Salem public schools will hold an Early Education Expo on January 14, 2026. Details will be posted here soon.
For more information, contact the SPS Family Welcome Center at welcomecenter@salemk12.org or by telephone at (978) 740-1225, or visit salemk12.org/families.
We thank you for your interest in the Carlton Innovation School!
ACADEMICS
- Innovation Plan allows for flexibility of when students enter and exit a grade level and advancement is based on students’ continuous progress.
- Kindergartners start in fall, winter, or spring trimesters based on the timing of their 5th birthday.
- Diagnostic approach used to inform flexible, small-group instruction including student reflection and goal setting
- Multi-age classrooms with flexible grouping based on students’ needs – each student advances at their own pace
- Two-hour literacy instruction using a workshop model
- Eighty-minute math block
- Art, music, and science programs
- Project-based inquiry to investigate science and social studies topics
LIFE AT CARLTON
- Transition meetings
- Community circles
- End-of-the-year Celebration of Learning
- Monthly school assemblies
- Literacy celebrated through a Snowball Slam (reading initiative) that includes a vocabulary parade, community readers, pajama read-in day, and SHS boys basketball team readers
- Stickers and shout-outs
- Daily Morning Meeting
- School-wide student performances
RESOURCES
To ensure that all students are prepared to achieve and inspired to learn, we also provide:
- Chromebooks for all students to use
- Bilingual outreach/Family Engagement Facilitator
- On-site, after-school program for working families
- Take-home books and book bags for students to read at home