News & Updates
News & Updates
Science teachers, math teachers, history teachers — we’re all reading teachers now from Chalkbeat
“Imagine — and if you’re a science teacher, you won’t have to — trying to get through a lesson on the water cycle with students struggling to sound out keywords like “condensation” and “precipitation.” These are longer, multisyllabic words that students can sound out if they have a basic mastery of phonics, but they become impossible if students lack this foundation...In pre-pandemic days, it was normal to have a few struggling readers per class. Post-COVID, it has often felt like there are few readers who are not struggling. It was clear that a new approach to literacy instruction was needed — one that leveraged every teacher in our building and gave us ways to catch our older students up on second grade skills without infantilizing the content.”
Notice: Tiered Focused Monitoring Review
During the week of April 29, 2024, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Public School Monitoring (PSM) will conduct a Tiered Focused Monitoring Review of Springfield Prep Charter School. The Office of Public School Monitoring visits each district and charter school every three years to monitor compliance with federal and state special education and civil rights regulations. Please reach out to Director of Student Support, Pam Haywood with any questions.
Notice: Tiered Focused Monitoring Review
During the week of February 26, 2024, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE’s) Office of Language Acquisition (OLA) will conduct a Tiered Focused Monitoring Review of Springfield Prep Charter School. The Office of Language Acquisition reviews each district’s and charter school’s ELE program every six years to monitor compliance with federal and state English learner education laws and regulations. Please reach out to Director of Student Support, Pam Haywood with any questions.
Announcing Request for Proposals: 2023 Window Installation
Springfield Preparatory Charter School has been awarded a grant through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s IVAQ program (Improving Ventilation and Air Quality) to replace school windows that are currently inoperable with operable windows that will improve air quality. Springfield Preparatory Charter School is accepting proposals from qualified vendors to install 39 operable windows in our facility ahead of the 2023-24 school year. Responses are due no later than March 20, 2023 at 4 PM.
Testing scores show these Western Massachusetts charter schools made gains in learning from Mass Live | December 5th, 2022
“At Springfield Preparatory Charter School, however, students in grades 3 through 8 saw a 24-point jump in their scores from a year before.
Executive director William Spirer said the results help highlight where the school needs to focus its efforts.’Data-driven school helps to see what the learning needs are and helps to drive intentional collaboration,’ Spirer said.“
Springfield Prep Announces Request for Proposals: 2022-23 Vended Meals
“Springfield Preparatory Charter School participates in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) for students. Springfield Preparatory Charter School is seeking food vendor(s) to provide USDA guideline compliant and NSLP and NSBP compliant school breakfast and lunch for the 2022-23 school year. Responses are due no later than 12:00 PM, October 24th, 2022.”
1st Annual Latinx Heritage Month Block Party from Western Mass News | October 1st, 2022
“On October 1st, 2022, our community kicked off its first annual Latinx Heritage Month block party, with hundreds of community members in attendance. In honor of Latinx heritage month, we chose to partner with local Latinx businesses and vendors to provide Salsa and Bachata lessons, arts and crafts, as well as food for purchase. Families were able to enjoy delicious food, dancing, and fun.”
Springfield Prep Welcomes Two New Board Members from Business West | September 27, 2022
“SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Prep Charter School recently announced the election of the two newest additions to its board of trustees, Ron Molina-Brantley and Amneris Narvaez.
‘With two Springfield Prep scholars of my own, I feel proud and excited to join the Springfield Prep family in another capacity,’ Molina-Brantley said.
‘When my children go to school each day, nothing is more reassuring than knowing they are being challenged, believed in, and included in all spaces. I look forward to taking part in the excellent work going on here at Springfield Prep and serving a school that has had such a positive impact on me and my family.’ Narvaez noted…”
Hard-Hat Tour and Beam Signing at our New Campus | February 10, 2021
Our staff, students, and board members got a hard-hat tour of the school at our Beam Signing event in February. WWLP covered the event to share with our community and MassLive.com wrote up the event (excerpt below).
“As he walked through the construction site that will soon be Springfield Prep Charter School, sixth-grader Maurice Elliott thought about what he is looking forward to the most when the project is complete.”
