Boston Public Schools students wrap-up week of classes during school vacation

BOSTON – Boston Public Schools (BPS) recruited outstanding teachers from around the city and around the country to spend February vacation week leading classes in the district’s new “Acceleration Academies” which wrapped up today. The academies, which were held in nine of the district’s 14 “turnaround” schools, offered a week of intensive instruction to the students most in need of the extra support.

Ninety-six served approximately 1,200 students in grades 3-8 in schools around the city (a list of schools is below) during the February session, which focused mainly on English Language Arts (ELA) support. A second round of “Acceleration Academies” for mathematics is scheduled for April break. School principals selected students for the program based on academic performance.

“The Acceleration Academies seek to accomplish two goals – to recognize and celebrate exemplary teaching and to give our most at-risk students the extra support they need right now to be successful,” said Dr. Johnson. “We believe that this additional week of intensive instruction from highly talented teachers is an intervention that will yield immediate positive results.”

The Acceleration Academies are based on a successful teacher fellowship program piloted last year at the Edwards Middle School.

“These Acceleration Academies are a great example of how we can replicate successful classroom practices in Boston,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. “We have seen similar programs in our city have a direct impact on student performance and we expect the same results this time around. The Acceleration Academies are one of many innovative strategies Superintendent Johnson is implementing to continue making Boston a model for urban education in America.”

To recruit the teachers for the Acceleration Academies, BPS partnered with the Lynch Foundation to create the “Sontag Prize for Urban Education,” a competitive awards program to which interested urban teachers from Boston and beyond were invited to apply. In addition to teaching classes through the Acceleration Academies, the Sontag prize recipients received a stipend and the opportunity to participate in networking and professional development events through Harvard Business School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This program is funded, in part, by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The following schools hosted Acceleration Academies: Dearborn Middle School; Tobin K-8 School; Emerson Elementary School; Dever Elementary School; Harbor Middle School; Guild Elementary School; Trotter Elementary School; JF Kennedy Elementary School; and Blackstone Elementary School.