Democracy Prep is founded on the belief that a respectful, safe, and disciplined school community is essential to ensure dramatic academic gains for all students. We adhere to a "broken windows" approach to school discipline and a "tipping point" approach to school culture. Democracy Prep will focus relentlessly on appropriate consequences for small issues in order to ensure that more significant negative behaviors are unlikely to occur.
Preparation Academy: Prior to teaching academic content, students must learn how to learn at Democracy Prep specifically because our scholars come from more than 50 different elementary schools each year. Preparation Academy includes direct instruction in academic and study skills including how to: organize binders, come to class prepared with necessary materials, take notes, put a proper heading on papers, raise hands in class, submit homework assignments, study for a test, ask respectful questions, etc. Preparation Academy also includes social lessons as basic as how to walk in silent lines in the halls, hold the door for a classmate, say please and thank you, give a firm handshake, make eye contact, apologize for mistakes, and leave a place cleaner than one found it. In Preparation Academy, we also administer a wide battery of initial assessments to establish baseline scores in each subject.
DREAM Rubric and DREAM Dollar Paychecks: Our school culture and behavioral framework are based on Discipline, Respect, Enthusiasm, Accountability, and Maturity, or DREAM. Reports distributed weekly to students and parents come in the form of a DREAM "paycheck" which can total up to $100.00 in DREAM- Dollars. Students will accumulate a college scholarship fund based on 10% of their DREAM-Dollar balance redeemable at graduation with interest applied over seven years of DREAM. Students can use DREAM dollars to "buy" privileges and benefits at school auctions, school trips, as well as other special rewards or recognitions. Every teacher monitors DREAM, recognizes students for exemplary behavior, and deducts DREAM-Dollars for infractions.
Teach Appropriate School Behavior: We believe that proper school behavior is not innate, but must be taught clearly and explicitly. Because our students will come from numerous schools and backgrounds, all entering sixth grade students begin their experience with the Preparation Academy, a two-week session at which students are taught the behaviors, routines, rituals, and rules of Democracy Prep.
STAR Posture: Students demonstrate that they are ready to learn by sitting in STAR posture, an acronym for Sit up, Track the speaker, Ask & answer questions, Raise your hand. The STAR Posture standard ensures we maintain a classroom environment highly conducive to learning.
Community Gatherings: Other essential elements in building a respectful and disciplined school community are daily advisory meetings and weekly sessions of Town Hall. These community gatherings are times for students and teachers to come together for spirit building activities, rituals, reflection, recognition, awards, performances, and other community messages. Town Hall begins as a place for awards and exhibition of exemplary student work and over time will provide time to thoughtfully deliberate issues of importance to the school, community, city, state, nation, and world in a formal setting. Eventually students will strategize and implement methods for helping to change the world.
Ambassadorial Behavior: When students enter the Preparation Academy, they arrive in white t-shirts, during which they must earn their Democracy Prep uniform. The uniform serves to build school pride, equalize students, and teach the importance of presenting oneself as a serious scholar and citizen. Students are taught that wearing the Democracy Prep logo and uniform is a privilege that makes them ambassadors for the school. One of the most severe consequences at Democracy Prep is when a student loses the right to wear our logo, whereas most schools kids would see this as a reward. This means students must embody the DREAM values both inside and outside of the school facility; they must own the values not only as extrinsic motivators, but as intrinsic ways of life. Students able to consistently demonstrate good citizenship, as evidenced by a DREAM dollar average of $70.00 or greater, will be invited on Saturday Expeditions and end of year field lessons to Washington DC, Boston, the South, the West, a foreign country and others to acknowledge their success.
College & Civic Expeditions, Field Trips, and End of Year Field Lessons:
These activities are designed to broaden the horizons of our students to give them a better sense of their role as a college-preparatory citizen of the city, nation, and world. Each month, we have scheduled one Civic Expedition and one College Expedition. Held on Saturdays, these incentives are earned by students who have maintained a weekly DREAM dollar average of $70.00 or above for the previous month. College Expeditions include lessons on a local campus about specific aspects of college life such as arts, dorm life, laboratory science, sports, cultural organizations, and others. Civic expeditions include visits to historic sites, museums, art exhibits, and cultural or political events with assignments linked to relevant curricular material. Field trips will be held at the end of each of the first two trimesters and Summer Academy for students who have a certain DREAM Dollar balance in their account. Students with enough DREAM dollars will go roller skating, ice skating, and hiking, and will go to amusement parks, downhill skiing, and to the beach in subsequent years. The grand finale of each academic year is an earned multiple day Field Lesson out-of-state. Sixth grade students will visit civic sites and colleges in Washington DC, Seventh Grade students will visit travel to New England to visit historic sites and colleges.