Based on the special admissions enrollment process, rigorous curriculum and school uniforms, Hill Freedman Middle School may appear as a private institution. Yet, this international baccalaureate magnet school has an array of academic achievements, class options and cultural awareness.

“We’re not a private school or charter school, but the best kept secret,” Principal Anthony Majewski said.

In October 2010, the school received its credit to become an international baccalaureate school. With this credential, the school follows a structure of having core classes of language A — a typical English class, language B — Spanish class, humanities/social sciences, math, science, technology, art, dance, physical education and music.

Academically with seventh- and eighth-grade PSSA scores, Hill Freedman ranked 13th out of 854 Pennsylvania middle schools in the 2010–2011 school year.

“If you look at our action plan, we’re pushing students. They look for advanced and proficient. We’re just looking at advanced. We’re pushing students to 85 percent advanced. That’s our goal,” Majewski said.

By encouraging strong academics, students are reading a year above their grade level. The sixth-grade is reading a seventh-grade curriculum. Seventh-graders read on an eighth-grade level. Eighth-graders are reading high school material and taking high school algebra.

Pamela Taylor Anderson, International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program Coordinator and Special Education Liaison, says this school is special because students understand the type of instruction and learning they receive.

“For students, they know from the door what is expected of them and they just have that natural excitement for learning,” Anderson said.  

Seventh-grader, Clarrisa Faustin says she enjoys the learning environment of Hill Freedman.

“The fact that we get such a unique education, we’re very lucky to be accepted into the school. It’s a very fun experience. It’s such a welcoming environment for people to learn in,” Faustin said.

Historically, there were two schools: Hill and Freedman. Hill housed the magnet school program and Freedman specialized in serving special needs students. Until a few years ago, both schools combined. Now, students interact with one another during lunch, at assemblies and in elective classes. 

Every other week, students take elective classes with one another. Students learn from a range of subjects such as Spanish dance, cartooning, digital photography, baking, sport fitness and mixed martial arts. Majewski says the magnet school students will have an opportunity to communicate their opinions on the interactions they have when taking classes with the special needs students.

“We really need to have them reflect on what are they learning from that, what are they gaining from that? So they can see for themselves what the value is,” Majewski said.  

Faustin takes a gardening class with the life skills class and says the students show her their passions in class. 

“They have a love for animals and plants, and it’s really nice because you can interact with everyone,” Faustin said.

The school has three wings. In the A-wing of the school, Mike Towle teaches sixth-grade humanities. Here, students learn about constitutional democracy. The class uses Mac laptops for research and to complete assignments. Morlaye Yansaneh says he enjoys humanities because he can be creative.

“We do different things on the Learning Logs because he gives us questions and we can answer them in any way. It’s not really right or wrong,” Yansaneh said.

In Hope Glover’s science lab, the class learns about deposition. This is the process in which water can carry eroded sediments through a stream channel. Using basins, sand, rules, tape and plastic cups with a hole in the bottom, sixth-graders create their own process of deposition. Cierra Wallace, Shayla Smith, Trae McLean and Samirah Maven use the sand to create a mountain. The cup acts a flood and as the water falls, they observe that the mouth of the water stream creates a fan shape path known as a delta.

In the elective class of digital literacy, students are making music. These producers use Garage Band and Audacity to create different musical genres of action/adventure, love, documentary and even horror.

Eighth-graders Zaa’Raa Padgett and Tanyyah Paterson enjoy the digital literacy class.

“We get to interact with other students of the world, and we learn about technology,” Padgett said.

Within three days, Padgett and Paterson were able to create a horror song.

“It was the most fun and some people couldn’t pull off the horror thing. I like that we can express ourselves through technology,” Paterson said.

In Spanish, the class learns about the Mexican holiday, The Day of the Dead. Seventh-grader Jared Beswick enjoys learning about culture and using the language in his personal life.

“Well, my mom is Spanish, so when she goes into her Spanish mode, I can understand her better,” Beswick said. 

The B-wing holds Margaret Haug’s music class. Violins are stacked in the hallway, but the classroom is filled with music books and keyboard. As Haug hands back tests, students listen to a classical song on iTunes, record specific instruments they hear and observe how the music makes them feel emotionally.

Valerie Van Pham teaches life skills students African, North and South American art. Within Pham’s 19 years of teaching art at the school, she says the most memorable experience about the school are the students.

“When they latch onto an idea, take it and create something new out of it. They make work that I wouldn’t have thought myself. Incredible originality,” Pham said. 

In the C-Wing, there are three autistic support classes, two multi-disability classes and two life skills classes.

Currently, the school is still waiting on the approval for a new name for the school: Hill Freedman World Academy.

“Parents voted on that, students voted on that, alumni voted on that because just to be Hill Freedman, we felt that we needed to connect it to our IB program now,” Majewski said.