THE HYDE FOUNDATION^
Joseph W. Gauld
President
Kenneth L Grant
Executive Director
BOARD OF
GOVERNORS
EXECUTIVE
Lennox K. Black
Chairman,
Teieftex Inc.r-
Plymouth Meeting, PA
Jack S. Diskin
Difam Investments, Ltd.,
Calgary, Alberta
David F. Hinchman
President & CEO,
U.S. Precision Lens,
Cincinnati, OH
Raymond L Smart
President,
The Smart Foundation,
Greenwich, CT
ADVISORY
Dr. Warren G. Bennis
Distinguished Professor
of Business Management,
use, Berkeley, CA
James V. Capua
President,
The Donner Foundation,
New York, NY
Cher
Entertainer,
Malibu, CA
Dr. James S. Coleman
University Professor,
University of Chicago,
Chicago, IL
R Michael Farmer
CFO, Perot Systems,
Hemdon, VA
Dr. James W. Preston
Chairman,
UConn Dept. of Medicine,
Farmington, CT
Quincy Jones
Musician,
Los Angeles, CA
Armin U. Kuder, Esq.
Kuder, Smollar &
Friedman, P.C,
Washington, DC
Donald P. Nielsen
Chairman,
Hazelton Corporation,
Vienna, VA
William E. Simon
Chatrman,
William E. Simon & Sons, Inc.,
Morristoum, NJ
UMASS/AMHERST
3150bt,01b[:,flllfl?
The Honorable Piedad F. Robertson
Secretary of Education
Attn: Charter Schools
Executive Office of Education
One Ashburton Place, Room 1401
Boston MA 02108
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February 14, 1994
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Dear Madame Secretary:
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The Hyde Foundation and its affiliate F.A.ST. Inc. (Family and School
Together) are pleased to submit its application to found a Charter School in
Massachusetts.
Because of our first public school success-r/ie Hyde Leadership School of
Greater New Haven--The Smart Family Foundation requested we develop a urban-
suburban Hyde model as a companion to another inner-city Hyde model we have
been asked to develop for Baltimore, MD. After much consideration, we believe
the Massachusetts charter school movement to be the most innovative state
program nationally to fit our needs, as well as being centrally located to our two
present models. We believe our strongest Hyde alumni parent and student support
nationally is also in Massachusetts.
I personally would be delighted to return to my home state-I was born in
Springfield, graduated from Wellesley High School, was married in Newton, and
did my graduate work at MIT and Boston University.
We would be honored to receive your approval, and we would look forwaid
to working with you to develop an outstanding national model in Massachusetts
that features character development and parental involvement.
Sincerely,
Joseph W. Gauld
616 HIGH STREET. BATH. MAINE 04530 • 207-443-5584 / FAX 207-443-8631
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Office of Education
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Please provide the Executive Office of Education with the following information
identifying a designated contact person for the group submitting an application for charter
school status. This form must be filed along with the charter ^£Bo^S^^lIc2Sofi nolater
than February 15, 1994. Please mail all required materials toi: ^
Secretary of Education •
ATTN: Charter Schools ":
Executive Office of Education ;
One Ashburton Place, Room 1401
Boston, Massachusetts 02108
Tel: (617) 727-1313
r
EXEC
OF EUuoMiiuiNl
Please print or type:
The Ifyde Foundation
Name of organization/group filing for charter school status
Contact Person
Name:
Kenneth L. Grant
l^-^tjOu^
Signature:
Date; ^/ J^/1994
Title:
Executive Director, The Hyde Foimdation
Address:
f^16 High <;trPPf, -Rpfh MainP ()h^'\()
City;
State:
Zip;
Telephone;
(207) A43-5584
Fax;
(207) A43-8631
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Office of Education
Charter School Application
VWq, the undersigned charter school applicant(s), do hereby certify that the information provided
herein and filed with the Executive Office of Education on this the 14 th day of
February (month) of the year 1994, is to the best of my/our knowledge, truthful and
accurate.
(This signature sheet must be attached to the application when it is filed.)
Name: Kenneth L.
Grant
Signature:
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^ ^ylxa^v^: tJuMv
Address: ^^^ ^^S^
Street
City:
Bath
Slate: Maine
Zip: 04530
Tel: (207) 443-5376
\
Name: Joseph W. Gauld
Signature:
\ ^rv^^ J\Sk^^5^: "^ /( ^ Is «
Address: 616 High
Street
City:
Batl^
Scale: Maine
Zip: 04530
Tel: (207) 443-4162
Name: Craig A. Cunningham
Signature:
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'^/U
Date: Z/fV/^7
Address:10 Somerset Place
City:
Bath '
State: Maine
Zip: 04530 '
Tel: (207) 443-8873
Name:
Signature:
Date:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Tel:
Name:
Signature:
Date:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Tel:
Name:
Signature:
Date:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Tel:
Name:
Signature:
Date:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Tel:
Name:
Signature:
Date:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Tel:
If more ^>ace is required, please attach additional sheets.
Executive Office of Education, One Ashburton Place, Room 1401. Boston, MA, 02108
T~ '•: "S"
H T^ r N
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EXECUTIVE o;-^-"
Or EDUCAT
Creating
The Hyde
Charter School
i; ...
An Application Submitted to
The Secretary of Education
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
(Part I)
Submitted by:
Kenneth L. Grant, Executive Director
The Hyde Foundation, Bath Maine 04530
(207) 443-5584; fax: (207) 443-8631
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
1. MISSION STATEMENT
What is Hyde?
The Hyde Concept: A Philosophical Overview 10
The Hyde Process 12
2. SCHOOL OBJECTIVES 13
A. What are the school's broad academic objectives for student learning? 15
B. Describe any non-academic goals for student performance. 20
C. What type of community environment do you hope to foster at your school? 29
3. STATEMENT OF NEED 30
A. Why is there a need for this type of school? 31
B. Explain why a charter school would help to effectively address this need. 32
4. SCHOOL DEMOGRAPHICS 41
A. Describe the area where the school will be located. If a facility has already been
secured, please state so. 41
B. Why was this location selected? Are there other locations suitable to the needs and
focus of the school? 41
C. Describe any unique characteristics of the student population to be served. 43
D. What is the school's anticipated enrollment? 44
E. What grade levels will be served? How many students are expected to be in each
grade or grouping? 44
5. RECRUITING & MARKETING PLAN 45
A. Demonstrate how you will publicize the school to attract a sufficient pool of
applicants. 45
B. Specifically, what type of outreach will be made to potential students and their
families? 45
6. ADMISSIONS POLICY 48
A. Describe the admission methods and standards you will use to select students. 48
B. Explain bow these policies further the mission of the school in a non-discriminatory
fashion. 51
7. PROFILE OF FOUNDING COALITION 52
A Describe the make-up of the group or partnership that is working together to apply for
a charter. 52
B. Discuss how the group came together, as well as any affiliation with existing schools,
educational programs, businesses, non-profits, or any other groups. 52
C. Include any plans for further recruitment of founders or organizers of the school. 57
8. TIMETABLE 58
A. Discuss a timetable of events leading to the opening of a charter school. 58
LIST OF APPENDICES AND EXHIBITS
Appendix I: Letters of Support
Appendix II: Gardiner-Hyde Mediator's Report
Appendix III: Recent Hyde School Graduation Speeches
Appendix IV: Design Team Resumes
Appendix V: Newspaper Articles about Hyde
Appendix VI: Letter to Hyde Parents from Director of Family Learning Center
Exhibit A: Video of 60 Minutes' 'The Hyde Solution"
Exhibit B: Character First: The Hyde School Difference, by Joseph W. Gauld (San
Francisco: ICS Press, 1993)
Exhibit C: Pamphlets from the "Hyde School Concepts" series:
Building Blocks
Discipline at Hyde School
Hyde as a System
Exhibit D: Pamphlets from Springfield, Gardiner, and New Haven
Exhibit E: Parents' Book
INTRODUCTION
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts seeks charter schools to "promote new
options in delivering public education to our children" and serve as "educational
laboratories where educators can investigate new dynamics and methods to be modeled by
the larger school system." Massachusetts's charter school legislation is designed to
promote innovation in the public school system, by allowing "teachers... unprecedented
freedom" and "autonomy" along with accountability for delivering results.
Twenty-eight years ago, the Hyde School experiment in Bath, Maine set out to
discover a better way for educating our nation's youth. In the relatively unrestricted arena
of private schooling, the Hyde School has become a "lighthouse" of innovation and
success. Hyde School proves that putting Character First"™ is a better way to educate
America's adolescents. The school continues to generate comments:
• "Hyde is an educational concept light years ahead of its time " - Marc
Brown, noted author of children's books.
• Hyde is "another world, another planet" - Hava Shavit, an Israeli
superintendent who found America's best schools "disappointing."
• Hyde School is "The Hyde Solution " to American educational problems -
C.B.S.'s 60 Minutes.
• "Business leaders today are just beginning to catch up to what Hyde has
practiced for 25 years. " - Duane Fitzgerald, CEO of the Bath Iron Works.
• "The approach taken by Hyde School is extremely important for the
kind of society that America has become. " - Professor James S. Coleman,
University of Chicago. ^
The Hyde concept of education creates an exciting new frontier for American
education. More than transforming the school, it transforms the entire child-rearing
community. It re-centers the educational process upon the family and it bonds parents,
teachers, and students — and even the larger community — into a powerful team. It
1 See Appendix I for complete text of Hava Shavit's and James Coleman's letters.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 6
motivates students to a larger purpose in life, empowers parents as the primary teachers,
and elevates teachers to a new professionalism in which they guide the entire grov/ing-up
process.
This revolutionary process grew out of the vision of Joseph W, Gauld, a
committed teacher whose dissatisfaction with our present educational system led him to
search for a better way. Hyde School spent its first 25 years formulating, testing, and
retesting its revolutionary approach to education. This approach has proven successful
with a diverse population of students and families. It is now being recognized by public
school communities as an exciting concept that could help transform their schools.
Now Family and School Together, Inc. (FAST), a Massachusetts affiliate of the
Hyde School, and The Hyde Foundation (of Bath, Maine), seek a charter from the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts to show conclusively that this better way works in the
public sector as well as it does in the private. This project will allow us to show that the
model works not only in the inner city (New Haven and Baltimore) but in a
urban/suburban location as well. Our primary financial backer— the Smart Family
Foundation—has asked us to set up such a model as our next project. The Massachusetts
charter school legislation provides us with a prime opportunity to do so.
FAST has already accumulated some valuable experience taking the Hyde concept
and process into the public schools. In 1990 and 1991, FAST worked with the
Springfield, Massachusetts Public Schools to design the Hyde Leadership School of
Springfield, which was to open in the autumn of 1991 with 150 students. Over 650
interested families submitted preliminary applications before the project was quashed by
the Springfield Education Association, which felt it had "too much on its plate" at the time
(the SEA had failed to reach a contract with the Springfield Public Schools, and didn't
want to Hyde project to interfere with ongoing negotiations).
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 7
In 1991 and 1992, FAST worked with the Maine School Administrative District
11 (Gardiner) to develop a school -within-a-school. After a highly successful summer
orientation for teachers, students, and families on the campus of Hyde School (Bath), the
program opened with 140 students and nine teachers at Gardiner Area High School. The
program produced amazing results for those students and parents wr were involved, but
its presence within a high school with a radically different culture — different philosophy,
methods, and expectations — caused antagonism to arise. Within two months, the majority
of the non-Hyde teachers in the high school petitioned the MSAD 11 School Board to
cancel the Hyde program. The Board suspended the program to allow for mediation
between The Hyde Foundation and the high school teachers (backed by the local chapter
of the Maine Teachers Association). The MTA refused to give any ground in the
mediation,^ but the School Board voted 7 to 5 to reinstate the program with a number of
restrictions on how the program's participants could apply the Hyde concept. However,
the wind had been taken out of the sails of the program, and by the end of the school year,
the Smart Family Foundation — the program's primary financial support — decided not to
renew its funding. (A group of Gardiner families continues to pursue the Hyde program in
evening meetings with Hyde Foundation personnel. The MSAD 11 superintendent, Dr.