$13.35M MassDevelopment Bond Helps School Relocate, Renovate Facility | February 24, 2021
“MassDevelopment has issued a $13,350,000 tax-exempt bond on behalf of the Friends of Springfield Preparatory Charter School, Inc., a nonprofit affiliate of Springfield Preparatory Charter School. The school, which will move to its new 43,755-square-foot building in Springfield in 2021, will use bond proceeds to renovate the facility to accommodate the addition of grades seven and eight and welcome another 108 students. Renovations to the building will include…”
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to do Tiered Focused Monitoring Review of Springfield Prep Charter School as part of regularly scheduled review of all school districts
“SPRINGFIELD, MA - January 6, 2021 – During the week of February 1, 2021 the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Public School Monitoring (PSM) will conduct a Tiered Focused Monitoring Review of Springfield Prep Charter School. The Office of Public School Monitoring visits each district and charter school every three years to monitor compliance with federal and state special education and civil rights regulations. Areas of review related to special education include student assessments, determination of eligibility, the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team process, and IEP development and implementation.”
Lesson Preparation: How Christine Torres Prepares to Teach from Teach Like A Champion | 10/13/19
“A few weeks ago I began work on the latest revision to Teach Like A Champion, what will become version 3.0 in about a year’s time. One of the biggest changes will be with Chapter 4, which is going to shift focus from Lesson Planning to Lesson Preparation, which are the things you do after your lesson is planned but before you teach it to ensure it’s success.
Lesson Preparation is critical whether you have written your own lesson or are using one developed for you, and this has been on my mind a lot lately because, my colleagues and I are writing an English curriculum with daily plans and we want to help teachers to prepare to teach them well in a sustainable way.”
Christine Torres Crushes the 'Habits of Discussion' from Teach Like A Champion | 11/15/19
“Every time I watch Christine Torres teach I am inspired. Christine is the Middle School Academic Dean at Springfield Prep in Springfield, MA and a fifth grade teacher there.
She is a teacher of truly epic skill and spirit. To prove it I am going to show you six minutes from her classroom in which she demonstrates as many elements of the technique Habits of Discussion as I have seen in on place…”
These are the Massachusetts schools that scored highest on the 2019 'next-gen' MCAS from MassLive | 10/9/19
#35. Springfield Preparatory Charter School
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released school, district and state scores from “next-generation” MCAS on Tuesday showing modest improvement in districts across the state.
Springfield Prep Charter School students excel on MCAS after 1st stab at test from MassLive | 12/20/18
“SPRINGFIELD— On a recent morning at Springfield Prep Charter School, kindergarten students were busy solving a ‘story problem’ aimed at teaching them subtraction.
The question: ‘If you have 10 dinner napkins, but you only need enough for 7 guests, how many napkins do you take away?’
The children were given 10 plastic cubes representing the napkins and then asked to use the cubes to find out how many napkins were needed for the guests.
‘The exercise was designed to help the children learn conceptually,’ said Bill Spirer, executive director of the 4-year-old college prep school. The lesson helps students visualize the problem and learn the concept before writing it on paper’, he explained…”
Three Things I Learned in My First Year as a Principal and a New Year’s Resolution from educationpost | 12/19/18
“If you ask an educator to think back to their first year of teaching, you will probably get a wide range of reactions, but the general consensus will likely be that it was a difficult year.
This year, I began my first year as a principal at Springfield Prep, a growing charter school in Springfield, Massachusetts. Seven years into my education career, I thought my ride on the roller coaster of year one had long passed, but as this school year got underway, I found myself buckled in for the ride all over again. I quickly realized that being a new principal means going through a familiar, yet different set of first-year phases.”
Springfield Prep is Changing Lives, One Scholar at a Time from African American Point of View | 12/1/18
“I am passionate about education. As readers of my column know, I strongly believe in the power of education to change lives. I’ve devoted many career and volunteer years to working on initiatives in Springfield to help kids develop a passion for reading and learning.”
Springfield Prep Outpaces Longmeadow on MCAS from The Longmeadow News | 11/6/18
“This spring, third graders across the state sat down to take the same MCAS test under the same test conditions. This included students from well-off suburbs and school districts in rural and urban areas with high levels of poverty. Third grade students from the three year-old Springfield Prep charter school and students from Longmeadow took the test on equal terms, and Springfield Prep’s students performed better in both English Language Arts (ELA) and Math. The results are a testament to what is possible when schools aim high and decide that failure is not an option…”
Here are the Massachusetts School Districts that Scored Highest on 2018 ‘Next Generation’ MCAS from MassLive | 9/27/18
“#14 Springfield Preparatory Charter School
The first class of third grade students at the Western Massachusetts charter school scored high on the state exam. Of the 53 students, 41 (77 percent) met or exceeded expectations in mathematics. 38 students (72 percent) met or exceeded expectations in English language arts.”