MATCH's tough style on learning

By Scot Lehigh, 10/1/2003

IT'S 8:32 on a recent school day -- and the three students who have straggled into the Media and Technology Charter High School -- MATCH -- two minutes late have earned themselves an hour and a half detention. But what if a tardy MBTA train is the reason they've arrived at the school, out beyond BU on Comm. Ave., a little after classes have started?

It makes no difference, insists Alan Safran, the school's executive director. "A minute late is late, and there are consequences," says Safran. "Students need to manage their time effectively, and that means leaving home early enough to account for unanticipated delays."

That's part of the culture at MATCH. The school, which serves 180 inner-city students who are among the poorest in the state, has high expectations and a strict set of rules.

Sometimes that leads to culture shock. Principal Charles Sposato, a veteran educator, offers a telling story from the school's first year. Passing, school officials had decided, would be 70, not the usual 60 -- and that year, 43 percent of the students weren't reaching the standard.

Sposato held a Sunday meeting with the parents of failing kids. How could it be, one mother asked, that her daughter had earned A's and B's and been an honor-roll student in the Boston public schools, but was failing at MATCH?

The principal was blunt. In her former school, he said, the girl might well have gotten credit just for good attendance and class participation.

"We don't give a grade for class participation, we don't give a grade for attendance," Sposato said. "We expect it." Her daughter could return to the public schools and earn better grades, the principal said. Or she could stay at MATCH, where she might struggle to meet the academic demands, but where, Sposato guaranteed, she would graduate prepared for college.

The pupil, a special-education student, stayed, even though it meant repeating a year. She's now a frequent honor-roll student.

Repeating a grade is not uncommon at MATCH; about a quarter of the students have done it.

But consider what MATCH has accomplished. Eighty-two percent of the class of 2004 had failed their eighth-grade math or English (or both) MCAS before coming to the charter.

Two years later, 94 percent passed English and 82 percent passed math on their first try. By the first retest, all had passed. In the most recent round of the MCAS, MATCH had the highest overall pass rate of any comparable non-exam Boston high school: 89 percent of the class of 2005 passed both the English and math MCAS. That's not only 37 points higher than the Boston district average, it's 14 points better than the statewide average.

That accomplishment is even more remarkable when one considers that 73 percent of MATCH pupils come from households modest enough to qualify for free or reduced school lunch.

Or that the MATCH student body, chosen by lottery, is 91 percent African-American and Hispanic -- and the statewide MCAS dual pass rate is 52 percent for blacks and 44 percent for Hispanics.

But proficiency should be the real test of public schools. And there, too, MATCH has excelled.

Consider: Before coming to the charter school, only 4 percent of students had scored proficient or advanced in math on the eighth grade MCAS. Two years later, 73 percent of MATCH's class of 2005 have hit that level. So what has MATCH done that other schools might learn from?

Start with clear rules, firm discipline, and high expectations, a culture reinforced with as many as 25 calls a year to a parent.

Add a longer school week and relatively small classes, a luxury made possible in part by a lean administration and the decision to forgo expensive extracurriculars. (MATCH has basketball, chess, lacrosse, and a step-dance team, but that's about it.)

Then there are the extra math and English classes for freshmen and sophomores and the intensive one-on-one tutoring, with twice-a-week sessions that run for four hours, done by MIT, BU, and Harvard students.

MATCH's results underscore a basic lesson: If you create a culture conducive to learning, establish rules that are both firm and clear, and set high standards, the kids will defy the pessimists and meet them.

It's a success story to remember the next time the teachers unions launch an assault on the charter school movement.

Rather than undercut the innovative academies, their opponents should study their successes -- and try to MATCH them.

Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.