Ronald Snyder, continues to support the Hyde concept. See his letter of support in
Appendix I.)
In the spring of 1992, FAST worked with the Superintendent of the New Haven,
Connecticut Public Schools to develop a school built on the Hyde concept. It was decided
early on that a repeat of the Gardiner school-within-a-school approach should not be
attempted, and personnel from the New Haven school worked feverishly to provide the
Hyde Leadership School of Greater New Haven with a site of its own. After another
2 See Appendix II for a copy of the Mediator's letter to the Gardiner superintendent
following the mediation.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 8
highly successful summer orientation, the program opened in New Haven with 120
students, 8 teachers, and a four-person site team from FAST. The program is currently
flourishing in a former Catholic school in Hamden, Connecticut. Parental participation is
currently over 65 percent, student enthusiasm is astounding, and teacher commitment is
high. (A copy of a brochure describing the New Haven program is included in Exhibit D.
Also see letter of support for this application from New Haven superintendent Dr.
Reginald Mayo in Appendix I. )
FAST is currently working with the Baltimore, Maryland Public Schools to open a
nev^ school in the fall of 1994. Together with our operations in Bath and New Haven, we
expect the Hyde Leadership School of Baltimore to allow us the opportunity to further
refine our public school approach. By the fall of 1995, we are certain that we will have
demonstrated conclusively the effectiveness of the Hyde approach for all types of children.
The New Haven project indicates that we have now found the formula for successful
public schools based on the Hyde concept. We hope to apply this formula — ^with
alterations to suit local conditions — in Massachusetts beginning in September of 1995.
While the Massachusetts school will be innovative for Massachusetts, it will build upon a
tested, refined, and proven concept and process which has already begun to revolutionize
American education. We hope the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will want to be in the
forefront of this revolution.
This document follows the format and guidelines promulgated by the Executive
Office of Education in its "Charter School Application." We are submitting only Part I of
the application — along with some supplementary materials — in the hopes that we will be
granted preliminary approval for a charter to begin in 1995. We will submit additional
information and materials as they become available.
Creating the Hyde Charter School _ February 15, 1994 Page 9
1. MISSION STATEMENT
The purpose of The Hyde Charter School will be:
To provide a learning environment where individuals develop
character and discover a deeper purpose in their lives.
To understand the educational implications of this mission, it is necessary to understand
the Hyde concept and process.^
What is Hvde?
1) a concept which holds that every person is gifted with a unique potential which defines
a destiny. Unique potential is developed through character — courage, integrity,
curiosity, concern for others, and leadership — which is learned by^ the example of
parents and schools in a synergistic partnership of commitment to transcendent
principles:
Destiny: Each of us is gifted with a unique potential.
Humility: We believe in a power and a purpose beyond ourselves.
Conscience: We attain our best through character and conscience.
Truth: Truth is our primary guide.
Brother's Keeper: We help others achieve their best.'*
2) a process which fosters growth through a diverse experiential curriculum of action
together with self- reflection which addresses not only intellectual but physical,
social, emotional and spiritual potentials, helping students to progress through the
^For more information on the Hyde concept and process, see Joseph W. Gauld's book.
Character First: The Hyde School Difference (San Francisco: ICS Press, 1993). A copy
of Character First is enclosed with this application as Exhibit B.
'^For educational purposes, Hyde's Five Principles have evolved into a set of Five Lessons
which are more easily grasped and operationalized. The Five Lessons are: "Take a risk
and have fun"; "Best effort over performance"; "Bet on the truth"; "Be yourself; and
"Support each other's best."
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 10
stages of a continuous improvement toward excellence with the ultimate goal of
taking full responsibility for their own lives.
The Hyde Concept: A Philosophical Overview
The entire Hyde program is built upon the fundamental belief that each youngster
is gifted with a unique potential for excellence that defines his or her destiny and purpose
in life. This premise is universally accepted by parents, teachers, and students; and in the
Hyde schools the premise has proven to reach the deeper potentials of all members of the
school community. When this belief becomes the most basic assumption of schooling, it
finally brings a true solution to the age-old problem of discrimination, which has no place
in a community where each individual is believed to be gifted with a unique destiny and
purpose in life. This basic premise is complemented by four additional principles —
Humility, Conscience, Truth, And Brother's Keeper — creating a powerful school
community in which learning, growth, and mutual concern unite participants in a
commitment to excellence.
Hyde discovered long ago that the family is the center of an individual's unique
potential, and that the school must work to fully develop each family's child-rearing
potential. So Hyde has developed a process that identifies and unites the goals of home
and school. A continual focus upon parents as the primary teachers, and the home as the
primary classroom, ensures the vital learning foundation of attitude, effort, character, and
deeper sense of purpose that fully prepares and motivates youngsters to learn. This
unified family-school approach guides the child through childhood and then adolescence,
helping parents to "let go" while eventually empowering the teenager to assume full
responsibility for his or her new life. The Hyde curriculum provides continual
opportunities to address parental and family growth, including the "Family Learning
Center," a two- to three-day intensive workshop on personal and family growth issues.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 11
The home and school environments are pulled together by the agreement of parents,
teachers and students alike to observe the five Hyde principles. ^
Because the Hyde program requires family participation by at least one parent or
guardian, Hyde public school models employ a "mentoring" system for students whose
parents lack the necessary commitment, particularly in depressed areas where such family
commitments may be widely lacking. These models will work with local social service
agencies to identify and assist those youngsters who may need help to maintain their own
commitments.
Maintaining this continual commitment to each person's best and to the Hyde
principles is not easy. Hyde has found it requires both individuals and schools to
concentrate on developing their character — specifically, courage, integrity, concern for
others, curiosity, and leadership. Since character is taught primarily by example, parents
and teachers also experience an on-going program to address their own character growth.
As students see their teachers and parents working hard to develop their own characters, a
strong parent-teacher-student bond is formed which completely dissipates the pervasive
negative peer pressure that exists in many American schools today .^
The more deeply Hyde School addresses both student and parental growth, the
more it realizes a deeper process of human development that present education ignores. If
knowledge is outwardly acquired and wisdom inwardly developed, then mainstream
American education emphasizes only knowledge. The Hyde School experiment
demonstrates that at approximately age 13, children can begin to take responsibility and to
5 See Appendix I for letters by former Hyde parents who discuss the profound effect of the
Hyde concept on their working lives: Lennox K. Black (chairman, Teleflex, Inc.),
Lawrence Chickering (Associate Director of the Institute for Contemporary Studies), and
Jack Diskin (Chairman of DiFam, Inc.).
^ For more on this peer pressure, see John U. Ogbu's "The Consequences of the American
Cast System," in The Achievement of Minority Students: New Perspectives, edited by U.
Neisser (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1986).
Creating the Hyde Charter School February IS, 1994 Page 12
think for themselves. Therefore, we have found that high school education must
emphasize wisdom, character, and the beginnings of 5e//-knowledge.
The ancient Greeks had two fundamental aphorisms: "Know Thyself," and
"Become What You Are." Hyde helps the students to fulfill these injunctions through its
program for unique potential. By continually getting students to focus on three
questions — ^"Who am I?"; "Where am I going with my life?"; and "What do I have to do
to get there?" — Hyde develops wisdom and self-knowledge and helps youngsters to begin
to fulfill their destinies.
The Hyde Process
Recent studies by Harvard University's Howard Gardner and others have shown
that individuals differ in their personal profile of at least seven different forms of
intelligences. Hyde has shown that to reach the unique potential of every student, the
school must offer a comprehensive curriculum for growth, challenging each student in
all areas of life — intellectually, physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually (the
"IPSES" model) — not just in those in which the student displays a particular talent. This
means that all students must meet rigorous standards of effort and attitude not only in
college preparatory academics, but also in co-curricular areas of performing arts, athletics,
school leadership, and community service. Each student must be expected to take
ownership for the success of the school community through regular jobs and through
taking responsibility for the growth of other students. These diverse requirements are
supplemented by a sophisticated program of self-reflection through journal ing and sharing.
Hyde's curriculum for self-understanding results in increased readiness for
academic rigor. Our experience confirms Horace Mann's advice that if he had a year to
teach spelling, he'd spend the first nine months on motivation. Visitors to Hyde
continually remark on the remarkable maturity and self-directednessof Hyde students.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 13
2. SCHOOL OBJECTIVES
The Hyde program includes required experiences in Academics; a Co-curriculum
consisting of athletics, performing arts, school leadership, community service; and Family
Learning. Each of these curricular areas is described in this section. The program
includes structured experiences which build a sense of community and a sense of
involvement with the school as a community. These are described below under the
heading Building the School Community. In addition to these action experiences,
students participate in reflective programs which are specifically designed to foster the
development of students' self-knowledge. These reflective experiences are described below
under a section entitled Reflection. Finally, we discuss some of the Systemic Reforms
necessary to implement the Hyde program in the public schools.
Before we discuss these specific aspects of the program, it will be helpful to
explain some important aspects of Scheduling and Organization.
Studies show that the most important structural feature of a successful school
community is sizeP Hyde's own experience indicates that no high school grouping should
be larger than 250 students. Ideally, a pilot year Hyde public school program will start
with 150-200 students. As the program grows beyond 250 students, the school will be
broken down into sub-schools of approximately 180-250 students, 15-18 teachers, and 3-5
teaching interns.^ The faculty will be formed into four teams of four teachers, with each
'' See, for example, the recent publications of the Chicago Consortium for School Research
which discuss the early results of Chicago's radical site-based reform program (available
from Professor Anthony S. Bryk, Center for School Improvement, University of Chicago,
5835 S. Kimbark Ave., Chicago IL 60637).
^The Hyde schools utilize interns to assist with orienting students to the expectations of
the school and to assist teachers. The Hyde School in Bath generally attracts 4 or 5
alumni interns each year who take a semester off from college or give a year after
graduating from college. We expect several of these alumni interns to choose to help us
with the Massachusetts project, and once the school has been in operation for a few years,
we expect the Hyde Charter School of Massachusetts to generate its own alumni interns.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 14
team responsible for teaching the 55-65 students at each grade level, and the other two
teachers as floaters to handle foreign language instruction for the entire sub-school. Each
sub-school will also broken up into advisory groups, with each teacher working with 12-
15 students selected at random from all four grade-levels. This stmcture will ensure that
teachers and students have the opportunity to build a community of trust within a larger
school setting.^
A diverse program like Hyde creates all sorts of special demands on a school's
schedule. Not only academics, but athletics, performing arts, community service, family
learning, community-building activities, and reflection must be scheduled. This requires
that at least one faculty member of each sub-school serve as a Director of Program,
responsible for keeping his or her fmger on the pulse of the community and determining
when to change the schedule to reflect the community's needs. One of the ways that the
school schedule can maximize academic leaming is to group it into intensive periods of
activity, when the mind is most alert and ready to learn. The Hyde program concentrates
its academic program into the morning, and the afternoon is reserved for other activities,
such as school meetings, advisory groups, performing arts, community service, and
athletics. Every student is involved in these activities, which have traditionally been
These interns are usually given room and board and a small stipend. We also try to work
our college credits for those interns contemplating a career in education.
^Teacher teams meet at least twice weekly to discuss curricula and issues of particular
students' growth. This is in addition to a weekly school-wide faculty meeting in which
issues of scheduling, curriculum, or teaching strategies may be discussed. This use of
teams of teachers to teach groups of students is similar to the approach advocated by
Theodore R. Sizer in his Horace's School (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1992). Sizer's
Coalition for Essential Schools has grown rapidly to over 150 schools. Hyde's program
differs from these schools in two major respects: 1) our goal is the entire growth of the
youngster, not just cognitive development; and 2) the Hyde principles infuse the academic
program so that it becomes a means for self-knowledge and wisdom, not just academic
knowledge and skills. Sizer himself indicates the high value of these "non-intellectual"
forms of growth in his book, where he speaks of "habits of thoughtfulness." These
"habits," we contend, are the rudimentary forms of character and wisdom.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 15
termed "extracurricular," during their Hyde education. Because ail students and teachers
participate in sports, the entire school community stays at school until sports practices or
competitions are concluded — usually 4:30 or 5:00.
