Rocketship prepares for its big launch

Rocketship Education is a chain of charter schools based in San Jose that is hoping to spread across the nation. The company is so successful in its classrooms, cities across the country are vying for its schools.

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April 30, 2012

Holland Snider, a first-grade teacher at Rocketship Discovery Prep in San Jose, addresses her students during the morning “Rocket Launch” exercise at the school.

Randi Lynn Beach / For The Washington Post

April 30, 2012

Snider talks with one of her students at the school, one of five currently operated by Rocketship Education, a chain of charter schools that is hoping to spread across the nation.

Randi Lynn Beach / For The Washington Post

April 30, 2012

Sarah Baker, a first-grader at Rocketship Discovery Prep, uses a computer in the school’s Learning Lab. Computers play a major role at Rocketship Education. Specialized programs teach students rote lessons in math and reading, freeing up teachers to work with students in more abstract ways. The computers also help keep costs down, allowing for higher teacher salaries and the company to build its own buildings, a relatively unique situation in the charter school industry.

Randi Lynn Beach / For The Washington Post

April 30, 2012

Ebony-Princess Cutts, left, an individualized learning specialist at Rocketship Discovery Prep, helps kindergartener Kyle Masterson with his lesson. Cutts, who is not a certified teacher, earns about $14 an hour with benefits..Rocketship Education relies heavily on Teach for America., the nonprofit organization that gives new college graduates five weeks of training before placing them in teaching jobs. Three out of every four Rocketship teachers are either in the program or recent alumni.

Randi Lynn Beach / For The Washington Post

April 30, 2012

Because Rocketship Education builds its own facilities, one Rocketship school is a replica of the next — everything is identical, down to the paint scheme: forest green and beige with purple accents.

Randi Lynn Beach / For The Washington Post

April 30, 2012

Joya Deutsch, principal at Rocketship Discovery Prep, talks to a tutor at the school. Tutoring is down in the classroom at Rocketship schools. In a traditional public school, students would be pulled out of class for that kind of extra help, losing valuable classroom time that can often push them even further behind.

Randi Lynn Beach / For The Washington Post

April 30, 2012

The walls inside Discovery Prep are plastered with messages like “Work Hard, Talk Smart, Every Minute, Every Day” and handmade posters measuring student progress.

Randi Lynn Beach / For The Washington Post

April 30, 2012

Students have lunch at Rocketship Discovery Prep under banners of colleges. A positive outlook toward the future is impressed on all the students. Although many of Rocketship’s students are from underprivileged households, they meet, and sometimes exceed, state and county averages on standardized tests.

Randi Lynn Beach / For The Washington Post

April 30, 2012

April Womack, an individualized learning specialist at Rocketship Discovery Prep, greets a student at the classroom. Rocketship Education has been so successful, cities across the country, including the District, are vying for its schools.

Randi Lynn Beach / For The Washington Post

May 1, 2012

“We owe it to communities to continually open more schools,” says John Danner, chief executive of Rocketship Education, on why the chain of charter schools is looking to open nationwide.

Randi Lynn Beach / For The Washington Post

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