[MiddleWeb editor's note: This two-part series describes many of the reforms underway in the Long Beach (CA) Unified School District. Much of the energy for reform in LBUSD began in its middle grades. The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation has supported reform in Long Beach through a series of grants over the last six years. Thanks to the Orange County Metro Magazine for allowing us to republish this series. The stories originally appeared May 6 and May 20.]


EDUCATION REFORM:
Will Long Beach's grand experiment fly in O.C.?



(First of two parts - second part follows below)

By Kevin O'Leary
Orange County Monitor


Public education once was a hallmark of the California success story. Unlike the two-tiered educational system found on the East Coast ­p; where the well-to-do send their children to prep schools ­p; private schools were rare and public education was stellar.

The golden years are long past.

Education spending plummeted following Prop. 13, instruction in English as a second language skyrocketed, home life turned chaotic with divorce and two-income parents, school boards lost control to Sacramento, low wages sent potential teachers scurrying to law school, television mesmerized kids, homework gathered dust and test scores dropped.

In 1996-97, California spent $5,284 per pupil while New Jersey spent $9,456; Alaska spent $8,900; New York spent $8,658. (If anything, these figures ought to remind us that you get what you pay for.)

True, students in the best suburban school districts in California ­p; districts such as Irvine and Los Alamitos ­p; receive a first-rate education even as these districts struggle with limited resources. The real problem with Orange County's and California's public schools lies in less affluent, more urban, more minority districts.

What can be done?

Surprisingly, it is our neighbor to the north, Long Beach, that provides the best window on the future of public education in Orange County and the state. A 90,000-student district that is growing by 3,000 students a year (the equivalent of five elementary schools or one large high school), Long Beach Unified is the state's third-largest district. Yet, at a time when most large urban school districts (Los Angeles Unified immediately springs to mind) are frighteningly dysfunctional, Long Beach Unified is a cutting-edge school system far ahead of most suburban educators in thinking about and risking educational reform.

Mel Collins, principal of Long Beach Polytechnic High School, says the old way of thinking in Long Beach Unified was typical of many school districts. Our philosophy "was conservative. Let everyone else try it and see if it works." That was before Carl Cohn was named superintendent eight years ago. "When Carl took over you could really see the change," says Collins.

In OC METRO's April 22 issue on Hot Entrepreneurs, Stephen Duffy, of E&Y Kenneth Leventhal, says businesses succeed when there is "an environment that promotes prudent risk-taking. Where people are not afraid to fail ­p; that is at the heart of entrepreneurialism. They take risks; they break out; they take chances." By this definition, Long Beach Unified is an entrepreneurial enterprise.

With intense interest from the business community and the public, Gov. Davis and Sacramento have pushed through a school reform package that ­p; for better or worse ­p; will alter public education in the near future. Many of the reform ideas ­p; higher standards and a halt to social promotion ­p; are already in place in Long Beach.

This is the story of a superintendent, a school board and a community that turned around a district teetering on decline. Ahead of other districts in California and the nation, LBUSD adopted uniforms, ended social promotion, started a special junior high for kids who were failing in 8th grade, started a testing program at third, eighth and 12th grades that puts children and parents on notice to hit the books. Poly High is renowned as an academic and sports powerhouse, often sending more students to UCLA than any other high school in California.

Another high school ­p; one with many Orange County alumni ­p; is Woodrow Wilson near Belmont Shore and Cal State Long Beach. Wilson is now being transformed into a 'classical high school' where all students will wear uniforms, sign a code of conduct and take a college prep curriculum that surpasses the requirements for UC admission. The newest innovation from LBUSD: this fall, junior high students will have the option of attending a same-sex middle school.

II. Three Schools

A visit to three dramatically different schools ­p; Poly High at 1600 Atlantic Ave. in downtown, Long Beach Preparatory Academy in Signal Hill and Ellwood P. Cubberley School (K-8) near the 605 Freeway ­p; gives a sense of the extent and pace of education reform in LBUSD. It also illuminates Board of Education President Karin Polacheck's vision: "We are working to transform this district for all the children. We want any classroom, whether inner city or Lakewood, to have the same standards, the same care, the same passion."

