Smith Ln
Chilmark, MA 02535

An excellent school where students seem to be happy, learning and engaged. You can tell the teachers really care about and truly want the best for their students. The new principal is very energetic, involved and approachable and he seems very well-liked by students, parents and the staff (which is everything).

Standards for academic engagement are ON THE FLOOR at this school. The “c1” courses are equivalent to a special ed class in any other school, and an honors class to a typical c1 course. Very, very low expectations for C1 students, often no homework at all, or just one assignment per week, and very little in class work. Many teachers in the school are just blatantly bad at their jobs. The school is not able to address it due to a lack of new teachers, but also because they refuse to train teachers properly. I will admit, many teachers are incredible, but it is unacceptable that the academic standards are so incredibly low and how the administration allows teachers to get by without being able to teach the curriculum during the school year. Specifically, this school and the school system on the island in general is notorious for its awful math program. The school is now having to extend the math period for freshmen because of the amount of failing students (likely more changes to come). The administration has also consistently shown disregard for the opinions of students and families, particularly about the new phone policy. Many valid arguments were simply dismissed or never addressed or answered prior to the establishment of the policy. The administration is also very unaware of what is actually happening (particularly the former principal) in the student body, as a very, very small percentage of students are actually following the policy—the vast majority sticking to the old rule of just not having phones out in class, while the administration continually brags about how well the implementation of the policy has gone. Hopefully as the former principal is now gone some of these issues will be addressed, but it is important to note that there are many issues with this school.