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Prospect Hill Academy Charter School

Improving Student Achievement in Mathematics: A School-wide Approach

Topics: Instructional Practices
Using school-wide and individual student assessment data to inform curriculum and instruction
Mission: Prospect Hill Academy Charter School will prepare each student for success in college, inspire a lifelong love of learning, and foster responsible citizenship.
Goals: Participants will be able to: 1. Identify the factors that have contributed to PHA’s success on the mathematics MCAS examination. 2. Understand what students have to know and be able to do in order to succeed on the mathematics MCAS test, and make connections between these skills and the district’s mathematics curriculum. 3. Integrate writing into their instructional and assessment plans, and understand its significance in fostering critical thinking. 4. Design a unit portfolio assessment system to promote conceptual understanding, reasoning skills, meta-cognitive thinking, and ownership of learning. 5. Support proficiency through Problems of the Week – non-routine, complex problems requiring a formal write-up and oral presentation. 6. Design MCAS style open-response problems, determine grading criteria, and teach students the skills required for proficiency on the MCAS test. 7. Collect and analyze a variety of assessment data on a systematic basis, to inform instructional planning and curriculum decision making. 8. Identify and implement practices and structures that support sustained instructional and curricular improvement in classrooms.
Summary: Exponential Growth: High Impact Strategies to Raise Mathematics Achievement. Prospect Hill Academy Charter School has experienced significant success with its Upper School mathematics program, as demonstrated by annual improvements of student achievement on the 10th grade MCAS exam in math since the 2002-03 school year. The school has achieved these results through a relentless focus on student achievement and the consistent implementation of key instructional strategies. This federally funded dissemination project was initiated by staff and leadership at Prospect Hill Academy Charter School, who approached leaders from the Somerville Public Schools, Randolph Public Schools, and Cambridge Public Schools to partner with them on this dissemination project. Ultimately the leadership of Somerville Public Schools and Randolph Public Schools agreed to participate. The project consists of the development and publication of a guidebook titled Exponential Growth: High Impact Strategies to Improve Mathematics Achievement; a week-long Exponential Growth Summer Institute led by staff at Prospect Hill Academy Charter School and in which 23 teachers from Somerville Public Schools, Randolph Public Schools, Weston Public Schools and Prospect Hill Academy Charter School participated; and a presentation at the Best Practices Showcase hosted by the Massachusetts Charter School Association. The Summer Institute was attended by 23 local public school teachers, of which 12 were from Somerville Public Schools, 9 from Randolph Public Schools, 1 from Weston Public Schools, and 1 was from PHA. For more information about the project, go to http://www.prospecthillacademy.org/news/detail.aspx?pageaction=ViewSinglePublic&LinkID=137&ModuleID=116&NEWSPID=1.
Partner(s):
Dates: 01/01/2006
01/01/2007
Contact: Stephen Buck, Chief Academic Officer (sbuck@prospecthillacademy.org/617.284.7805)
Resources: Exponential Growth: High Impact Strategies to Improve Mathematics Achievement, available online at www.prospecthillacademy.org/data/files/news/BestPracticesNews/PHA__Exponential_Growth_Guidebook.pdf). Powerpoint presentation, available online at www.prospecthillacademy.org/data/files/news/BestPracticesNews/PHA__Exponential_Growth_Summer_Institite.ppt
Federal Charter Schools Program Funds? Yes

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Last Updated: February 18, 2025