A. What are the school's broad academic objectives for student learning?
The key to understanding the Hyde academic program is to see it as part of a
larger program designed to develop the unique potential of students. The classroom does
not operate in a vacuum; rather, the teacher sees him or herself as furthering the goals of
the school program, and Hyde teachers will often allow these larger programmatic goals
to enter into the development of day-to-day lessons and to determine reactions to
unplanned classroom situations such as student disruption, school issues, or world and
community events.
So Hyde relates academics to the student's own unique potential and character
growth: English as a primary means to draw out the humane potentials of the student;
mathematics to draw out reasoning and leadership potentials; geography, foreign
languages, history and science to help the student relate his or her individuality to a larger
picture that includes other cultures, civilization and even life itself. As these connections
are established, the student will eventually pursue academic excellence as a means to
achieve personal excellence.
We envision this development as occurring in a continuous improvement through
four stages of growth— known as the "EEMO" model: "Excellence," "Effort,"
"Motions," and "Off-Track." Some students begin school "Off-Track" — ^they are unable
or unwilling to participate in the school's program. Through a rigorous system of student-
run "concern meetings," discipline and accountability, the off-track student is convinced to
move into the next stage: he begins to go through the "Motions" of responsible behavior.
In this stage, the teacher provides the major initiative and the student willingly follows.
Gradually the student moves into the "Effort" stage, in which the student and teacher
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 16
operate as a team. Finally, students begin to strive for "Excellence": the student now
provides the major initiative and the teacher acts as a guide. ^^
There are 10 Basic Guidelines for teachers in the Hyde academic program:
1. Put character first.
2. Focus on continuous improvement toward excellence for every student.
3. Emphasize the importance of attitude and effort.
4. Understand the unique potential of each student.
5. Incorporate the Hyde principles into teaching and curriculum.
6. Make academics a shared experience between teacher and student.
7. Use performance evaluation to determine goals and content.
8. Prepare every student for learning beyond secondary school.
9. Build on students' success in all areas of the school.
10. Use the subjects to foster students' self-knowledge.
Academic classes are graded according to both effort and achievement. Final
course grades are an average of effort and achievement grades. Hyde students are
unanimous in their belief that this system of grading is fairer than grades which reflect
achievement alone. Students come to absorb the ethic that comparisons among students
in terms of academic abilities are pernicious; that all students are of equal value; that all
students can excel.
Every student participates in a college preparatory curriculum which will allow the
freedom to choose a path toward further learning upon completion of secondary school.
We know that students will not acquire academic skills and knowledge until they are ready
to learn, so most of the purpose of early academic experiences at Hyde is to foster
motivation and academic curiosity, as well as to teach basic skills of learning — including
i°For more information on the EEMO model, see pamphlet entitled "Building Blocks" in
Exhibit C.
Creating the Hyde Charter School ' February 15, 1994 Page 17
note-taking, listening skills, reading for understanding, computer skills, and asking
questions when material is not clear. (Special classes may be set up during students' first
year at Hyde so that they can concentrate on these basic learning skills. Similarly, special
summer classes will be offered for admitted students who need some attention to catch up
to their peers' skill levels. The key, as Professor Henry Levin of Stanford University says,
is to accelerate, not remediate. These skills are best learned through interaction in a rich
learning environment which, like the main academic program at Hyde, is project-based.)
As the basic skills are mastered, the academic program begins to explore the connections
between cultural artifacts and individual student growth, with continual attention to the
development of each student's own self-understanding.
Since the primary purpose of the school is to help youngsters answer the
questions — "Who am I?"; "Where am I going with my life?"; and "What do I have to do
to get there?," — the academic program at Hyde helps students see academics as extensions
of the self, as aids to self-understanding. Students' personal experiences become a point of
departure for reflection on the broad range of human experience, as contained in the
academic disciplines. In this way, connections are made across subject areas, and different
ways of knowing are compared and contrasted in a tangible manner.
The Hyde School experience shows, and studies concur, that the competitive spirit
present in many schoolrooms is not conducive to learning. Hyde students have accepted
the principle of Brother's Keeper — "We help others achieve their best" — so helping one
another learn is not only allowed but required in the program. Teachers are encouraged
to use various methods which are successful with heterogeneous groupings, such as
cooperative learning, team learning, peer tutoring, and extra help sessions for those
experiencing difficulty. ii
^1 See Robert E. Slavin's "Cooperative Learning and the Cooperative School,"
Educational Leadership (November 1987), pages 7-13.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 18
Each grade-level team includes teachers trained in English, mathematics, history,
science (as appropriate to grade-level), and foreign language.^^ These teams are
responsible for developing an appropriate day-to-day curriculum for their students (in
keeping with the grade-level's theme and consistent with the guidelines offered above)
which will prepare the students for the performance evaluations at the end of the year and
for world class standards.
Each year of the Hyde secondary school curriculum is organized around four
interdisciplinary themes. The freshman year is focused on issues relating to the world as a
whole (including world history, world geography, world literature, and earth science; also
algebra); the sophomore curriculum is oriented toward the western world (with western
history including the exploration of the Americas, western literature, geography; also
biology and geometry); the junior year focuses on the American experience (with U.S.
History, U.S. geography, and American literature; along with chemistry and second year
algebra); and the senior year is focused on the individual and the community (with
emphasis on the modem condition in the study of literature, government, and philosophy;
along with physics and advanced mathematics including calculus). These grade-level
themes will be carried over into the teams that will be formed in the Hyde Charter School
project, but the individual members of teams and the specific content of each team's
^2 In keeping with our experiences at the private Hyde School in Bath, Maine, we will not
require our teachers to be certified to teach in traditional public schools. Instead, all
teachers will be required to have completed a four-year degree with a major in one of the
disciplines. This course of study often provides a better preparation for teaching at the
high school level than does the program which satisfies all teacher certification
requirements. Teachers at the Hyde Charter School will be encouraged to pursue
advanced education if they have not done so already, whether leading to the M.Ed, or to a
master's degree in their discipline.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 19
curriculum will vary depending upon the specific needs of the students and the resources
of the team.^^
Academic progress is evaluated with a mix of traditional examinations and
performance evaluation. The specific design of this evaluation mix will be up to the
individual team. Each team develops a set of required performances — "exhibitions," as
Ted Sizer calls them^'^ — ^geared to grade-level themes. In one team at Hyde School Bath,
for example, each student in the eleventh grade is required to give a fifteen-minute
presentation near the end of the year on a "unique idea pertinent to the American
experience." These presentations are videotaped, and the videotape is shown to the entire
team of students and is kept as part of the student's permanent portfolio. Whenever
students give presentations during the year (and this happens on a monthly basis in many
classes), these presentations are videotaped for inclusion in the student's file.
The organization of the school into team-taught groups allows each team to spend
effort on the collective growth issues of each group of students. At Hyde School, each
class spends time defining a set of goals and objectives for their grade-level, in terms of
character, leadership, academic skills, knowledge, and school involvement. Each student's
individual progress toward these goals is discussed — and evaluated on the EEMO scale —
by the entire group on a regular basis, thus contributing toward the larger goal of
continuous improvement for every student. Teachers work hard to know about each
^^The Hyde Charter School will use curricular materials which are based upon problem-
solving and critical thinking. We especially urge the use of the mathematics curriculum
developed by the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, and available
through Scott, Foresman. Teachers will utilize such visionary books as Paul Gagnon's
Democracy's Untold Story: What World History Textbooks Neglect {W^zshin^on:
American Federation of Teachers, 1987), R. Pratte's The Civic Imperative: Examining the
Need for Civic Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 1988) and James Moffett
and Betty Jane Wagner's Student-Centered Language Arts and Reading, K-13: A
Handbook for Teachers (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983).
^'^ See his Horace's School: Redesigning the American High School (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1992).
Creating the Hyde Charter School ■ February 15, 1994 Page 20
student's participation in the co-curriculum, family learning, and school community aspects
of the program, and to build upon the successes of students in these other areas of the
school.
B. Describe any non-academic goals for student performance.
The Hyde concept, as we have mentioned, is built upon the view that character
comes before academics in educational priority. Even the academic program puts its
primary emphasis on the development of character. This is equally true of the non-
academic program — ^which at Hyde is not "extra-curricular"; rather, activities in athletics,
performing arts, community service, family learning, and reflection are termed co-
curricular to emphasize their importance in the overall program for unique potential.
Athletics
Every Hyde School (Bath) student participates in three seasons of interscholastic
sports, with the expectation that at least one of these seasons will be in a sport for which
the student has had no prior experience. The experience of competing in contests of
physical prowess and teamwork has been proven to be one of the primary contributors to
student character growth. In Hyde public schools, where the sheer numbers of students
may preclude every student's involvement in interscholastic competition during every
season, students may be given the option of participating in intramural athletic programs
during one or two seasons, but every student is expected to have an interscholastic
athletic experience each year. Specific strategies for putting this principle into practice
are worked out in each public school program.
Performing Arts
The Hyde School experience shows that performing arts can become an incredibly
powerful agent for the growth of students, and Hyde teachers believe that involvement
with performing arts should not be limited to students who display native talent or interest.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 21
Rather, every Hyde student is involved in performing arts, with each student taking part in
student-directed school-wide performances to which parents and community are invited. .
The Hyde performing arts program evolved out of Hyde School's experiences in
the mid-1970s. Some students and faculty decided to put on a show for the bicentennial,
which was known as "America's Spirit." This program electrified audiences all over the
eastern United States — performing in such places as the Kennedy Center in Washington
and on Broadway in New York City. Since this success, performing arts has become a
regular part of the Hyde program, with time being set aside each week for planning,
design, and rehearsals, leading to performances in other schools in the winter and spring.
"The Show" as it is referred to in-house, is also performed for parents during the spring
Family Weekend, and for community members on the evening before graduation.
Some portions of "The Show" are put together by the academic teams to reflect
the content of their experiences in the classroom. For example, a sophomore team may
put together a drama segment on the era of European exploration, or a senior team may
perform a dance which highlights the struggles of adolescents creating self-identities which
are distinct from their parents.
Community Service
The Hyde School experience indicates that every person jx)ssesses deep instincts
to help others, and the Hyde program shows that every student and teacher grows from
involvement in service activities in the larger community. This is one way for students to
envision their future roles in society, and it also allows for contact between students and
groups of people outside their immediate experience. Service opportunities include
visiting the elderiy, working in soup kitchens, cleaning up public spaces, Big Brother/Big
Sister-type programs (at Hyde School, these programs are known as KRK — Kids
Reaching Kids), and working with younger children in neighborhood schools.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 22
Family Learning
Perhaps the most unique aspect of the Hyde program is Family Learning. Parents
are not merely "involved" in their youngsters' education; rather, partnts participate in their
own learning program designed to help them (and therefore their children) to reach deeper
potentials. In an earlier era, when many American communities were relatively
homogenous, the families within a school's neighborhood could be relied upon to provide
predictable support for the mission of the public school. This allowed the educational
program to be centered in the school. But today, when these assumptions about families
no longer hold, the school and its teachers must assume a different role: partners to the
parents in the home, providing support and assistance to what is the most difficult job in
the world: raising a child. ^^
Many youngsters are not being raised in a traditional family configuration of father
and mother, brothers and sisters all living in the same location. A student's parents may be
unavailable; instead, there may be a guardian, an older relative, foster parents, or some
other adult as the primary caregiver. In certain circumstances, the legal guardian or parent
may refuse to participate in the Family Leaming program. In these cases, it is important to
realize that Hyde doesn't mandate which adult needs to be involved; rather, the program
requires that at least one responsible adult, significant to the youngster's growth and
development, must agree to participate. As mentioned above, in the case where a student
wants to become involved in the Hyde program, but cannot persuade any adults to
participate, Hyde school program personnel will work with the student and with
community groups to find someone willing to serve this mentoring role.
