Be Ready To Learn
Allston-Brighton Tab
March 14, 2003
By Phoebe Sweet
Hundreds of prospective students and their families visited the Media and Technology Charter High School Tuesday night, and with only 40 slots available for next year's ninth grade and 446 eighth-graders vying for the chance to attend, it seems like the hottest school in town.
But according to MATCH School Principal Charles Sposato, "We are not for everyone.
"If you are not totally focused on being an intellectual, you probably shouldn't come here."
Although Sposato's line sounds like a hard one to take at an open house designed to inform potential students about the school, MATCH's success may speak for itself.
While only 17 percent of entering MATCH ninth-graders passed their eighth-grade MCAS, Sposato said that 100 percent of MATCH 10th-graders have passed both the eight- and 10th-grade exams.
And sine a "large majority" of entering students come four or five years behind in reading, Sposato said that the school is "trying to close a learning gap."
Although Sposato warned parents not to expect an abundance of extracurricular activities and electives, he did promise success as long as both children and parents were committed to education.
Sposato also told the audience of about 200 at the first of two Tuesday night sessions that some kids would not graduate in four years, but would stay until they were ready for college.
"We are not graduating kids who can't read at a 12th-grade level...We are not going to graduate kids to fail. We graduate kids to succeed," said Sposato.
The MATCH school is dedicated not only to a 100 percent college matriculation rate, but a 100 percent college graduation rate as well, and he said he is prepared to keep some kids at MATCH for as many as six years to ensure they are prepared to do just that.
"We are not a vocational school," he said. "We are a traditional high school in the sense that we want to get all our kids into college."
But Sposato said that MATCH differs from a normal high school because their goal is to "get every kid through college."
He also said that MATCH faculty will track alumni through their college careers to make sure they are successful.
Among MATCH's rigorous standards are a C grade to pass through the grade levels and a required daily homework and tutoring lab that lasts until 5:30 p.m. for students who aren't making the grade.
"We don't grade for effort, we expect it," said Sposato. "You are here to learn."
Sposato will graduate his first senior class next year.
Students were chosen by a random lottery Wednesday night, and results are posted on the MATCH school Web site at www.matchschool.org.
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