Mastery Charter School- Shoemaker Campus




  • Population: about 700 students
  • Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Type: Charter School
  • Grades: 7th-8th
  • Ratio: 14-1 
  • Interesting fact: Mastery is a large charter school network taking over failing school in Philadelphia and Camden


The second to last final stop on this journey was my pre-college preparation. I attended high school at a charter school, which I started at the beginning of 8th grade. Mastery—the name of the school—prides itself with being a college preparatory high school that takes over failing schools in the district. Since college was the next step in my future, I was glad the school offered some of the support and partnerships it did.
My junior and senior of high school I had the opportunity to take classes Math classes at Saint Joseph’s University. I was also able to do my senior year at the Community College of Philadelphia. I participated in the MAST program at Haverford and the ICC program at Saint Joseph’s. I attended a conference at Bucknell University—all expenses covered. I did not pay a cent for the ACT, SAT, or college applications. I was lucky in that sense.
However, Mastery was not all flowers. The education system the school has does not really promote learning, but rather test readiness. The school runs on six marking periods a year. Each marking period is six weeks. Throughout the six weeks we are taught everything that is going to be on the benchmark exams. Then, we take the exams and have an award ceremony where everyone’s grades are exposed, and a sense of competition is born among students. My biggest fear throughout my entire time at Mastery was that I would never get an award at one of the ceremonies and that my peers would make fun of me for it. I did not like that feeling as I feel like I needed to prove my worth to everyone around me.
From Mastery, I learned many things that have guided my current beliefs. Most of what I had learn are things that I do not think education should be able. Education should not force students into something that may not seem like the most logical path—as college is. Although Mastery helped me a lot with college, I knew people felt ashamed to say at any point that college was not on their radar. Thus, causing a lack of expression.
Furthermore, Mastery taught me that teaching to a test is not the same as teaching for understanding. Looking back to my time at Mastery, I do not think I learn much of the actual academic concept, yet I perform outstandingly in high school. In fact, Mastery was my inspiration into looking at teaching as a potential career.
This relates back to Freire’s banking model and the transaction of knowledge that happens between a teacher and a student. In the case of Mastery, we were receiving the information and the tools to do well on the test and in exchange the school can keep their name held high. This system is about what the school can do for the student rather than what the school can do for the student..












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