^^ For further discussion of the need for school participation in the growth of families, see
statement by Professor James S. Coleman, professor of sociology and education at the
University of Chicago and a member of The Hyde Foundation Board of Advisors, in
Appendix I. Coleman's statement reflects the wisdom of the African saying, "It takes a
village to raise a child."
Creating the Hyde Charter School - February 15, 1994 Page 23
Each Hyde Charter School parent will participate in a program involving regular
meetings with other parents, one intensive weekend experience per year (known as a
"Family Learning Center" or FLC), and family weekends in the autumn, winter, and
spring. The purpose of these parent- and family-centered meetings is for parents to focus,
separately and as a family, on issues of character and personal growth.^^ While this in
itself is an important reward, the underlying rationale for requiring parental participation is
that "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree"; that is, a youngster does not often progress
beyond the expectations and deeper commitments of his or her parents. ^"^
The Family Learning curriculum includes: use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
to help families see how personality differences may lead to different strategies for
reaching the family's vision; experiential exercises ("new games," etc.) which build
community and trust; joumaling questions designed to help parents to reflect upon their
own growth and their vision for the family; lessons and discussions on aspects of the Hyde
concept; separate seminars for parents and students in which participants are encouraged
to honestly assess the level of trust and communication within their family; and sessions in
which parents and youngsters read letters to each other which discuss issues of personal
and family growth. ^^
i^The 60 Minutes segment on Hyde School, called "The Hyde Solution," which is
included in the supplementary materials as Exhibit A, gives a good overview of how the
school fosters this family growth.
1"^ A skeptic might argue that it will be impossible to get many parents involved in this
program. But we argue that if we can get parents at a boarding school to participate in a
program for parental growth (which includes three visits annually to Hyde School), then
we should be able to do it in a public school community, where the parents are close by.
We are supported in this expectation by the 65 percent of parents who participate in any
given event at the Hyde Leadership School of Greater New Haven. (This compares with
three percent at any event in the other public schools in New Haven.).
18 For more information on the content of the Hyde Family Learning program, see the
Letter to Parents from the Hyde School Director of Family Learning, included in
Appendix 4.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 24
Building the School Community
Educators and educational researchers have known for some time that schools
function better when there is a unity of purpose, a cohesive community devoted to over-
arching ideals and objectives. Much of this knowledge about effective schools has been
supported in the experiences of Hyde School, where the willingness to innovate to develop
unique potential has led the faculty, students, and parents to develop some unique
approaches to fostering community. Some involve the sharing of certain experiences by
students and teachers with the entire school. Others include the experience by all students
of a rigorous academic program, participation in interscholastic sports, and the performing
arts program, which is probably the most effective community-builder of all. Because
each member of the community has made a commitment to follow the five principles, each
person can count on the support of every other member. Students who cannot live up to
their commitment may find themselves involved in a "concern meeting" with other
students and faculty, in which the student's attitude and effort are evaluated. Some
students who need extra support may be invited into school for the Saturday "Breakfast
Club," in which the student and his or her parents participate in a seminar with other
students, parents, and faculty. In addition, Hyde has developed a set of school rituals —
"rites of passage" — ^in which all students participate as they pass through their Hyde
career. These include the admissions interview, the summer challenge orientation
program, the audition, the advisory groups, an "outpost" experience, the senior
evaluations, and graduation.
• The admissions interview is required of all students and families who wish to
participate in the Hyde program. This is not like a traditional admissions interview
in that its purpose transcends the formal decision as to whether or not the student
is accepted into the school; it also provides an opportunity for both students and
parents to assess their own commitment to the program and to indicate what level
of participation the school can expect from them.^^
19
For more on the interview, see Section 6, "Admissions Policy," below.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 25
• The Hyde summer challenge orientation program helps build a sense of
community before the start of the regular school year. Teachers and new students
attend the summer program. It includes various Outward-Bound-type challenges
for each advisory group as well as an introduction to the Hyde "seminar," in which
members of advisory groups share their growth issues with other members of the
group. Each group of summer students also produces a show which is performed
for the students' parents at the end of the program. The initial Hyde Charter
School summer challenge will be given as a two-week boarding program on the
Hyde School's campus in Maine. This will allow the school to "get off on the right
foot."
• Early in every school year, every Hyde student is required to perform an audition.
This entails getting up on stage in front of the assembled student body and faculty
and singing a short solo, a cappella. The ostensible purpose of this is to find out
how much singing confidence each student has, but the underlying purpose is to
build a sense of community: if every person within a community does something
which is perceived as difficult, and every student succeeds, a broad sense of
accomplishment and satisfaction is evident within the school.
• Every Hyde student is a member of an advisory group. Each Hyde teacher is
responsible for overseeing the programs of 12-15 students, for monitoring the
students' progress, for communicating regularly with their advisees' parents, and
for serving as their advocate in the program. These groups meet regularly during
the year to build a sense of trust, to share personal growth issues, and to plan
future challenges.
• Every Hyde student, at some point in his or her school career, participates in a
outpost experience. This is usually a three to four day wilderness or residential
experience in which students, together with other members of their advisory
group, build upon their understanding of the Hyde concept, develop their
leadership skills, and grow in self-confidence. These trips are led by experienced,
certified trip leaders.^o
• Toward the end of the senior year, faculty and seniors meet on a regular basis to
discuss each senior's growth. These senior evaluations become one of the more
intense experiences of a Hyde student's career, providing an opportunity for each
20 One extremely effective "outpost" was held for the students in the Gardiner-Hyde
program. The students, in groups of 15-20, bussed down to Boston for a long weekend
including an urban scavenger hunt, museum visits, and lodging in Hyde alumni parent
homes. Many of the Gardiner students had never been to a big city, and the trips were
seen as a wonderful community-builder for them and their colleagues. The students at the
Hyde Charter School, who may be quite experienced in urban living, would probably get
more out of a wilderness experience. These will be designed and conducted by teams of
local teachers to fit the needs of the students.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 26
student to reflect openly on their adolescent period and to assess the level of their
maturity and readiness to take over responsibility for their lives. Each senior is
evaluated by all of his or her peers and the faculty, with the final objective of
helping each senior to decide their graduation status.^i
• Each senior who decides to accept a Certificate or Diploma gives a two-minute
speech at graduation. There are no "valedictorians" or "salutatorians" in a Hyde
program; every graduating senior is entitled to a "moment of fame" in which the
community puts its collective attention on that student and listens to a personal
assessment of growth and challenges. Each senior's family and guests stand during
the speech to symbolize the hard work and commitment of parents, siblings, and
other significant persons contributing to the student's graduation.22
Together, these community-building rituals make Hyde a school that imprints — that
develops a communality of purpose and commitment which results in a highly effective
and cohesive school community.
Reflection
The Hyde program is designed to be challenging, and it works. Students and
faculty stretch their perceived limits. This stretching is essential for the actualization of
21 At Hyde School, all graduating seniors do not receive the same credential. Rather,
seniors decide for themselves whether they are ready for a Hyde Diploma or would rather
take a Certificate or Document. The Diploma signifies that "this person is ready to live his
or her life according to standards of personal excellence"; usually only 30-40 percent of
graduating seniors believe that they are ready for this level of graduation. A Certificate
certifies that the student has made significant character and academic growth, and that he
or she is committed to continuing this growth curve after leaving the school. A Document
is chosen by those seniors who believe, on the advice of faculty and students, either that
they have not made significant character growth at Hyde or that they are unwilling to
make a commitment to continuing their growth beyond Hyde. In a successful Hyde
program, the number of students who will choose a Document will be minimal. (All three
levels satisfy requirements for college admission.)
When a senior is not ready for graduation, the Hyde program encourages the senior to
return to the school as a "leadership" student, tidying up their academic skills, knowledge,
and taking risks of personal growth by involving himself or herself in the growth of
younger students. At Hyde School, the leadership year has been a significant experience
for a few students each year, resulting in their leaving high school more confident and
more ready to confront the challenges of college or the world of work.
22 See appendix III for a sample of recent graduation speeches.
Creating the Hyde Charter School
February 15, 1994
Page 27
potentials. But learning consists of more than just the experience of challenges. In
addition, people need to be taught to reflect on these experiences, to assimilate them into
their self-understandings, so that they can adopt and adapt to new information about the
self. As the ancient Greeks inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the prime
imperative is rvoxr}L UsavTov — "Know Thyself."
Hyde's approach to developing self-knowledge is reflected in the Action-
Reflection Cycle:
Step 1. First, we act in response to the challenges of our environment;
Step 2. Then, we assess the results of our action and reflect on the lessons;
Step 3. Finally, we repeat the process, gradually developing a deeper and
more accurate sense of our selves and our potentials.^^
It took the Hyde School community several years and lots of trial and error to
discover the importance of reflection for growth. In the mid-1980s, several members of
23 This Action-Reflection Cycle builds upon John Dewey's concept of "educative
experience," which he developed in Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the
Philosophy of Education (New York: Free Press, 1916)). It is also remarkably similar to
W. Edward's Deming's PDCA cycle: Plan, Do, Check, Act. This is why the Hyde
program is so conducive to an emphasis on continual improvement.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 28
the school faculty were introduced to the "intensive" journaling process of Ira Progoff;
this method of reflection has since become a key foundation of the Hyde program. Many
teachers use journaling as a tool in their academic curricula; in addition, the entire school
journals once a week on a series of questions or issues posed by the director of studies.
Once the group has had the opportunity to write in reaction to the questions, an
opportunity is given for members of the community who wish to publicly share their
writings. This has the effect of building community by giving students and faculty a look
at the deeper selves of their compatriots.^"*
Another builder of community and of reflective skills in the Hyde program is the
school meeting. The entire school community meets weekly to discuss issues before the
school or issues of personal growth. This meeting serves as a sort a "Town Meeting" in
which "citizens" can voice their concerns and work together to make decisions which are
relevant to the life of the community. Often, one of the five character words, principles,
or lessons will be selected, and volunteers will share experiences which are relevant to that
topic. Other meetings focus on Hyde School's ethics,^^ student or faculty fears, family
issues, sex, drug abuse, special holidays, etc. These occasions can be very powerful, and
give each person insight into the Hyde process and into their own growth.
2"* More information about Progoff s intensive journaling method is available by contacting
Dialogue House at 80 East 11th Street, New York, NY 10003-6035.
2^ Unlike most schools, which have elaborate systems of rules which fill student
handbooks, Hyde has only five rules, which are called the "Ethics." These are: No lying,
cheating, or stealing; no smoking, alcohol, or drugs; every student is his brother's keeper;
no premature sexual relations, and students will act like ladies and gentlemen. The
"brother's keeper" ethic is the most difficult for most adolescents: it places a positive
obligation on each student to help other students achieve their best. See pamphlet on
"Discipline at Hyde School" in Exhibit C.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 29
C. What type of community environment do you hope to foster at your school?
We have already spoken of the importance within the Hyde community of
commitment, shared vision, and living by principles. At Hyde, the purpose of the school
as an institution is the creation of community. The school is the means to the end of
community-building. As mentioned above, we adhere to the African saying, "It takes an
entire village to raise a child." Hyde produces a "village" with strong shared beliefs and
shared experiences; this village serves to educate and to ameliorate the effects of
community fragmentation and isolation which plague contemporary America.
The importance of a shared commitment cannot be overstated. For this reason,
two systemic reforms are essential for Hyde to operate successfully within the public
school sector. Both of these reforms are built into the Massachusetts Charter School
legislation. The first is at least a limited degree of choice so that parents and students who
are in the program have made a commitment to be there, and the second is site-based
decision-making so that the faculty and administration in a Hyde program school can
control the allocation of educational resources within their own school.
