Small Learning Communities
Our School is organized into Small Learning Communities (SLCs) based upon our students' learning needs. There are 6 Small Learning Communities.
Each SLC has between 75 and 210 students in it. Our SLCs each have a team of teachers who meet twice a week to discuss student support, student achievement, and SLC programming. Each SLC has an Administrative Leader and an Assistant Administrative Leader who can serve as the point-person for parents/guardian if they want to discuss a student's achievement across classrooms.
Please Note: The 9th grade and 10th grade SLCs loop, so that students have the same teachers and administrators for the first 2 years of high school.
Dream Academy 7th & 8th Grades SLC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTog0Rs4Mww
Dream Academy is Charlestown High School’s middle school program. Dream Academy is a diverse, collaborative, student centered, and engaging middle school that places an emphasis on the development of students both inside and outside of the classroom. Behind a dedicated staff of teachers, counselors, and administrators, Dream is dedicated to helping students achieve to the highest of their abilities.
At Dream, we strive to provide deep and meaningful learning experiences for our students that challenge them academically. We provide an inclusive and rigorous curriculum that prepares students for high school. A unique aspect of our learning and school community is that we are located within the building of Charlestown High School. This allows us to foster a sense of school pride and provides our middle school students with ample role models as they continue to progress throughout their academic careers.
Marathon Academy 9th & 10th Grades SLC
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-Qhj4ItOwEM
Welcome to the Marathon Academy !
Marathon Academy is built on the principle of exploration, we encourage students to embrace the late Nippse Hussle’s manta, “Just don’t quit.” We acknowledge that aspiring to dreams is aspirational; however, as a member of Marathon Academy, we are about taking action steps to make our dreams become reality. To embrace the journey of the marathon, we ensure that every student feels valued, seen, and heard. We value hard work, dedication, and a commitment to excellence. We embrace failure and strive to keep moving forward. We believe in the power of education to transform lives and make a positive impact on the world.
Our aspirations include creating a culture of respect and inclusivity, nurturing a love of learning, and empowering students to reach their full potential. We are dedicated to providing a safe and supportive space where everyone feels valued and encouraged to explore their passions and interests. Together, we can build a community that is rooted in compassion, understanding, and a shared commitment to lifelong learning.
Unity Academy: 11th and 12th Grade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsN0jxkJfGs
Unity Academy is the largest SLC in Charlestown High School and supports our mainstream 11th and 12th graders and our 9th-12th grade recent immigrant/ low ELD (English Language Development) students. As a result, Unity Academy is a unit focused on helping students through transitions. We work to help our graduating students prepare for the challenges they will face in their next academic and professional careers and to help new immigrants acclimate to English language instruction and academic life in America. Our students live throughout the city of Boston and our immigrant students come from over a dozen different countries. SEI (Sheltered English Immersion) classes primarily focus on Spanish and Chinese-speaking immigrant students. We offer classes ranging from ESL 1 to AP Language and AP Seminar and from Pathways opportunities to dual-enrollment programs with local colleges. With a staff of over 30 teachers, counselors, and CCCs, Unity Academy connects students with educators who are passionate about helping students develop their passions and the modern critical thinking and analytical skills to succeed in school and beyond.Student with Disabilities
Road to Success
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H63CdxHFh4
Mission Statement
To engage students (current and alumni), families, educators, and the wider community in creating a learning environment that will prepare youth to strengthen our communities. We seek to develop critically-minded and bold leaders who are:
Academically and socially prepared
Able to articulate their own desires, demands, and questions
Secure and confident in their identities
What is RTS?
Road to Success (RTS) is an alternative education program in Boston Public Schools. It is a Small Learning Community within Charlestown High School, where students can find the support they need, meet success, and get back on track for graduation. RTS was formerly known as Diploma Plus. Diploma Plus began in 2009, when Charlestown teachers decided something needed to be done about the high drop-out rate and failure to engage students who were academically off-track.
