Another Course to College

Another Course to College
20 Warren Street
Brighton, MA 02135
(617) 635-8865

Rachel Skerritt, Headmaster

http://www.boston.k12.ma.us/acc/

Mission Statement
Another Course to College (ACC) is a college preparatory pilot high school in the Boston Public Schools, serving students from diverse backgrounds and neighborhoods. It is dedicated to providing rigorous academics for students in a supportive environment. ACC fosters intellectual curiosity and prepares its students for analytical reading and writing at the college level. ACC measures its success on its alumni's success.

School Vision
The key elements of our present mission statement can be summarized as follows:

1. Provide a curriculum that is at least as rigorous as any of Boston's best exam schools
2. Offer enrollment to any Boston student who is willing to make the commitment to … accept the challenge of this rigorous academic experience
3. Do whatever is necessary to help these students meet this challenge.

Acceptance to college is a graduation requirement at ACC.

Key Characteristics and Innovations
The curriculum in all academic courses is rigorous and designed to prepare students for four-year colleges. All classes are heterogeneously grouped and the academic expectations are the same for all students. Students have the option of taking any course as an Honors Course by meeting additional requirements that would include additional work and/or taking additional exams.

ACC is not a comprehensive high school; the major academic focus is to prepare students to do college level analytical reading and writing. Every student takes English, history and analytical writing for each of the four years. Four years of mathematics, three years of science, and two years of foreign language are also graduation requirements.

Because ACC has an academic curriculum more rigorous than all other Boston public schools, all ninth and tenth grade students have an extended school day, starting at 8:00 am and ending at 4:30 pm.

As of June 2008, the racial breakdown was as follows: 7% Asian, 46.1% Black, 31.1% Hispanic, 14.9% White, and 0.4% Native American. Special education services were provided to 19.3% of students.  (From Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education website)

(Information adapted from ACC fact sheet)