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For those who seek evidence that dramatic change is underway in Baltimore City Public Schools, the Tesseract project introduced during the 1992-1993 academic year into 8 city elementary and 1 middle school by Education Alternatives, Inc. (EAI) remains the most definite statement of the system's willingness to explore all available options. EAI, a Minnesota based firm which has operated a private Tesseract school in Eagan, Minnesota since 1987 and also operates South Pointe Elementary School in Miami Beach, Florida, has brought remarkable changes to the Baltimore schools it directs, and has become a national example of the role the private sector can play in public education.
When the 9 Tesseract schools opened in September of 1992, the contract between Education Alternatives and Baltimore City Public Schools was only a month old. As a result, EAI spent much of the 1992-1993 academic year introducing their philosophy and programs to faculty, staff, students, and parents who had learned of the comprehensive changes within their respective schools through the media. EAI also worked throughout the year to upgrade the physical plants of the participating schools.
The name "tesseract" is drawn from Madeleine L'Engle's children's fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time, and can be defined as both a method of travel through time and a means for realizing one's ultimate personal potential and power. The challenges EAI faced in undertaking the 9 schools in Baltimore City were significant. As these schools near the mid-point of their second year, their progress seems equally so.
The introduction of the Tesseract model, which gives control of many aspects of these selected public schools to a private sector firm, has been greeted with both tremendous excitement and considerable suspicion. Dr. Patsy Baker Balckshear, writing in the June 1993 issue of School Business Affairs, notes: "The arrival of the Tesseract program in the Baltimore City Public Schools can be likened to the repeal of...