Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School has a well-earned reputation as one of the Commonwealth's outstanding public high schools. Throughout its forty year history, the school has provided an excellent education for all its students by offering a challenging and innovative academic program, as well as a wide variety of extracurricular, social, and athletic activities. Two of Lincoln-Sudbury's chief characteristics have been its sense of itself as a community, and its belief in and attention to the individual within that community.
The curriculum has been carefully designed to allow students some choice in pursuing their educational goals. Each student is assigned to a House, which provides overall guidance and structure, yet each student is not only permitted but encouraged to choose courses and activities that meet his or her needs and interests.
The schedule has been arranged to allow out of class time for students and teachers to meet on a regular basis. Indeed, the access to faculty members is a unique quality of the school, and one that promotes self-confidence in students, and mutual respect between students and their teachers.
Just
as great emphasis is placed on the individuality of the student, great care
has been taken to provide teachers with autonomy and discretion in professional
matters. The school's success rests on the well-being and excellence of its
teaching staff, and teachers have always been involved in all important educational
decisions and discussions. It has been the belief of the School Committee and
the Administration that a successful school is on that creates a challenging
and stimulating environment for teachers, that promotes their growth, and that
listens to their wisdom.
In support of that vision, Lincoln-Sudbury provides the following:
This is a budgeted fund primarily for summer work to develop new courses, to provide instruction for teachers new to the school, to assist teachers in learning to use technology in the classroom, and a variety of other educational undertakings that are proposed by departments or individual faculty members.
This is a desegregation program Lincoln-Sudbury has participated in since 1968. METCO provides an opportunity for teachers to work with a more culturally diverse student population, which broadens and enriches the teaching experience.
Each new teacher is assigned an experienced L-S teacher in his or her discipline to assist in learning about the school and in developing pedagogical techniques.
All new L-S teachers participate in a program designed to allow them to share their experiences, and to learn about the culture of the school through discussions with more experienced teachers.
L-S teachers have access to this Harvard University program which offers one to four day seminars in literature, history, science, mathematics, music, technology, and many other interdisciplinary topics.
An Evaluation
Process based on the work of Jon SaphierThe L-S teacher evaluation process is uniformly regarded as being thorough, fair, and based on principles of improvement, rather than simply on judgment.
The package includes recognition of advanced degrees, health, and life benefits, course reimbursement, sabbatical leaves, and many other unique features.
Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School is a challenging, stimulating, and rewarding place to work. The school's reputation for excellence is matched by the pride that the faculty, administration, parents, and students take in the school. It is, as is often said "a different kind of place," and that which makes it different is also that which makes it so successful.
Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School was founded in 1954 with a clear and focused vision of itself as a public high school that would provide engaging, challenging, and diverse educational opportunities to students in a caring and cooperative atmosphere. Moreover, the school's founders believed that the best high school was one that would hire exceptional teachers, nurture and support their growth, and treat them as true professionals.
The principles on which the school was founded have, indeed, lived on at Lincoln-Sudbury throughout its rich history. It is a school with a powerful and pervasive sense of itself, and a faculty that is deeply committed to ensuring that Lincoln-Sudbury remains "a different kind of place". The school's Statement of Purpose asserts that L-S is "a place that not only tolerates but truly values diversity in style and substance. This quality manifests itself in the academic program and the general atmosphere of the school; it may best be seen in the respectful and warm relationships between students and adults, the high degree of autonomy for and participation by the faculty in decisions, and a school culture marked by commitment to innovation and experimentation."
By all conventional measurements, Lincoln-Sudbury is a highly successful school. Its curriculum is broad and varied and provides challenging opportunities for students at all levels and grades. It is extremely well-regarded by college admissions offices throughout the nation. Its faculty comprises the finest educators in the Commonwealth.
But what is most unique about Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School is not found only in test scores or rates of admission to colleges or universities. Rather, what is "different" about L-S is best expressed in the voices of those who work and study here. As one teacher put it in the school's 40th Anniversary Commemorative Book, "Freedom and surprise educate the imagination and help make L-S what it is."
Dr. John M. Ritchie, Superintendent/Principal