Choice is being touted as a new educational panacea. But as a recent Rand study
makes clear, choice is only half the answer: still needed are "focus" schools with specific
programs and visions. ^^ The Hyde program will provide such schools. Because the Hyde
program asks for new levels of participation from parents, it is expected that many families
will choose not to be involved, at least initially. Parents are accustomed to playing only a
supporting role in public schools: serving on PTCs, helping with fund-raising, perhaps
helping with homework. Considering how pressed for time many American families are
becoming, convincing some of these parents to make a larger commitment to their
youngsters' schooling may be difficult. But some parents — as we saw in Springfield,
26 See Paul T. Hill, Gail E. Foster, and Tamar Gendler's High Schools of Character (Santa
Monica, CA: Rand Publications, Inc., 1990).
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 30
Gardiner, and New Haven — will jump at the opportunity to play a larger role in their
youngster's school program. These families may make up the majority of the initial group
in any Hyde implementation. Gradually, as other parents begin to see that the Hyde
program is having a greater effect on the motivation, character, and achievement of the
students, we expect interest to dramatically grow — as it has at Hyde School.
FAST is committed to site-based decision-making as an essential systemic
reform which will allow for school faculties to control the allocation of educational
resources within their schools, thus empowering teachers and encouraging ownership and
participation.^"^ Just as the FAST only advises the faculty at each implementation site —
rather than dictating the specific academic content and/or methods to be used — FAST will
encourage each Hyde program site to continuously improve their own school design and
to use innovation as needed to deal with the specific circumstances of their district.
Continuous improvement of the community and institution — modeled after W. Edwards
Deming's Total Quality Management — is a natural counterpoint to the development of
each person's unique potential, and FAST — ^with the help of Williamsburg, VA consultant
Irving Stubbs^s — ^will provide the faculty at the Hyde Charter School with specific training
in the methods of continuous improvement.
3. STATEMENT OF NEED
Modem man could find no clearer expression for his dissatisfaction with the
world, for his disgust with things as they are, than by his refusal to assume, in
2'^ Site-based management is advocated in M.I.T.'s Education That Works: An Action Plan
for the Education of Minorities (Cambridge: Quality Education for Minorities Project,
1990).
28 Stubbs has worked with all of FAST's projects. He is a pioneer in training companies in
TQM. See his book Making It Better (Williamsburg: Quality Books, 1991). Stubbs'
involvement with Hyde School (Bath) has resulted in the development of a comprehensive
Systems Chart which can serve as a template for further expansion of the Hyde concept
and process. See the pamphlet "Hyde as a System" in Exhibit C.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 31
respect to his children, responsibility for all this. It is as though parents daily said:
"In this world even we are not very securely at home; how to move about in it,
what to know, what skills to master, are mysteries to us too. You must try to
make out as best you can; in any case you are not entitled to call us to account.
We are innocent, we wash our hands of you." —Hannah Arendt^^
A. Why is there a need for this type of school?
Many of America's youth are out of control. We cannot blame the kids themselves
for this. American adults-educators, policy-makers, parents-must bear the blame and the
responsibility for doing something about it. Hyde offers an alternative to the many failed
educational reforms of the past generation. By building on the parents as the primary
teachers, the home as the primary classroom, and the primary focus of schools as
Character First™, the Hyde approach helps all participants in the educational process to
break out of the unhelpful patterns into which they have fallen.
American education used to be the envy of the world. This is still true in some
areas and in some schools. Certainly our elite research universities continue to attract
international attention and imitation. But our secondary schools-especially large,
"comprehensive" high schools in urban centers-have become places of violence, fear, and
youth culture group-think.
To take back our schools from this youth culture, American parents need first to
focus on themselves. Why have they allowed their adolescents to become so off-track?
At Hyde, many parents realize that their parenting suffers from insufficient understanding
of the childrearing process, and from hidden agendas related to "skeletons in the closet"
from their own growing-up. The Hyde Family Learning Center helps parents to
understand and then to "let go" of their own parents so that they can begin to focus on the
unique potential of their own children. Only by accepting the Hyde principles, especially
the destiny premise that "each person is gifted with a unique potential which defines a
'^^ Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought (Penguin Books:
Hammondsworth, England; 1968, 191).
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 32
destiny" and the humility principle that "we believe in a power and a purpose beyond
ourselves," are parents able to both "let go" and assume their proper level of responsibility
in raising their children.
The Hyde experience shows that adolescents do not want to live without adult
supervision, under the perverse requirements of contemporary youth culture. They want
guidance, and they want high expectations. This guidance and these expectations are not
possible without the development of a school community based on a shared commitment
to transcendent principles." The Hyde principles are universally accepted by Hyde students
as the ideals by which they should conduct their own lives. The principles of Truth —
"Truth is our primary guide" — Conscience — "We attain our best through character and
conscience" — ^,and Brother's Keeper — "We help others achieve their best" — ^provide the
kind of guidance which helps adolescents to escape the youth culture's focus on treating
adults with distrust and scorn, "sucking it up" even in the face of intuitions that activities
are immoral, and the "protection" schemes which keep kids from "narcing" on one
another.
B. Explain why a charter school would help to effectively address this need.
We have already explained why Hyde needs to be built upon the systemic reforms
of choice and site-based decision-making. We also discussed the difficulties encountered
when Hyde was instituted within a traditional public school in a traditional public school
district (Gardiner, Maine) and the dramatic hope generated when an entire building has
been devoted to the Hyde concept (New Haven). For these reasons, the charter school
model is perfect for making the Hyde opportunity available to Massachusetts public school
students and for creating an educational beacon to be modeled elsewhere in
Massachusetts.
Creating a Hyde school requires a tremendous amount of change from students,
teachers, and parents. Traditional schooling works against this kind of change. Union
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 33
contracts are written to define in advance the expectations of teachers and other staff
members. Parents are generally unwelcome in the school except on special evenings or in
closely restricted roles. Students get into habits which make it hard for them to grow.
Personal growth into the unknown reaches of unique potential requires the
formation of a new kind of school community, one which is clearly incompatible with
mainstream American schools. We know that such school communities can be created,
given the right legal and regulative environment. The Massachusetts Charter School
legislation seems specifically designed to make this possible.
Once the Hyde Charter School has been set up, we expect it to show that this is a
better way for all children. We expect the Hyde Charter School to become a beacon of
hope for the other schools within the Commonwealth. Our 28 years of experience
convinces us that Hyde will begin to revolutionize the entire educational system.
How will we know it works? There are a number of different ways to gauge the
success of the program which has been developed at Hyde School (Bath). Much of the
evidence is anecdotal, coming from former students, parents, teachers, and visitors.^o
Another measure of the school's success is that despite the fact that many Hyde students
are at risk of dropping out of school when they arrive, 100 percent of Hyde School
graduating seniors have actually been accepted to accredited four-year colleges since
1986. The Hyde program is also successful in getting parents involved. Between 95 and
100 percent of parents typically attend the Hyde Family Weekends in the fall and spring.
Similar success is slowly being accomplished at the Hyde Leadership School of Greater
New Haven, where parental participation has now reached 66 percent.
But numbers can never capture the success with which the Hyde program has
changed the attitudes and characters of its students and parents. Only by visiting the
30 See Appendix I for testimonials from former Hyde parents, students, and visitors to
Hyde.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 34
school and talking with current students and hearing their evaluations can one get a
sufficient grasp of the differences between Hyde and other school programs.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts evaluators are encouraged to come to Bath and New
Haven and see the schools in action. A somewhat adequate substitute for the kind of
direct experience of Hyde School is to read what Hyde graduates and parents have had to
say about their Hyde experiences.^^
Yet another indication of the success of the Hyde School experiment has been
enthusiasm generated in the local and national media. NBC's The Today Show featured
Hyde in 1974, 1978, and 1993, and was impressed with the depth at which the Hyde
program was touching the students. Also during the 1970s, Hyde School appeared on
both the Phil Donahue Show and the David Susskind Show. CBS's 60 Minutes visited in
1989 and was so impressed by what it saw that it called the program "The Hyde Solution"
to the nation's educational problems. (A videotape of this 60 Minutes segment is enclosed
as "Exhibit A.") The publication of Joseph Gauld's Character First has generated .
considerable attention, with appearances by Gauld on radio shows nationally, and
upcoming Hyde appearances on the Jerry Springer Show ^ndi America with Denis Wholly.
Recent articles in iht National School Board News, The New Haven Register, and the
Portland Press Herald, as well as earlier articles in the Washington Post and The New
York Times, have discussed the Hyde program and chronicled its successes. Editorials
have appeared concerning the Hyde concept in The Wall Street Journal and Education
Week. Copies of a selection of these articles are included in Appendix V.
The other source of support for our expectations for the Hyde Charter School
comes from the realm of theory. While the Hyde School experiment proceeded mainly on
the common sense and intuition of its Founder and the teachers involved, over the years it
^^ See Appendix III for a selection of recent graduation speeches and Exhibit E for a
booklet about Hyde experiences by former parents.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 35
has become abundantly clear how much the Hyde approach is in sync with the best in
philosophical, psychological, and sociological research. The next few pages explore some
of this support.
The Hyde Foundation's Board of Advisors contains a number of public figures
who can attest to the solid foundation of the Hyde concept: sociologist and educator
James S. Coleman of the University of Chicago; management specialist Warren G. Bennis
of the University of Southern California; medical educator James W. Freston of the
University of Connecticut.
The Hyde Foundation's Director of Curriculum and Evaluation, Craig
Cunningham, is currently developing an instrument to measure attitude changes associated
with Hyde programs. The questionnaire — based on solid research into attitudinal
change — has been field tested, and an initial administration given to the Hyde Leadership
School of Greater New Haven students during this past summer's orientation. A second
administration will take place this month, followed by a third at the end of the year. We
will certainly make the reports of this evaluation available, to the Executive Office of
Education.
Philosophical support. Support for the philosophical integrity of the Hyde concept
can be found throughout the Western and Eastern philosophical traditions. Aristotle,
Cicero, Buddha, John Stuart Mill, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John Dewey were all
"eudaimonists": they each agreed that every person possesses a unique set of personal
potential excellences which define their destiny. The philosopher David Norton has
explored these traditions in his Personal Destinies (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1976; see also his recent Democracy and Moral Development, Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1991). After visiting Hyde in the winter of 1991, Norton wrote:
"My on-site examination of operations at the Hyde School, Bath, confirmed that
there, the development of good moral character is at least as important as academics.
Self-discovery is promoted by exploration, by self-examination, and by dialogue; and
much skilled attention is given to the cultivation of such virtues as honesty, integrity.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 36
courage, temperance, fairness, and tenacity. My own work supports Hyde's
contention that such traits of character as these are at least as important for successful
living in the world as academics, when "success" is defined as living, not just an
economically productive life, but a worthy life that is productive of moral, social,
civic, and aesthetic values. "^^
Support for Hyde's emphasis on the development of a "community of commitment"
around the unique potential concept is found in the work of Anthony Bryk, Philip Jackson,
WiUiam Glasser, Robert N. Bellah, Gerald Grant, Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, and others.^^
Support from Studies of Child Development. The work of Howard Gardner makes
it clear that people^differ in their intellectual potentials and the ways in which they learn.
See especially his Frames of Mind: A Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York: Basic
Books, 1983).^'* Gardner's work has been incorporated in the curriculum of the nationally
32 See Appendix V for a copy of an article in the University of Delaware Magazine in
which Norton discusses Hyde, as well as Appendix I for the complete text of the letter in
which Norton evaluates the Hyde program. Further discussion of the importance of
character in schooling is found in Betty Sichel's Moral Education: Character, Community,
and Ideals (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988), Of Human Potential by Israel
Sheffler (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985), and Carol Gilligan's Mapping the
Moral Domain (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988).
