Midtown Academy Inc

The Midtown Academy is a Baltimore City Public Charter School, run by a 501c3 non-profit organization, Midtown Academy, Inc. Midtown was founded in 1997 as part of Baltimore City's New Schools Initiative, as a neighborhood school supporting Bolton Hill and Reservoir Hill.

 

Who Are We? Midtown is a K-8 school of 180 motivated students and 17 teachers, administrators, and staff who work tirelessly to make Midtown the wonderful school it is. With an average class size of 20 students, teachers and assistants are able to provide high quality instruction and interaction tailored to individual students’ strengths and learning styles.

 

What Do We Do? At Midtown Academy, we prepare our scholars to use their individual skills to learn, grow, contribute to, and thrive in this rapidly-changing world. The critical thinking and leadership skills championed at Midtown Academy are designed to enable our scholars to become tomorrow’s leaders. They are challenged to extend themselves beyond memorizing facts into critical, thinking, inquiry, and writing:

 

• Third grade scholars enter Center Stage’s Young Playwrights contest, using their writing skills to develop and submit original plays;
• Fourth grade scholars write travel guides to cities throughout the world; requiring them to extract and synthesize relevant information, and write a persuasive narrative about their chosen city;
• Through a study of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, middle school scholars use poetry to gently teach their student colleagues about the development labor laws to protect children and workers;
• Scholars join Midtown’s chess team, National Academic League (NAL), robotics team, music club, as well as participate in the Talent Show, or serve on its newspaper staff.

 

Midtown scholars are continuously encouraged to challenge themselves and solve problems. Our scholars learn that they are responsible for their own actions and have the ability to enable positive change within our community:

 

• First grade students collected 674 cans to donate to local shelters for Thanksgiving dinner;
• Third graders are collecting hundreds of gloves, hats, and socks to help keep less fortunate Baltimoreans warm;
• Intermediate grade students plant trees in nearby Druid Hill Park;
• Advocacy from our eighth grade girls led to the establishment of a salad bar to expand healthy food options.

 

Our Expeditionary Learning curriculum utilizes group-based project work, holistic learning, and engagement with real-world experiences:

 

• Middle School scholars develop environmental and social leadership through studies at North Bay Environmental Camp and through an Outward Bound Urban Expedition;
• Our scholars learn to protect natural resources through a lunchroom composting program;
• Our Kindergarteners engage in scientific inquiry through raising butterflies and tadpoles;

 

This combination of innovative curriculum, engaged staff, and extraordinary students has enabled Midtown to achieve some remarkable results:

 

• Midtown is one of the top ten charter schools in Maryland;
• Our scholars are achieving- 91% of scholars scored proficient or advanced on the Maryland State Assessment in reading; 86% achieved the same status in math;
• Our families are happy- Midtown’s retention rate is 90%, 23 percentage points higher than the District average. Daily attendance rates are very high at 95.8%;
• Our National Academic League team (smallest in league) placed in the state finals;
• Our Robotics team is ranked number one out of sixteen middle schools;
• Our graduates are regularly accepted at the city’s top performing high schools and have gone onto college careers at Duke, Princeton, Howard, and McDaniel College.

 

Why Do We Need Your Support?

The Midtown Academy is a public school, but is funded only in part by the Baltimore City Public School System. Midtown Academy’s Board of Directors, staff, families, and friends work to raise approximately 15% of Midtown’s budget, more than $250,000 each year. Much of this income is in the form of donations from individuals like you. Your donation will be used to pay teacher salaries, buy supplies, and keep the building safe, secure, and functioning, as well as expand opportunities for our students and staff.