8th Graders Visit Area High Schools

On Friday, December 5th, 2008, Ms. Karpay of Supporting Public Schools of Choice, escorted most of the 8th graders on visits to three transformation or innovation high schools in which they'd expressed interest after some research on the web. Innovation high schools are smaller high schools with particular program emphasis and usually special community partnerships. Transformation schools are similar, but go from 6th through 12th grade.
The first stop was New Era Academy, a college preparatory innovation school. They change classes to jazz instead of bells; and one of the school sports is crew! In one of the pictures Ms. Dorsey, school counselor addresses a group led by senior, Cindy. In the other, Mr. Johnston, math teacher, explains the academic trophies which are given out quarterly. (He was a little disappointed that only one boy earned a trophy.) The largest class at New Era is 25, the average class size is 15, and one Advanced Placement class had only seven students.
Students then went on to Baltimore Freedom Academy, which just became a 6-12 school transformation school, and focuses on social justice curriculum. The final stop was, Baltimore Talent Development High School, an innovation school which partners with Johns Hopkins University.