Who is RTS for?
RTS is for high-school students who are 17 years old or older, who are 2 years over age for their grade level, and who have few credits.
RTS re-engages students who have not found success in the past. These students have often attended different schools around Boston and experienced the same dismal situation of falling further and further behind.
RTS invigorates these students with social justice and restorative justice practices, with unique, competency-based curriculum, and with smaller class sizes and more student support.
What Distinguishes RTS?
RTS uses a competency-based grading system that meets students where they are. This system is rigorous and individualized.
RTS uses project based learning along with the competency- based grading system.
RTS is a college-readiness program. Students are prepared for their futures, instead of being pushed through, left behind, or ignored.
RTS engages students with restorative justice practices, especially the restorative justice circle, that go beyond the traditional classroom approach.
RTS is a community-oriented program where students, staff, outside organizations, and teachers unite.
History of Diploma Plus
In the 2008-2009 school year, Charlestown teachers and administrators knew something serious had to be done. Too many students were experiencing chronic failure in their regular ed. classrooms. The headmaster at the time, Dr. Margaret Bledsoe, decided to explore alternative options.
Three representatives from CHS began visiting alternative ed. schools to see what was being done elsewhere. They went to a Diploma Plus school in Brooklyn and were impressed by what they saw. Kati Delahanty was one of the teachers on this visit. She says, “If you walked into the school, you wouldn’t know these were students who had been off-track for so long. They were just students learning.”
With funding from a Gates grant and a partnership with the national Diploma Plus organization, D.P. started at CHS the next school year. It’s the only school-within-a-school D.P. program in the country. “And every year we’re getting better,” Delehanty says. This will be Diploma Plus’s fourth year here. The need is as great as ever.
Student with Disabilities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZTC4n_Yn4c
Charlestown High School provides a wide range of special education services to students who are identified with a disability and have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
Students diagnosed with varying degrees of mild to moderate learning disabilities, attentional issues, language deficits, social-emotional needs and health disabilities are generally assigned to either a resource room class or receive services in an inclusion setting or in a substantially separate setting to address their individual needs. In all models, these services are provided by teachers who hold licensure in special education or, in the inclusion model, the class may be team/co-taught by a general education teacher and a special education teacher.
PROGRAMS
Resource Room
Students diagnosed with mild learning disabilities receive support in the Resource Room setting, with smaller math and English Language Arts classes designed for similar learning needs as stated in the students' IEPs. These students work within their Small Learning Community (SLC) and participate in all SLC programming. Unique opportunities--such as working with Actors' Shakespeare Project--avail themselves. These students use the MBTA to commute to school.
SAR/LD PROGRAM
Occupational Skills Development Center (OSDC)
Students diagnosed with a cognitive/intellectual disability, Down’s Syndrome, a moderate to severe language disorder, health disabilities, visual impairment, motor impairment, autism, or Asperger’s Syndrome are serviced in one of our substantially separate classroom settings with a group of peers who require similar instructional support. Students in these programs follow their own individualized schedule based upon the recommendations of the IEP members, as outlined in the IEP document. These students often receive doo
Multi-handicapped Program (MH) & Autistic Programs
The students in our Autistic and Multi-handicapped Programs participate once weekly in the Café. Students in these classes learn as instructors reinforce appropriate work behaviors through more traditional class work, role playing interviews and other job-related situations. As students master school-related skills, they transition to an out-of-school work experience through BPS’ School to Career Project STRIVE. In these settings students have an opportunity to work in metropolitan Boston vocational worksites and receive a modest stipend for their participation. Each class embeds community related experiences and safety skills outside the school by taking trips to the local stores, downtown Boston, the post office and library. On other trips students practice their real-life skills using public transportation. Through the Project STRIVE Program students are travel trained when the IEP team determines they are ready and the student has parent/guardian approval.
Charlestown High School Library
https://sites.google.com/bostonpublicschools.org/chslibrary/home
