About us
Who are we?
The Met Sacramento is one of the Sacramento City Unified School District’s small innovative public charter schools. We are located in one corner of the downtown grid at of 8th and V streets across from South Side Park. Students at the Met work two days every week at internships in their interest areas in the local community. The Met is part of The Big Picture network of more than 100 schools worldwide (bigpicture.org). At the Met we believe that Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships are prerequisites to authentic educational experiences. Because the school is small (average 300 students) students at the Met form close relationships with other students and their teachers, relationships that often last long after the student has graduated.
What makes us unique from any other high school?
A week at the Met Sacramento looks very different from a conventional high school. First, students only come to the school site three days a week. The other two days students work at internships in their areas of interest. At their internships, students are expected to take on long term projects that benefit the internship site. The type and duration of the project work is determined through conversations between the mentor at the site and the Met advisor and the student.
The Met is not a vocational school. The goal is to create motivated learners–not specialists in specific fields. We emphasize internships because students learn best when they are deeply engaged in real world projects, and because their lifelong success as workers and citizens depends on developing a passion for learning. Below is a short list of some projects students have completed in the last twelve years.
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Designed and tested cookie recipes for a local restaurant chain
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Voter registration drive at local high school in conjunction with Secretary of State’s office
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Wrote PSAs for Speaker of the House for the State of California
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Designed and monitored the Missing Children advertisements on milk cartons etc for the California Department of Justice
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Curated a Student photography show at a local coffee house
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Worked one on one with low readers at local elementary schools
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Managed social media presence of local businesses
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Wrote a grant and created a mural
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Created a comic book to teach how to get an internship
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Taught Art in local elementary schools
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Ran a youth leadership group
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Childcare at homeless shelters
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Worked to help veterans with PTSD train service dogs
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Created “Buying your first home” workshop for a local real estate agent
Three days a week, students come to the school site. But even here it does not look like a normal high school. Since two days a week at their internship sites we expect students be responsible adults it would be wrong to treat them as less than responsible adults the other three days when they are on the school campus. There are no bells; students are expected to know how to leave classes and move to their next classes without having to be directed externally by a bell. Students address their teachers by their first names. During these three days, the students receive the more traditional high school curriculum but, as much as possible in a hands on, project based environment.
The Met enrolls the whole family, not just the individual student. Parents and other family members attend quarterly exhibitions, where their child demonstrates his or her learning progress. After the exhibition, all of the stakeholders: teacher, student, parent, internship mentor etc., all meet together to determine curriculum for the following quarter or year. Based on the exhibition, parents have a voice in determining whether their student has “passed” for the quarter or needs to do makeup work. In addition to their involvement in academic affairs, parents are members of all the committees that guide school policy and decision-making. Met parent involvement goes far beyond the bake sale.
Relationships are the Met’s foundation. An advisor and 20-25 students form a tightly knit group that stays together for four years. Teachers know each student deeply and have time to help with even the toughest academic and personal problems. Because of the strong connections made between teacher and student, many times the teacher student relationship continues outside of the school day/week and long after the student has graduated.
Enrollment at the Met is on a first come first served basis. But because the school is unique, we ask that students first do a Shadow Day at the school in order to experience first hand how the Met campus feels and how the classes work. And, since there is so much more parental involvement at the Met than most conventional high schools, we ask that a family member come to a Shadow Day orientation in which the Met program is described. After the Shadow Day orientation the family can fill out the enrollment forms. Then students are admitted in the order in which the forms are received. Shadow Days can be scheduled with the office.
Advisory Culture
The advisory is the center and core of the Met program. Freshman year, the entering class stays together, all 75-100 of them, for 1-2 weeks, working with 3-4 prospective teachers. At the end of the time, each individual student petitions to be with one of the teachers. This is a big decision because, by this choice, this student will be with this teacher for the next four formative years of their lives. Not all students get their first choice of teacher, but in general, most do. And, we do not allow movement between advisories (except in very rare and unique cases). So, for better or worse, that student and that teacher and that group of 20-25 students will spend the majority of each day together for the next four years.
Each advisory forms its own culture and each is unique, based on that particular mix of teacher and student personalities. And together, like a family, they study, work together on projects, fight, go on outings and field trips, and confide and care for one another. The bonds formed are strong. Adolescence is often a difficult time and Met advisory mates build a strong support group that often lasts long after graduation. One small group of students from the same advisory in the original graduating class still live together 10 years later.
Met Sacramento Student Handbook