives, while also respecting the rights of all others."

Solution

For over 15 years, the staff of MHS has created a dynamic, supportive, inclusive, and successful learning community in which children and their their families maintain and nurture the democratic habits described above. The school is being moved in September 2012, expanding to accept three and four year-old students, half of whom will have special needs. Through an innovative model and curriculum, the school meets the needs of a diverse body of learning styles. Through expansion of our existing successful educational program and the creation of space to support outreach/dissemination of our work through conferences and professional development, we hope to reach more families and support the creation of programs similar to ours.

Example

Starting in Kindergarten, students learn what it means to be part of a democratic community. Classroom names and rules are voted on, class constitutions are created collectively, and community norms are established early on. The school motto of Be Kind and Work Hard is modeled by every adult in the building. MHS is a school with an inclusion model, mixing children of every variety in classrooms. Through this model, empathy and understanding for differences is established. One of the major school rules is "You can't say, You can't play". A weekly community "Share" includes the entire student/teacher body singing, sharing work, and announcing weekly "Acts of Kindness" (anonymously submitted acts of kindness witnessed by children and adults throughout the week). As children grow older, their idea of community grows outside of the school walls-6th, 7th, and 8th graders participate in the School to Community Initiative (SCI), leaving school to take part in neighborhood volunteer opportunities. Multi-age classrooms also encourage children to support and help each other, both academically and socially. Older children have much younger "book buddies" and field trips often include children of vastly different age groups. Whole child focus and project-based learning are at the heart of a four-year revolving curriculum that studies three school-wide subjects every year: a science, an ancient culture and a topic of social justice through the lens of the African American experience. The founding educational philosophy is based on John Dewey's Habits of Mind.

Marketplace

MHS belongs to the Pilot School Network, within the Boston Public Schools district. Like every public school in the country, we are part of a major push for standardized testing, which we believe is only one way of many to assess children (and not a very effective one). Our peers are those schools that belong to the Coalition of Essential Schools. Our competitors are private and charter schools, which take children and funding from our district regularly and do not always serve the populations that we do. MHS is a beacon. We are visited each year by over 150 educators from several countries and many cities. They come to learn about our best practices and to see in person, the inspirational work done by our staff and visionary leader.