33 See James Coleman and Thomas Hoffer's Public and Private High Schools: The Impact
of Communities (New York: Basic Books, 1987); Bellah et ^\.'s Habits of the Heart:
Individualism and Commitment in American Life (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1985) and the more recent The Good Society (New York: Knopf, 1991). See also
Gerald Grant's The World We Created at Hamilton High (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1988), Philip Jackson's The Moral Life of Schools (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
1993), and Sara Lawrence Lightfoot's The Good High School: Profiles of Character and
Culture (New York: Basic Books, 1983). See also the works collected in the special
issue of the American Journal of Education on "The Moral Life of Schools," edited by
Anthony S. Bryk (96(2), 1988); Benjamin Bloom's A// Our Children Learning: A Primer
for Parents, Teachers, and Other Educators (New York: McGraw Hill, 1981); Michael
Rutter's Fifteen Thousand Hours: Secondary Schools and Their Effects on Children
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979); and Kenneth A. Strike's "The Moral Role
of Schooling in a Liberal Democratic Society," Review of Educational Research 17,
edited by Gerald Grant (American Educational Research Association, 1991).
3^* Gardner's latest book. The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think and How Schools
Should Teach (New York: Basic Books, 1991), also offers much that supports the Hyde
program's emphasis on individual learning styles and the development of individual
Creating the Hyde Charter Schcx)l _ February 15, 1994 Page 37
famous Key School in Indianapolis, Indiana. The idea that each person has a unique
internal source of motivation which must be tapped to foster academic excellence is
explored in recent works by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.^^ The importance of spiritual and
moral growth for students (even for the very young) is addressed in the work of Robert
Coles.36
Support from Studies of Academic Curricula. Hyde's emphasis on a required
college preparatory academic curriculum for all students is based on the ancient idea of a
"liberal education," which in turn is a response to the ideal of a well-rounded person
knowing something about many different areas of study.^'' The ideal that all students
should become well-rounded goes against the trend in recent decades for the American
comprehensive "shopping mall" high school to offer an increasingly differentiated
curriculum in which a liberal education was limited to the "elite" of a high school.^^
educational objectives. See also R. Sternberg and R. Wagner, Practical Intelligence
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
3^ See his Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper and Row,
1990), and Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), and Benjamin Bloom's Developing
Talent in Young People (New York: Ballantine Books, 1985). See also Kevin
Rathunde's "Family Context and Optimal Experience in the Development of Talent,"
(Ph.D. Thesis — University of Chicago Department of Psychology, Committee on Human
Development, December 1989) which also supports the claim that strong parental
participation is crucial for the development of a youngster's unique potential.
3^ See Coles' The Moral Life of Children (Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986) and The
Spiritual Life of Children (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
3'^This ideal is discussed in Bruce A. Kimball's Orators and Philosophers: A History of the
Idea of a Liberal Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 1986); see also Herbert
Kliebard's "The Liberal Arts Curriculum and Its Enemies," in Cultural Literacy and the
Idea of General Education, 87th yearbook of the National Society for the Study of
Education, edited by Ian Westbury and Alan C. Purves (Chicago: NSSE, 1988).
^^ See Arthur G. Powell, Eleanor Farrar, David K. Cohen, The Shopping Mall High
School: Winners and Losers in the Educational Marketplace (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1985).
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 38
Hyde's program also goes against the anti-egalitarian trend of creating separate "tracks"
for different segments of students^^ ; rather, we assume that every student can master the
college preparatory curriculum, and work to ensure that each student can do so.''^ This is
in keeping with a wide range of "effective schools" research that shows that high
expectations and standards and an undifferentiated instructional environment without
tracking result in higher student achievement with lower variance.'*^
The Hyde program's use of teams of teachers addressing broad themes, and its
emphasis on the development of students' je //-know ledge and wisdom, are supported in
the work of Hazard Adams and also the recent work of Ted Sizer. Adams writes that
knowledge is d^ process which comes from continual questioning of what we learn in light
of what we have previously learned. This requires teachers to foster student questioning
into: the underlying rationale of each discipline; the relationships among the various
disciplines and the culture at large; and inquiry into the different ways that different
^^ See Jeannie Oakes, Keeping Track: How Secondary Schools Structure Inequality (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1985). See also Rand CorpoidXion, Multiplying
Inequalities: The Effects of Race, Social Class, and Tracking on Opportunities to Learn
Mathematics and Science. (Santa Monica: Rand Publications, Inc., 1990).
"^o Compare this quote by Joseph Schwab: "It is by.. .making no limiting a priori
assumptions as to who are educable in respect of sounder views of knowledge and more
complete modes of enquiry that we can find out how many can and how many cannot
master them." Quoted in Ian Westbury, "Who Can Be Taught What? General Education
in the Secondary School," in Cultural Literacy and the Idea of General Education, op cit.
^^ See, e.g., James S. Coleman, Thomas Hoffer, and Sally Kilgore, High School
Achievement (New York: Basic Books, 1982); Susan J. Rosenholz's "Effective Schools:
Interpreting the Evidence," American Journal of Education 93(3): May 1985; and T.
Good and J. Brophy, "School Effects," in Handbook of Research on Teaching, edited by
M. Wittrock (New York: MacMillan, 1986). Another example of such a successful
approach is seen in the Accelerated Schools project at Stanford University. Its director,
Hank Levin, has been advising The Hyde Foundation on the development of our public
school projects.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 39
disciplines may address the same questions.'*^ These questions infuse every Hyde
classroom.
Support from Other Studies of Schooling. Hyde's focus on family participation is
supported by evidence in the "Coleman Report" and elsewhere that students' homes are
often a more stable predictor of success in school than are the schools.'*^ Family members
are primarily responsible for helping young people to envision themselves as good
students.'*'* James Coleman's concept of "social capital" provides a framework for
understanding why homes and parents might be so important for success in school.'*^ But
schools which involve parents must be schools of choice, since this involvement (at least
initially) must be voluntary.
There are multiple supports for Hyde's focus on character as the foundation of
academic and personal excellence. As the U.S. Department of Education's Ivor Pritchard
has written, "...making good character a recognized educational standard introduces a
non-competitive goal that is within the reach of many more students than is academic
excellence. Consequently,... more students will have a good chance to succeed by this
standard, resulting in less student alienation from school.'"*^ As Mark Holmes writes.
'^^See especially Adams's "The Fate of Knowledge," in Cultural Literacy and the Idea of
General Education, op cit.
^'^ See James S. Coleman et al.. Equality of Educational Opportunity (Washington: US
GPO, 1966).
^'^C. Snow and J. Chall, Families and Literacy; The Contribution of Out-of-School
Experiences to Children's Acquisition of Literacy (Cambridge: Harvard University
Graduate School of Education, 1982).
^^ See his Foundations of Social Theory (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990),
especially chapter 12, and his Parental Involvement in Education, part of the "Policy
Perspectives" series (Washington: US Department of Education, 1991). See also Anne
Henderson's The Evidence Continues to Grow: Parent Involvement Improves Student
Achievement (Columbia, MD: National Committee for Citizens in Education, 1987).
'^^See Ivor Pritchard's "Character Education: Research Prospects and Problems"
(American Journal of Education 96(4): 469-495, 1988).
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 40
"The beginning and end of a sustaining myth in education must lie in character. If we
cannot collectively assert a consensual set of characteristics that we would like young
people to gain, then mass education in the long run is not sustainable. ...Public education
requires a societal vision. '"^"^
Support from Studies of Evaluation and Excellence. Stanford University's Lee
Schulman and Elliot Eisner's recent work on educational evaluation supports the notion
that evaluation must be continuous and performance-based, and also that since no
individual teacher or student is exactly like any other, "standards" of evaluation are less
likely to result in improvement than are "criteria" which are applied with a constant view
toward the individual situation and the uniqueness of whomever is being evaluated.'*^
Recent evidence from the world of industry supports The Hyde Foundation's belief
that an emphasis on continual improvement is essential for organizations (and individuals)
to achieve excellence."*^ This is supported in the experiences of Superintendent Larrae
Rocheleau in Sitka, Alaska and Jerry Arcaro of the Galileo Institute of Framingham,
Massachusetts, in their work trying to institute "total quality management" in schools.
In short, the Hyde process not only builds upon 28 years of school restructuring
experience (in the "laboratory" of the Hyde School experiment), but also reflects sound
educational research. When practices are successful, research will eventually get around
^'^Mark Holmes, "The Fortress Monastery: The Future of the Common Core," in Cultural
Literacy and the Idea of General Education, op cit.
"^See especially Eisner's The Art of Educational Evaluation: A Personal View (London:
Falmer Press, 1985) and The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the Enhancement
of Educational Practice (New York: MacMillan, 1991). See also Anthony S. Bryk's
Stakeholder-Based Evaluation (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1983).
^^See W. Edwards Deming's Out of the Crisis (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986) and
Quality, Productivity, and Competitive Position (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982); and Tom
Peters and Robert H. Waterman's In Search of Excellence: Lessons From America's Best-
Run Companies (New York: Warner Books, 1982).
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 41
to the same understandings. This has happened in the field of education. James B.
Conant's suggestion after World War II that schools become larger and more ■
comprehensive was a reflection of his age. American industry of that time was operating
under the same paradigm: bigger is better; bureaucratic is more efficient; impersonal is less
"emotional." Fortunately, those times have gone forever. W. Edwards Deming couldn't
get a hearing in the American corporations of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Instead, he
went to Japan, where his lessons have transformed Japanese industry into the envy of the
world, while American corporations — many of them — have experienced a slow painful
decline into obsolescence. But some American companies have managed to overcome the
paradigm of mid-century. They are instituting teamwork, cutting bureaucracy, instituting
principle-centered leadership, and concentrating on what they can control: the quality of
the product and the spirit of the workplace. American schools deserve the same reforms.
The Massachusetts Charter School legislation makes it possible to show them how.
4. SCHOOL DEMOGRAPHICS
A. Describe the area where the school will be located. If a facility has already been
secured, please state so.
B. Why was this location selected? Are there other locations suitable to the needs and
focus of the school?
The first and foremost of Hyde's Five Principles is that each person is gifted with a
unique potential which defines a destiny. This is a universal proposition, subject to no
exceptions or variances. Indeed, taking this as a premise when dealing with any particular
student or parent has been the key to Hyde School's success with so many who have not
been well served elsewhere. For despite present behaviors or attitudes, Hyde holds that
each person has something incomparably special and important about themselves that will,
with proper nurture and discipline, emerge and form a destiny.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 42
The universaHty of Hyde's principles means that the Hyde concept will work for all
children and families in all places. Because the Hyde process is built upon principles and
not procedures, Hyde is infinitely adaptable to suit the current needs of any constituency.
The specific details of the Hyde program, described above, have been worked out over 28
years of experience with a clientele consisting largely of adolescents and their parents, and
the program suits that population quite well. While Hyde School (Bath) is largely
populated by middle-class, suburban families, the school has also been quite successful
with urban and rural families.^^ The Hyde Leadership School of Greater New Haven is
demonstrating the basic foundations of this program also work quite well in a population
which is primarily inner-city, with a majority of the families on some form of public
assistance.
We believe that a school staff which is devoted to the Hyde concept and to giving
each family the flexible, spontaneous— yet disciplined— approach fostered by the Hyde
principles can make the process work for any family. Currently, however, we see the
primary need for this program in large urban areas. It is here that the strongest consensus
has emerged that traditional mainstream education is failing; it is here that families are
most "fed up" and most willing to try something completely new. It is here that we expect
to be able to "sell" the Hyde concept most easily; it is here we expect the results of the
Hyde process to be most impressive in the short-term. It is also here that our funding
sources are most interested in helping us produce those results. Once we have proven that
the process works in urban/suburban areas, the less critically desperate families of further-
out suburbs and rural areas will, we believe, see its merits.
