The Massachusetts School of Science, Creativity, and Leadership

Engaging Voracious Minds

Acera is a K-9 school serving gifted students in Greater Boston. We are committed to keeping your child’s curiosity alive through individualized learning pathways, purpose-filled projects, ability-based math classes, and engaging electives that remove the ceiling of what is possible at school.

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Reminder

Math Festival

Join us for a free evening of hands-on math and logic challenges designed to spark creative reasoning and collaborative problem-solving. Thursday, April 17 6:30pm – 8:00pm

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Reminder

Math Festival

Join us for a free evening of hands-on math and logic challenges designed to spark creative reasoning and collaborative problem-solving. Thursday, April 17 6:30pm – 8:00pm

Learn more

Deep Thinking, Not Just Knowledge Acquisition

At Acera, students take a systems view, solve problems and think creatively.

Our goal is to inspire curiosity, catalyze intrinsic motivation, and teach kids to think like scientists, innovators, makers, and leaders. That’s why electives like “The Psychology of the Iliad” or “Philosophy and Contemporary Issues” are so impactful: they blend disciplines and enable students to construct authentic understanding.

Hands-on learning leads to stronger knowledge retention. Because students are building, experimenting, simulating, and discussing, they actually remember more of what they learn; instead of convergent thinking, students learn to take a systems viewpoint and think critically and develop lots of ways to solve problems; knowledge retention happens along the way because learning is pinned onto something meaningful. Projects become the vehicle for understanding: building a marble run to explore Newtonian physics, or creating a podcast to synthesize research and express ideas clearly.

The school’s approach is constructivist and inquiry-driven. Kids build concepts and academic skills from doing, experimenting, and discussing—an approach that’s more work for teachers, but vastly more effective for students.

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Our Mission

Acera enables gifted learners to become their best selves, to learn based upon ability and interests. We safeguard the spirit and innate curiosity of each child, in order to develop the next generation of innovators, scientists and leaders for our world.

Our school is a microcosm of what is possible for all schools and a hub of innovation, catalyzing change in education beyond our walls.

CALENDAR

Upcoming Events

Thursday, April 17 6:30pm – 8:00pm

Math Festival

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Friday, April 18 9:00am – 2:00pm

AI & Our Practice: Co-Creating, Workshopping, and Exploring Generative AI

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Tuesday, April 29 6:30pm – 8:00pm

Info Session

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Testimonials

“The level of flexibility of the school is really unparalleled, as well as the level of instruction. Where else can your 6th grader do Algebra II and Precalculus material? And not because the school is about pushing kids ahead, but because this is truly the right level for them, and they are enjoying it and are coming home energized and excited about their math classes (and even homework)?”

“If I were to give one advice to parents considering Acera, it would be this: please consider it for your girls. Somehow it’s more typical to think of a STEAM school for boys (especially those who are bored in other schools), but girls sometimes tend to fit in better in other environments, and so it may be that a family thinks that they are doing well enough. I used to think that we knew our daughter, and that she was happy in her previous school, and that we were transferring our kids to Acera because it would be a great fit for our son. I had no idea just how wonderful, and how needed it was for our daughter also.”

“Our child has only been at Acera for 6 months, and in that time she has grown and developed in more ways than she had in 4.5 years in public school. There is more for us to learn about Acera, but it is clear that she is thriving and loving learning, which is extremely important to us.”

“Encouraging creativity and complex problem solving is another great philosophy of Acera that we love. This has helped my child to go beyond what he is comfortable and challenge his thinking. He complains a lot less about being bored.”

“Acera’s ability based grouping really allows children to reach their potential without a ceiling.”

“Acera students feel truly respected and in charge of their learning. Since kids of all grades tend to see each other regularly, younger students always see what they will soon be capable of. Acera’s atmosphere is one where a student truly feels like they can do anything they set their mind to.”

“Personalized education that stretches but supports each student. An amazing community and learning environment.”

“Acera is stress free schooling. Kids feel free to be themselves. My child dreads school holidays when school isn’t in session!”

Acera Facts

Get to know more about our school and what makes us truly unique.