The mission of City on a Hill Charter School is to graduate responsible, resourceful, and respectful democratic citizens prepared to advance community, culture, and commerce. All students read Shakespeare, write essays, speak in public, use computers, study algebra, read primary documents in history, and learn to swim. Last year they visited museums, climbed Mount Monadnock, traveled to Ellis Island, and stood atop the Empire State Building.
Most students spend the summer in internships and academic programs throughout Boston.
Teachers at City on a Hill are free to manage their own classrooms as they see fit, but are evaluated on the basis of student outcomes. These outcomes are derived, in part, by 72 members of the public who served on juries at year end to assess students in reading, speaking, math and science. Ninth graders most of whom are minorities from Boston's toughest neighborhoods were putting in 14-hour school days last June preparing for their final projects, final examinations, and final public presentations before citizen juries. Frustrated by low academic standards and the system in which they were being asked to teach, the two began to talk about creating a different kind of school. Sarah Kass City on a Hill Charter School 320 Huntington Ave.