Author: Matt Underwood

Last week I had the opportunity to spend some time with a group of 14 teachers and principals from the Henry County Public Schools at our middle campus.  HCPS is undergoing an effort to redesign their middle school program to better support the learning needs of young adolescents, and they chose our school as one…

In giving an overview of the draft of the ANCS strategic plan at the “state of the school” meeting a couple weeks ago, I spent some time talking about the history of socioeconomic diversity at our school.  There was an active effort on the part of the founding group of parents and teachers at our…

Each week in our school’s Courier newsletter, there’s a little section at the bottom called “Did you know….” that highlights a quick fact about our school.  This week’s fact is that ANCS serves a higher percentage of students with disabilities than any other charter school in the Atlanta Public Schools.  Currently about 14% of ANCS…

Over the course of my career in education, I have worked in charter and non-charter public schools (by the way, if you are not exactly sure what a “charter school” is, click here for an explanation).  I got my start in teaching at so-called “traditional” public schools (I say so-called because just because a school…

By their nature, schools are busy places.  Learning is not a passive activity, and therefore, at any given moment, there is usually a great deal happening within the walls of a school.  Add to that the fact that throughout the day many students and many teachers will be walking the halls, going to lunch, heading…

Each year, students are afforded a pretty remarkable opportunity—the chance to have a fresh start.  Following the summer break, a student can enter into a new school year with hopes and aspirations that can either be built upon the successes of the prior year or that can put last year’s struggles in the rearview mirror.…

Walking through local bookstores this time of year, you are sure to find a table devoted to required summer reading for students (and on that table you are also sure to find at least one book you yourself had to read for school some summer long ago).  Of course, ANCS has its own summer reading…

This month’s Principles in Practice newsletter highlights the Coalition of Essential Schools principle of “demonstration of mastery” at ANCS.  Enjoy!

Tomorrow begins the annual round of 3rd-8th grade testing here in Georgia known as the Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT).  I believe and know that standardized tests can provide plenty of important data that is useful in many ways.  Well-crafted standardized educational tests can yield data to assess student learning and skills, they can…

It’s “teacher appreciation week” at ANCS, and boy, do we have some wonderful teachers here!  Some might wonder, “Why do you have a whole week to show teachers appreciation?”  Because of how important their work is.  Rather than hearing it from me, hear it instead from Rita Pierson is this terrific speech.