This Web site invites you to explore the challenges urban schools face, think about your own solutions, and then compare your strategies to the ways other urban schools addressed the issues. Teachers participate in decision-making about scheduling and classroom practices. No class meets every day, and teachers design their own courses. An apprentice-mentor relationship between new and experienced teachers allows the apprentice to teach a complete course with the benefit of observation from a master, who in turn the apprentice observes.
Parents also participate in staff meetings and special planning committees.
Each Wednesday, while students participate in a community service program, the staff meets for three hours and the agenda is directed by teacher's concerns. School-wide reform divided Patterson into smaller schools whose curriculum is designed by the teachers. In the Ninth Grade success Academy, classes are small and organized into four 90-minute periods, allowing interdisciplinary teaching teams to better get to know students and their learning needs. The Ninth Grade Success Academy addresses the transition to high school while preparing students to be at a more consistent skill level as they proceed through the upper grades. These MESS teams have 90-minute planning periods each day.