Because of these considerations, we would like to set up the first Hyde Charter
School in Massachusetts either in the greater Boston area or in the Springfield area, or
^°See Appendix I for a letter from Charles Sikoriak, former education director for the
Boy's Club of New York which describes our success with inner-city youngsters.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 43
even eventually in both locations. Boston would be our first choice, and where we will
initially concentrate our efforts to find a suitable site. (Since we have already built a
constituency in the Springfield area, it will be relatively easy to move our efforts there if
we should be unsuccessful in greater Boston.) We have several criteria for a site which is
"suitable":
• meets code and provides a safe environment conducive to learning;
• on public transportation lines;
• accessible by both inner-city and suburban families (this means that a location
on or near the boundary of Boston would be ideal);
• facilities include performing arts space, athletic fields, gym, and suitable
classroom space;
• is available for lease at a reasonable price.
We have already contacted the Catholic authorities in Boston for assistance in
finding a closed or closing Catholic school which would be ideal for the Hyde Charter
School. We are also working with some Realtors in the Boston area to locate possible
sites. Once we are approved for a preliminary charter, we expect to find our site by Spring
of 1995.
The key issue, however, is not so much physical location as it is commitment in the
surrounding community. Once we are granted a preliminary charter we will begin to
publicize the opportunity for establishing the Hyde Charter School, and if a group of
families approaches us from some other area of Massachusetts with a strong commitment
to the Hyde concept, we would certainly consider locating there instead of Boston or
Springfield.
C. Describe any unique characteristics of the student population to be served.
As mentioned above, the most important characteristic of the ideal candidate for
the Hyde process is a family that is committed to its growth and the growth of its
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 44
members. The interview process (see "Admissions PoHcy," below) is designed to select
only those families who have realized that they need help to reach their fullest potential.
Commitment to fulfill potential is the one quality which is required to make the Hyde
process work for any one family.
Hyde defines "family" as "a growing child and a committed adult." This means
that having a traditional nuclear family is definitely not a requirement for participation in
the Hyde process. But because character is taught by example, what is required is that a
youngster come to the Hyde process with an adult—whether it be a parent, an older
sibling, an uncle or aunt, grandparent, friend, or other person—who is willing to go
through the process with the youngster, sharing his or her own issues and struggles to
serve as an example to the youngster.
We recognize that not every child has an adult in his or her life who is willing to
make this sort of commitment. If such a youngster has a sincere desire to participate in
the Hyde process (and we have seen this situation both in Bath and in New Haven), the
Hyde staff will work with the community to find a mentor. This is important not only to
provide an example, but also because the Hyde process must continue twenty-four hours a
day, and someone needs to be responsible to make sure that the Hyde ethics are respected
outside of school hours. (In Springfield, we have already identified several community
groups which are willing to serve in this mentoring role: the I Have A Dream Foundation,
the North End Community Council, and the Springfield Urban League. We expect to find
similar organizations in other communities.)
D. What is the school's anticipated enrollment?
E. What grade levels will be served? How many students are expected to be in each grade
or grouping?
We expect to start the first year of the Hyde Charter School with 175-225 students
from the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades. We will strive to get enrollment of at least 45
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 45
students in each grade level to allow for a staff/student ratio of approximately 12 to 1.
This enrollment will increase by 50-75 students each year resulting after 3 years in a
school with 100 in each high school grade level.
The team approach to teaching means that to go beyond 100 students in a grade
level would mean setting up separate teams of teachers in that grade level. In other
words, if the school was able to enroll 150 freshmen, it would be necessary to hire another
team of teachers for the freshman year. It is expected that if the Hyde Charter School is
successful, it will eventually spawn additional schools (or "teams" within a larger school)
of 400 students each.
5. RECRUITING & MARKETING PLAN
A. Demonstrate how you will publicize the school to attract a sufficient pool of applicants.
B. Specifically, what type of outreach will be made to potential students and their families?
The Hyde Foundation has learned a number of lessons in the past few years of
working with public school districts. Most importantly, we learned that public school
students and their parents will find the Hyde program attractive. Over 650 eighth and
ninth grade families made preliminary application to the Hyde Preparatory School of
Springfield.^^ Over 300 interviews were conducted in Gardiner, and over 300 in New
Haven, to select schools of 120-140 students.
We have also learned other lessons which have guided the development of our
current efforts, and these have been reflected in this proposal. Five of the most important
were:
^1 See Appendix V for newspaper articles about the Springfield effort, and Exhibit D for a
brochure describing the Hyde Preparatory School of Springfield as it would have opened
in the fall of 1991.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 46
1. Involve community organizations. We found that we could get
invaluable assistance for our efforts from local community
organizations with an interest in families and education.^^
2. Use the local media. To avoid people forming mistaken initial
impressions of our program, we relied heavily on radio, television, and
newspaper coverage of our efforts in order to inform the community
about the ways in which the Hyde program differs from traditional
education.
3. Use mass mailings. We have been quite successful in generating
interest in the Hyde approach by sending literature about Hyde and
invitations to promotional programs to families enrolled in local
schools.
4. Use Hyde Sciiool. Perhaps the most impressive lesson of our
Springfield, Gardiner, and New Haven experiences was the realization
that the best spokespersons for the Hyde program are current and
former Hyde students. We invited local teachers, students, and
administrators up to Hyde School and allowed them to roam the
campus and speak with students and faculty. Most effectively, we
brought a cross-section of the entire Hyde School student body to each
community for a series of music and dance performances in each of the
towns' junior high schools.
5. Involve parents from the start. We discovered early on in each
community that there were some parents who immediately saw the
value of the Hyde program, even though it requires a great deal from
them. These parents became important allies in selling other parents
and teachers on the program. We intend to look for this kind of
assistance from parents in all our public school models. (During the
spring preceding the opening of the Hyde Charter School, we will
conduct a series of Family Learning Centers for those families who are
most interested in the program. These PLCs will build the foundation of
a critical mass of parents and students who are familiar with the Hyde
process and who will help us to build the larger school community.)
^2 In Springfield, the Urban League and the North End Community Council (an Hispanic
group) were instrumental in spreading the word about the Hyde program. We also
contacted professionals at Springfield College and American International College for
support and insight into the local community. We were in the process of planning a
collaboration on teacher education with both schools when the project was postponed.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 47
These lessons form the backbone of our plans for generating the energy for school
reform within local communities. We also learned about ih& process by which an outside
organization will be able to become trusted partners in public school reform efforts. We
will proceed in four stages:
1. Extract initial interest and commitment.
If successful, then:
2-A. Expand the interest and commitment;
2-B. Begin detailed program design with local stakeholders.
If successful, then...
3-A. Select initial teacher team;
3-B. Proceed with student application process;
3-B. Begin training in the Hyde process;
3-C. Identify site and work out necessary operations.
If successful, then...
4-A. Proceed with pilot program;
4-B. Continue training in the Hyde concept;
4-C. Document and evaluate.
Our primary "salesman" for step 1 is Joe Gauld, The Hyde Foundation's president.
Gauld's 45 years of teaching experience, together with his unique ability to read people
and to understand their deeper motivations, and the wisdom that he has gained fi-om prior
reform efforts, make him a perfect spokesman for the Foundation and a "front man" for
our school reform efforts. Once Gauld has generated the enthusiasm, a team of FAST,
Inc. personnel-including Hyde Foundation Executive Director Ken Grant, FAST, Inc.
Executive Director Paul Hurd, Hyde Foundation Director of Training Gary Kent, Hyde
Foundation Director of Curriculum and Evaluation Craig Cunningham, and others—can
begin to work with stakeholders in the local community to find ways to fit the Hyde
program into their environments.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 48
6. ADMISSIONS POLICY
A. Describe the admission methods and standards you will use to select students.
Admission to the Hyde Charter School will be based solely on the commitment of
the student and his or her family to address the three questions— "Who am I?"; "Where am
I going with my life?"; and "What do I have to do to get there?"
The admissions process consists of five steps. First, application materials are
submitted from student, parents (or guardians or mentors), and recommendations are
solicited from current teachers. (Remember that mentors will be selected for students who
do not have the requisite family commitment.) Second, the family participates in an
interview (see below for more on this step). Third, an admissions committee makes a
decision based on materials and the interview, and tentative admission is granted or
denied. Fourth, the student attends a summer challenge orientation program which puts
him or her through various challenges and allows the school to further gauge commitment
to the Hyde principles and process. Fifth, final admission is granted or denied based on
this orientation program.
The key to gauging the commitment of student and family is an intensive one- to
two-hour interview which differs markedly from the traditional admissions interview.
Topics of the interview include the student's sense of self, purpose, and family, and the
parent or guardian's sense of the student. The interview's main purpose is to determine
whether or not the family is willing to tackle the issues which are relevant to its unique
potential and the unique potential of the student, and whether the student and family are
willing to adhere to the school's expectations and standards. Is the family truly ready to
enroll in a program where each member will be expected to accept responsibility for his or
her own personal growth? What is the family's commitment to excellence? Specifically, is
the family willing to participate in the Hyde program to its full extent and to uphold and
maintain the Hyde principles and ethics both in school and at home?
Creating the Hyde Charter School
February 15, 1994
Page 49
The interview includes both the prospective student and his or her parents,
guardians, or mentors. Usually the interview starts with a focus on the student. Typical
questions include:
How is school going now?
How do you feel about it?
How could you do better?
What are your friends like? Do your parents like your friends? Why or why
not?
Give an example of a recent challenge you accepted and assess how well you
did in meeting it.
Assess your own character. Which of the Five Words is your strongest suit?
Which of the words do you feel you need to work on?
How do you get along with your parents?
What's the thing in your life that you're proudest of?
What are you ashamed of?
What do you hope to be doing with your life ten years from now?
Which values will it be important for you to uphold?
How would the students in your school evaluate you? How about the
teachers?
These questions usually lead to a discussion of the dynamics and issues which are
pertinent to the prospective family. As fundamental as they are, Hyde finds that many
families are discussing them less and less. The interview tries to get the focus of the
family back to issues such as these.
After the interviewer has spoken with the student for a while, the conversation
turns to the parents. They are asked to assess their own effectiveness as parents. Typical
question include:
Creating the Hyde Charter School
February 15, 1994
Page 50
What are your family's values?
Is there a consensus in the family on these values?
How well are you teaching these values?
What were you like in school?
How do you feel about your son's or daughter's progress in school?
Are you proud of your son or daughter? Do you identify with him or her?
What are the strongest aspect of your child's character?
What are the strongest aspects of your character?
What aspects of your character need improvement?
Can you identify with your son's or daughter's strengths and weaknesses?
After 28 years of interviews for Hyde, we have identified several characteristics of
parents and students who will do well in the Hyde program. For parents, these
characteristics are:
Vision: "Our family members aspire to strong values and character."
Concern: "I am concerned with my child's level of growth in relation to his or her
potential in life."
Accountability: "I will take responsibility for myself and my growth. I will assume
that I am the primary teacher in developing my child's character."
Commitment: "I am committed to my best."
For students, characteristics of good Hyde candidates are:
Vision: "I aspire to be a person with strong values and character."
Concern: "I am concerned about my character."
Accountability: "I will address my personal issues openly and honestly with myself
and others. I welcome the help of others to accomplish this."
Commitment: "I am committed to my best."
Creating the Hyde Charter School . February 15, 1994 Page 51
Following a satisfactory interview, both parents and students are asked to write a
"Goals Paper" which builds on the interview and sets for a "plan of action" which will
serve as a set of objectives for the Hyde experience. Admissions decisions are made by an
admissions committee and are meant to ensure a diverse and committed group of families
and students. ^^
B. Explain how these policies further the mission of the school in a non-discriminatory
fashion.
As we mentioned above, Hyde's commitment to unique potential voids the
nagging issue of discrimination because each person's unique potential is of equal and
incomparable worth. To have any biases in evaluating unique potential would be to fail to
take the commitment to unique potential seriously. Visitors to Hyde School (Bath) and
now the Hyde Leadership School of Greater New Haven are often struck by how open
and un-cliquish is the Hyde student body, for the students also recognize the importance
of having open minds in a unique potential process.
