Somerville School Awarded Innovation Prize

SOMERVILLE, MA – Somerville's Winter Hill Community Innovation School was honored last week with the fourth annual Pozen Prize for Innovative Schools, a $75,000 award that recognizes academic success and quality of teaching and learning through innovative models, programs and practices.

Previous winners of the Pozen Prize include Match High School, Brooke Charter School Roslindale and Boston Preparatory Public Charter School. The prize was first established in 2014 by Boston Foundation donors Robert and Elizabeth Pozen and has since expanded its scope from Boston-area charter schools to include innovative district schools and pilot and in-district charters.

The Paul Revere Innovation School, the first innovation school in Massachusetts, was this year's runner-up.

"For four years now, the Pozen Prize has recognized schools in our region that embody innovation and help students achieve academic excellence," Robert Pozen said in a statement. "The Winter Hill—this year’s winner and the first district school to receive the prize—stood out from a strong pool of innovative schools with its staunch commitment to serving all students, including those most disadvantaged, with high expectations, strong supports and innovative practices."

For years, Winter Hill has modeled a number of innovations, such as inclusionary practices for students with autism, school-wide use of a Responsive Classroom and the incorporation of school climate surveys in improvement plans, that have since spread to other schools in the district.

According to the Boston Foundation, which awards the prize, the school's student achievement growth outperforms the state's and English language learners and students with disabilities in particular learn at accelerated rates. It specializes in an individualized instructional strategy that focuses on autonomy and self-reliance.
"At the Winter Hill, we believe that every student is uniquely positioned to succeed if given the right guidance and the necessary resources," Chad Mazza, Principal of the Winter Hill Community Innovation School, said in a statement. "Our status as an innovation school, and the increased autonomy that comes with that, has allowed us to introduce new educational and support practices that afford all of our students equitable opportunities for success. Everyone in the Winter Hill community—from students and parents to teachers and the community at large—are truly invested in our Wildcats’ education and thrilled to have been recognized with this year’s Pozen Prize."

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