Every morning at 7:45 a.m., high school principal Jorge Miranda '01 stands at the doors of the Media and Technology Charter High School in Boston, Mass., and personally greets his 220 students. Before allowing students to enter the building, Miranda asks each of them "Why are you here?" to which they respond "to learn." He then asks: "What will learning take?" which garners the response "courage, discipline and perseverance."
These three principles form the central philosophy of the MATCH School. The institution, founded in 2000, seeks to improve students' test scores and chances for college acceptance in four or five years of schooling. The school was ranked the 99th best public high school in the nation out of 18,790 schools in a U.S. News and World Report study released in December.
"In urban areas, for every 10 students that start in high school, only six will graduate from high school, four will go to college and one will graduate from college," Miranda said. "That's what we're trying to overcome."
Miranda said he experienced the deficiencies of the public school system while teaching at a high school outside of Boston after graduating from Dartmouth. Inspired to teach by education classes he took at the College, Miranda quickly became discouraged by apathetic colleagues and considered leaving education altogether before he received an offer from the MATCH School.
"I graduated very idealistic and wanted to make a difference," Miranda said. "Teaching at a traditional public school knocked the idealism out of me. There's a big difference between what we hope education is and what education really is."
Miranda, who served as the president of Student Assembly while at Dartmouth, has worked at the MATCH School for three years and became the principal in 2006.
Because the MATCH School is a charter school, it is tuition-free and has the ability to independently reform itself, Miranda said. Traditional public schools do not have this liberty, he said, because of the complex bureaucratic channels they must navigate before making changes.
The MATCH School's small size, lofty aspirations and a dedicated group of teachers also contribute to its success, Miranda added.
The school's goal -- to significantly improve the academic record of all of its students in four to five years -- requires an intense and disciplined educational atmosphere. Students attend classes from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and 60 to 80 of these students stay at MATCH for an additional three hours to complete their homework or receive extra help.
"We don't believe in giving up on students, even if they've given up on themselves," Miranda said. "If someone's not meeting us halfway, we're going to bring them along with us, sometimes kicking and screaming."
MATCH students also attend two-hour tutoring sessions every day, either independently or with one other student. These sessions are run by the MATCH Corps, a group of 45 recent college graduates who live and work at the school for one year. According to the school's website, acceptance to the MATCH Corps program is more competitive than Teach for America and Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.
James Gumpper '06 is a member of the MATCH Corps, as well as a volunteer at another public high school in Boston.
"Kids at the MATCH School are getting a lot more attention," Gumpper said. "There's a lot more focus in their day and the level of teaching is so much higher at MATCH. They're not slipping through the cracks like they might if they were at a regular Boston high school."
Lennie Polanco '11,who graduated from the MATCH school, said that the study skills he learned there have been invaluable at Dartmouth, particularly when his workload becomes overwhelming.
"[My tutors] told me to create a balance between your work and your free time," Polanco said. "During winter break, I thought about what my tutors said and am trying to create a balance."
Although the MATCH School has several successful clubs and athletic teams, the school's rigorous academic schedule does not leave much time for extracurricular activities. In the fall of 2008, MATCH plans to open a middle school in order to give students more time to improve their grades, test scores, and study habits. Miranda hopes these additional years will enable more students to participate in other activities.
"We're a model for what happens when you waste eight to nine years of education and try to catch up in four to five years," Miranda said. "With the middle school, we will be a better model for what an urban school can be like if you set high expectations and high standards."
Though the environment is highly disciplined, the MATCH School maintains a strong sense of community. Both Polanco and Gumpper said that the school's small size allows students, tutors and teachers to develop strong relationships with one another.
"I don't feel like I ever in my Ed[ucation] courses learned about the importance of love in education, but here at the school, it really comes to life," Miranda said. "We care about our students and we love our students, and that's why we push them so far."
Students are accepted to the MATCH school by a random lottery system. There are no entrance exams, interviews or admissions essays required, but the process remains highly competitive. In 2007, 640 students entered the lottery for 64 spots in the freshman class.
This year, the student body is 63 percent African-American, 30 percent Hispanic, four percent Caucasian and three percent Asian, according to the school's website. Seventy-three percent of students live below the poverty line.
Every MATCH student who took the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System state test in the spring of 2007 received a passing grade on the math and English sections and the school was the number one high school in Massachusetts in math proficiency. Ninety-nine percent of the school's first four graduating classes have been accepted to four-year colleges and universities.
