It was not until Gutlerner convinced Seton to visit CCSC when he was applying to teaching jobs that Seton began to open up to the idea of working at a charter school.

“[CCSC] is led by people who are committed to social justice,” Seton says. “All of those things like the dress code and detention and being all about professionalism and college prep discourage people, but I see that here we make sure we can run an effective and efficient classroom.”

Though CCSC and Banneker have enjoyed working closely with the University and its faculty and students, Prospect Hill has shied away from placing Harvard students as teacher’s assistants.

Lippard says that Prospect Hill used to have a stronger connection to UTEP and TEP, the parallel program at the Ed School, but the school has broken off that relationship for two reasons.

“[Student teachers] are not there for as long as we would want them,” Lippard says of the one-semester full-time teaching commitment that UTEP students make. Second, he says he believes that his teaching staff, comprised of many novices, does not have the requisite experience to be effective mentors to student teachers.

Though Prospect Hill has ended its placements from UTEP and TEP, it does employ 12 teachers and staff members who hold degrees from the Ed School or the College, according to Meagher.

Lippard says that there are many personal relationships between the school and the University, and he hopes to increasingly tap into other Harvard resources.

“We’ve not even begun to scratch the surface of the relationships,” he says.

—Staff writer Kerry M. Flynn can be reached at kflynn@college.harvard.edu.