Boston Green Academy’s Student Development Team ensures that students and their families have access to resources and opportunities that promote growth, independence, and success. From assisting with applications to providing ongoing support throughout their educational journey, the team helps students thrive in college, career, and community leadership.
Boston Green Academy’s November 2023 instructional rounds protocol outlines a structured approach to classroom observation and improvement. The document details the observation schedule, including dedicated times for classroom visits, feedback sessions, and debriefing meetings. It also provides note-taking sheets to guide observers during classroom walkthroughs and may include additional resources like rubrics or reflection prompts to support the observation and feedback process. This structured protocol ensures consistency and focus, allowing the BGA educators to effectively evaluate and enhance its teaching and learning practices.
Fenway Partnerships aims to provide students with well-rounded education that goes beyond textbooks. Their impressive network of nearly 40 partners strengthens student success from entry to graduation and beyond, with a focus on college and career pathways and enriching extracurricular activities.
Fenway High School prioritized collaboration among teachers, counselors, and college partners to build a comprehensive support system for students. By providing training on effective use of advisory periods, office hours, and tutoring, the school aimed to enhance student success. To address the specific goal of improving literacy and comprehension, teachers participated in inquiry groups focused on developing instructional strategies. These strategies included creating text sets, scaffolding complex texts, and building vocabulary to prepare students for college-level coursework.
Fenway High School’s collaboration with early college partners is key to program effectiveness. There is weekly contact with partner institutions, which allows for immediate adjustments and improvements to the student experience. Mid-semester progress monitoring helps Fenway and higher education advisors identify areas needing improvement and develop personalized plans for student success. Partners like UMass Boston provide valuable resources, such as academic advisors and math tutors, during weekly support block sessions. This comprehensive approach ensures students have the tools and guidance they need to thrive in their early college courses.
Fenway High School’s Project Week is an immersive learning experience that empowers students to become active participants in their education. Through hands-on projects, field trips, and collaborative activities, students develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. By exploring topics of interest, they discover new passions and build a strong sense of community.
The Junior Review is a pivotal moment for Fenway High School’s 11th graders. It’s a chance for them to showcase their academic growth and skills developed through project-based learning (PBL) competencies. This review functions as a culminating assessment where students present their work to a panel of teachers, counselors, family members, and even the broader school community. More than just a presentation, the Junior Review is a chance for students to reflect on their entire high school experience thus far. They delve into the past three years, highlighting their academic journey and the skills they’ve honed. This self-reflection is then complemented by looking forward, as students share their aspirations and plans for the future.
Fenway High School developed the 4 C’s from the categories that surfaced in their College, Career, and Life Readiness Competencies. The competencies outline what students should learn, the description and rationale for those competencies, and which classes they can be mastered across grade levels.
Fenway High School developed their Vision of a Graduate based on an internally designed framework known as RAMP UP skills. This vision of a graduate helps students make growth across their four main competencies, known as the 4 C’s: critical thinking and problem solving, content mastery, communicating effectively, civic engagement, and critical consciousness – for students to identify how to emanate and achieve Fenway’s vision of a graduate.
The Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative (MBLC) evaluation report offers insights and strategies for anyone working to shift K-12 schools, districts, and states toward more student-centered, equitable, and culturally responsive approaches.
The MBLC is a demonstration project taking place in 47 schools across Washington to help decision makers understand what quality mastery-based (or competency-based) learning looks like, how long it takes to implement, and what resources are necessary. The schools receive funding, coaching, and professional learning as part of a statewide network.
In its first three years, the initiative has led to deeper Mastery-Based Learning (MBL) implementation and has shown positive impacts on early outcomes such as school climate, cultural responsiveness, and student engagement. Almost all school leaders said they would recommend the MBLC to other school leaders.
The Aurora Institute is conducting a six-year evaluation of the MBLC to identify policies, practices, and system changes that can support successful mastery-based and culturally responsive learning. The report shares findings from the first three years of the first cohort of MBLC schools, based on extensive surveys and interviews of educators, school leaders, students, state leaders, and professional learning providers.
The report references the following four surveys:
