Mission Hill School
The Mission Hill School is a small preK-8 public pilot school within the Boston Public Schools. Founded in 1997 by Deborah Meier and colleagues, the school has received attention in books, articles, websites, and a widely-viewed film series for its pedagogical approaches and the academic success of its students, and because Meier has used the school as an example in many of her books, articles, and speeches.[1][2][3][4]
Unique aspects of the school include a diverse student body of approximately 220 students, democratic decision-making at the school and classroom levels, curricular focus on five democratic "Habits of Mind," school-wide thematic units, strong emphasis on the arts, and graduation from the school upon creating and defending robust portfolios of student work for a panel of evaluators.[5][6] Graduates of the school have been found to achieve academic success in high school and college at high rates.[3][7] Students are admitted to the school based on a lottery, within the choice system of the Boston Public Schools (with consideration given to whether families live within the "walk zone" and whether a sibling already attends the school, among other factors).[8] The Mission Hill School is a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools as well.[9][10] Ayla Gavins is the current principal of the school.[11]
In 2002, Meier published a book entitled In Schools We Trust, which included substantial attention to the Mission Hill School and also argued why the current climate of high-stakes testing makes running a school like Mission Hill much more difficult. She also wrote about the school in her books Will Standards Save Public Education? (2000) Keeping School: Letters to Families from Principals of Two Small Schools (with Ted and Nancy Sizer, 2005), Playing for Keeps: Life and Learning on a Public School Playground (with Beth Taylor and Brenda Engel, 2010), and Teaching in Themes: An Approach to Schoolwide Learning, Creating Community, and Differentiating Instruction (co-edited with Matthew Knoester, Katherine Clunis D'Andrea, and chapters written by current and former teachers at Mission Hill School, 2015). The school is the focus of a book by Matthew Knoester, entitled Democratic Education in Practice: Inside the Mission Hill School (2012).[12]
The school was controversially moved to a different location within Boston in 2012, despite resistance from the school community.[13][14]
In August 2014, the school was featured on the PBS Newshour for a segment on teacher-led schools.[15]
References
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