We expect that the Hyde Charter School will accept a student body which roughly
approximates the demographic character of its applicant pool. This will ensure that the
mix of unique potentials in the school is a microcosm of the larger society. If the
character of the enrolled student body differs markedly from the aj^Iicant pool, steps will
be taken to step up marketing efforts in underrepresented groups.
^^The Hyde Charter School will accept the most committed group of families and students
from among all applicants. If the pool of highly committed families exceeds the capacities
of the school, we would first try to find a way to increase those capacities. Only once the
true limits of capacity have been reached would we consider using a lottery for admission.
In that case, we would work out an arrangement with a local district to provide specific
preference for students from that district, in return for a building or other consideration.
Since Hyde accepis families and not students, siblings of Hyde students would
automatically be accepted unless there were reasons to specifically question the
commitment of one or more siblings.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 52
Special education students. The Hyde Charter School will accept any student with
identified special needs under the same criteria used for acceptance of all students. If the
student (and the parents) are committed to addressing the three questions set forth above,
and if the family is committed to excellence, special needs will be accommodated in
whatever manner is necessary to ensure a quality Hyde program.
7. PROFILE OF FOUNDING COALITION
A Describe the make-up of the group or partnership that is working together to apply for
a charter.
B. Discuss how the group came together, as well as any affiliation with existing schools,
educational programs, businesses, non-profits, or any other groups.
The Hyde Charter School is a project of The Hyde Foundation and FAST, Inc.
together with the financial support of the Smart Family Foundation. The Design Team is
led by Joseph W. Gauld, Founder of Hyde School (Bath), President of The Hyde
Foundation and author of Character First: The Hyde School Difference (San Francisco:
ICS Press, 1993).
The Hyde Foundation is a Maine not-for-profit corporation established in 1990 to
foster the development of Hyde schools nationally. Its Board of Governors consists of
Lennox K. Black (Chairman of Teleflex, Inc. of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania), Jack S.
Diskin (Chairman of DiFam Investments, Ltd. of Calgary, Canada), David F. Hinchman
(President of U.S. Precision Lens in Cincinnati, Ohio), and Raymond L. Smart (President
of the Smart Family Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut). The Hyde Foundation's
senior management consists of President Joseph W. Gauld and Executive Director is
Kenneth L. Grant. Additional personnel include Craig A. Cunningham, Director of
Curriculum and Evaluation, and Claire D. Grant, Director of Family Learning. FAST, Inc.
is a Massachusetts not-for-profit corporation established in 1991 specifically for the
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 53
purpose of setting up a Hyde public school in Massachusetts. Its Board of Trustees
consists of chairman Joseph W, Gauld, Kenneth L. Grant, and Craig A. Cunningham, its
Executive Director is Paul Hurd, and its Director of Training is Gary Kent. Brief
biographies of these individuals appear below.
The Smart Family Foundation has been a supporter of Hyde programs for several
years, and has made an informal commitment to support The Hyde Foundation for several
more. Its president, Ray Smart, is a Hyde parent who deeply believes in the concept and
has worked tirelessly to identify other sources of financial support, which have recently
included the Donner Foundation, the William E. Simon Foundation, and The J.M.
Foundation.^"*
The Hyde Foundation's team is experienced in school administration, school
restructuring, curriculum development, and family education. Members of the team were
chosen for their extensive experience with the Hyde School experiment. More than half of
the team are themselves Hyde graduates; all have demonstrated outstanding Hyde
teaching; all have effectively administered both the Hyde School and the Hyde program.
This team has worked effectively together over a long period of time.
Below are brief biographies of the Design Team. More information can be found
in the collection of resumes in Appendix IV.
Joseph W. Gauld, Project Director
Before he founded Hyde School in 1966, Joe Gauld was Admissions Director,
Mathematics Department Head, and Assistant Headmaster of New Hampton School, and
then Headmaster of Berwick Academy. He has served as Hyde School's Headmaster and
President, President of F.A.S.T., Inc. (Family and School Together), and as continuing
President of The Hyde Foundation. He has 45 years of experience as an educator. In
^'*For financial and legal reasons, The Hyde Foundation receives direct support and then
doles money out to FAST as needed.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 54
1980, he served as Interim President of Gauld Equipment Co. in Mobile, Alabama. He
has a B.A. from Bowdoin College and an M.A. in Mathematics from Boston University.
Joe oversees all Hyde public school projects. He will take primary responsibility for
selling the Hyde Charter School program to members of the local community.
Kenneth L. Grant: Director of Operations (Designated Contact Person)
Ken Grant has taught advanced biology and math at the Hyde School, where he
has served as Program Director, Science Department Head, Assistant Headmaster, and
Director of Business, Development, and Alumni Affairs. He has 17 years experience as an
educator; 12 of these were at Hyde School. He has also served as Assistant Director of
the Chewonki Foundation, an environmental education organization based in Wiscasset,
Maine. He is a graduate of Hyde School and has a B.A. in biochemistry from Bowdoin
College and an Ed.M. from Harvard University. Ken will administer the start-up period of
the Hyde Charter School, and will be responsible for operations, finance, and
organizational infrastructure, and will assist with training.
Paul Hurd, Executive Director. FAST. Inc.
Paul Hurd has taught history, geography, and government at the Hyde School,
where he has also served as Director of Studies and Assistant Headmaster. He has 20
years of experience in education, and has also worked for the State of Ohio and Historic
Williamsburg as an historian. Paul graduated in Hyde School's first class (1967), and has a
B.A. from Bowdoin College and an M.A. in education from the University of Chicago.
Paul was the site coordinator during the initial year of the Hyde Leadership School of
Greater New Haven. He implements staff training, oversees Hyde pilot programs,
supervises site-coordinators, and serves as a trouble-shooter to assist implementation sites
with design and implementation problems.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 55
Gary Kent, Director of Training
Gary Kent has taught EngUsh and social studies, coached football and wrestling,
and served as Dean of Students at Hyde School and a number of public schools. He has a
B.S. in education from the University of Maine at Orono, and an M.S. in administration
from the University of Southern Mississippi. He has 33 years of teaching experience,
including 19 at Hyde School. He has also assisted with coaching wrestling for the U.S.
Olympic team. He holds Maine teaching certificates in English, social studies, and school
leadership (administration). Gary oversees all training of public school teachers as -
Director of Training for the Hyde Foundation and served as site coordinator of the
Gardiner-Hyde Program during 1991-92.
Craig A. Cunningham: Director of Curriculum and Evaluation
Craig Cunningham has taught mathematics and chemistry at Hyde School, where
he has served as Program Director. He has also worked on the development of
mathematics curriculum for the University of Chicago Schools Mathematics Project. He
has 11 years of experience in education, including a year teaching History and Philosophy
of Education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has an A.B. in history from
Lafayette College and an M.A. in curriculum and instruction from the University of
Chicago, where he is currently working on a Ph.D. dissertation under Professor Philip
Jackson which explores the theories of moral education in the philosophy of John Dewey.
Craig oversees the development of Hyde's academic curriculum, the use of computers,
and the evaluation of Hyde public school projects. He is also responsible for grant writing
and for articulation of the Hyde program to a wider audience through training and
promotional materials.
Claire D. Grant: Family Learning Coordinator
Claire Grant has taught English at the Hyde School, and for the past seven years
has served as Director of Family Education. Claire has 13 years of experience in
Creating the Hyde Charter School
February 15, 1994
Page 56
education. She is a graduate of Hyde School and has a B.A. in Political Science from the
University of Southern Maine, and is a certified trainer for the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator, and has led workshops on family education for the New England Teachers
Association. Claire oversees the further articulation of the family learning program, with
an eye toward developing a program that public school teachers can implement in their
own communities.
The team from Hyde will be complemented by a group of over 50 committed
Massachusetts parents, Hyde alumni, and former students who will help to select the site
for the Hyde Charter School and will also be "on call" to help with start-up tasks including
marketing, conducting initial interviews, and helping to facilitate leadership Family
Learning Centers. A list of participants in this Hyde Booster Team is currently being
prepared.
In addition, we have assembled a small group of distinguished Massachusetts
citizens who have agreed to serve as the Design Team Advisory Board of the Hyde
Charter School during its start-up period. This group includes the follow people (we have
listed occupations and Massachusetts towns of residence):
Professor Kevin Ryan, The Center for the Advancement of Ethics and
Character, Boston University; Newton.
Professor Tom Loveless, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University; Medford.
Dr. and Mrs. Charles Wright, Chief of Orthopedics at Melrose-Wakefield
Hospital; Andover.
Professor Lee Perlman, Swarthmore College; residence: Cambridge.
Mark Brown, Author of children's books; Dr. Laurie Brown, educator;
Hingham.
Robert and Donald Anderson, The Anderson Insulation Co.; Nonvell.
Scott Cooledge, Airline Pilot; Arlington.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 57
Richard Howard, Attorney; Judy Howard, Landscaj)e Designer; Marblehead.
Craig Mael, Restaurant Owner; Winthrop.
Joseph Jones, Financial Planner; Betsy Jones, Teacher (Landmark School);
Salem.
Mr. and Mrs. Art Norris, Developer; Marblehead.
Michael Nuesse, Attorney; Hull.
C. Include any plans for further recruitment of founders or organizers of the school.
Once our charter is approved, our Design Team Advisory Board will help us to
find a suitable site. Once a site has been located (or at least a community identified), the
Design Team Advisory Board will reconstitute itself to form a working Advisory Board to
see the project through its first couple of years. We expect this Advisory Board to include
local community leaders in addition to some of the members of the original Design Team
Advisory Board. A small executive committee of this Advisory Board (4-6 members) will
serve as the Board of Trustees for the purposes of the Massachusetts Charter School
legislation.
The reconstituted Advisory Board and its Board of Trustees will work with The
Hyde Foundation and FAST, Inc. to identify a suitable Headmaster for the Hyde Charter
School. It is expected that this Headmaster will initially be someone from the Hyde
School in Bath, New Haven, or Baltimore. We feel strongly than an outsider cannot jump
right in to run a Hyde school, since the philosophy and process is quite different from
traditional schools. A local, experienced public school educator will also be identified
during this initial period to serve as Head-in-training. Over the course of three to five
years, the Head-in-training will study the methods and concepts of the Hyde system
(perhaps spending up to a full year at the Hyde School in Bath to see the "flagship" in
operation), and will gradually take over responsibilities for running the school.
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 58
Governance of the Hyde Charter School will be modeled after the Hyde School in
Bath, with the Board of Trustees having ultimate authority, and the Headmaster will
report to the Board of Trustees and serve at its pleasure. The Headmaster will then have
complete hiring and firing authority for the teachers and staff (subject, of course, to
relevant laws and regulations). This "private school" model will allow the Hyde Charter
School to have the leanness and flexibility necessary to move through the challenges of the
initial years.
8. TIMETABLE
A. Discuss a timetable of events leading to the opening of a charter school.
Several key steps in the development of the Hyde Charter School have already
been completed as of this filing (February 15, 1994):
• Selection of Design Team
• Selection of Design Team Advisory Board
• Preparation of Initial Program Design
• Application for Massachusetts Charter
The following steps will be completed by the dates indicated:
March, 1994: Initial granting of Charter
April, 1994: Location of community and site to begin in earnest
May, 1994: Complete application for financial assistance from Smart Family
Foundation and other philanthropic sources
January, 1995: Finalize selection of community and site
Reconstitution of Advisory Board
February, 1995: Selection of Headmaster
Advertising begins for teachers and staff
March, 1995: Interview for teachers and staff
Creating the Hyde Charter School February 15, 1994 Page 59
Advertising/marketing begins for students and families
Performing arts tour by Hyde students
April, 1995: Selection of teachers completed
Initial interviews for students and families
May, 1995: Continue interviews for students and families
June, 1995: Complete selection of initial student body
July 1995: Three-week intensive teacher training program in Maine
August 1995: Three-week student and family orientation
September 1995: School opens
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