Company Profile
Brooke Charter Schools
Company Overview
Background on Brooke
Brooke Charter Schools is a network of three K-8 public, charter schools dedicated to closing the achievement gap in the Greater Boston area. Brooke students are 94% minority and 80% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. For nearly a decade, we have steadily expanded to provide more and more students with the quality education they deserve. In the latest report by Stanford University’s CREDO center, researchers found that the typical student in a Boston charter (about 13 percent of the state’s charter students) gained more than twelve months of additional learning per year in reading and thirteen months greater progress in math – in addition, Brooke Charter Schools was name one of the nation’s top charter school networks. The original Brooke School (Brooke Roslindale) serves 475 students in grades K-8. In August 2011, Brooke opened a second school (Brooke Mattapan) in a temporary location in South Boston, serving students in grades K-8, with plans to move to a permanent location in 2014. In August 2012, Brooke opened its third K-8 school (Brooke East Boston), with plans to grow to full size (475 students in grades K-8) by 2015. This rate of growth makes Brooke the largest and fastest growing charter school network in Boston. On the 2013 MCAS exam Brooke students excelled:
Brooke East Boston Charter School:
o Highest median SGP (math and ELA combined) of any school in the state at any grade level.
Brooke Mattapan Charter School
o Second highest median SGP (math and ELA combined) of any school in the state at any grade level (behind only Brooke East Boston);
o #1 school in the state for 6th grade math (95%).
Brooke Roslindale Charter School
o Highest overall proficiency rate (math and ELA combined) of any K-8 school in the state;
o Students currently or formerly labeled ELL outperformed the state proficiency averages for ALL students in both math and ELA;
o Students identified with disabilities outperformed the state proficiency averages for ALL students in both math and ELA.
The Brooke Way
We believe that our most effective strategy for closing the achievement gap for all low-income children is to create schools that approach teaching as the intellectually rigorous, deeply challenging profession that it is. The sophisticated nature of this work requires that we invest in attracting top-notch teaching candidates and then invest in building the culture and structures that will help them develop their full potential. Therefore, we direct all of our resources toward creating a culture that reveres great teaching, develops it, and supports it.
We invest in this vision by:
• Focusing intently on pre-service and weekly professional development, centered on video analysis, data analysis, and co-planning.
• Holding ourselves accountable by measuring student mastery of clear learning standards, not by scripting the curriculum.
• “Sweating the small stuff” to create a highly functional working and learning environment
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
Brooke East Boston Charter School:
o Highest median SGP (math and ELA combined) of any school in the state at any grade level.
Brooke Mattapan Charter School
o Second highest median SGP (math and ELA combined) of any school in the state at any grade level (behind only Brooke East Boston);
o #1 school in the state for 6th grade math (95%).
Brooke Roslindale Charter School
o Highest overall proficiency rate (math and ELA combined) of any K-8 school in the state;
o Students currently or formerly labeled ELL outperformed the state proficiency averages for ALL students in both math and ELA;
o Students identified with disabilities outperformed the state proficiency averages for ALL students in both math and ELA.