Turning off the 405 at Atlantic and driving west, past Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, the neighborhood around Poly is old. The current Poly campus was built after the 1933 earthquake. Liquor stores, hamburger joints (not chains) and discount medical clinics line the boulevard. Aging houses and apartment complexes span out down the side streets. This area knows of poverty, prostitution and drug deals. One does not expect to find an award-winning high school in a tough inner city neighborhood.

But at the corner of Atlantic and "Jackrabbit Lane," there stands the dull yellow walls of Poly High School. The sign in front reads "Home of Scholars and Champions." That is no hyperbole. Graduates include: baseball star Tony Gwynn, actress Cameron Diaz, tennis champion Billie Jean King, mezzo soprano Marilyn Horne, arts patron Dorothy Buffum Chandler and Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill.

In addition to sports championships by the dozen, Poly boasts the Program of Additional Curricular Experiences (PACE), which is home to some of the brightest students in Long Beach. Each year, 185 students who have the highest combined GPAs and tests scores in reading, writing and math gain entry to this elite magnet program. In essence, PACE is a public school prep school.

Lawana Woods, 18, is a PACE student who will attend UCLA in the fall. (Sixty-six Poly grads were accepted at UCLA in 1997 ­p; more than from any other high school. Hundreds of Poly students flock to University of California campuses and scores are selected by elite private colleges such as Stanford and Yale.)

Woods, a student government senior vice president and member of the cheerleading squad, is coordinating a prom fashion show for the coming Wednesday. Woods, who is African-American, says the annual 10th grade retreat at Big Bear helps students from different ethnic and racial backgrounds understand each other. "We have really good attitudes toward one another," says Wood about the group of Asian, Latino, African-American and Anglo students who are discussing which tuxes and dresses to wear at the fashion show. "We have a saying at Poly: 'There are people in Long Beach who went to Poly and there are people who wished they went to Poly.'"
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Several miles away in Signal Hills lies the campus of Long Beach Preparatory Academy. In their blue polo shirts and khaki pants the students look like typical teens in the Long Beach School District. A teacher asks them to tuck in their shirts as they trudge between classes.
But these kids are different. They failed two subjects in the eighth grade and they are now part of a social experiment. Instead of going on to high school they come to Long Beach Prep on Cherry Avenue for a special year of instruction.

Many of these kids are bright; some have reading scores above the 12th grade level. But any one of a number of factors ­p; from attendance problems, divorce, a difficult home life, the emotional roller coaster of the early teen years, bad influences in the neighborhood ­p; have knocked them off track. Others have struggled academically for years.

"What can we do to make disadvantaged, at-risk kids academically competitive when they start high school?" That is the challenge, says Dick Van Der Laan, the district's spokesman.

Two years ago, the Chicago schools and Long Beach Unified led the nation in piloting programs to halt the social promotion of failing students. Starting this fall, all California schools will be required to develop a retention strategy for failing students.

Today, Andre Johnson, 14, and Raul Gallegos, 14, are in the office talking to Principal Antonia Issa Lahera. Andre was a straight A student until the sixth grade. Then his family moved to Texas, then back to Hawthorne, where he began to hang with the wrong crowd and skip class. Raul is a quiet Latino man-child who teachers say is brilliant but is more comfortable on the streets than in school. He has been kicked out of as many schools as Holden Caulfield. Issa Lahera says Raul's immigrant family is extremely poor.

Occasionally, there is tension between Latino and African-American kids on campus and yesterday Andre and Raul squared off. However, tempers settled before punches were thrown. Issa Lahera praises both boys for acting like adults and setting an example for their peers.

"People said we were crazy to put all these kids together," says Supt. Cohn. But these students need special attention, otherwise many will soon drop out. At Long Beach Preparatory, they find small class sizes, extra long class periods and a devoted staff lead by Issa Lahera and teachers like Heather Magner.

"The classes are smaller, the teachers are better and they care more about you as an individual," says 14-year-old Jose Mendieta.

It is an experiment and Cohn does not minimize the difficulty of the challenge. In a newsletter for California superintendents, Cohn writes: "Creating a positive new school culture for youngsters who have concluded middle school with multiple failures has turned out to be an incredibly difficult task for school administrators and teachers."
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North of the 405 Freeway, Cubberley School can be found in a neighborhood of well-tended houses that are similar in decor and age to homes in Santa Monica or Manhattan Beach. Last year, Ellwood P. Cubberley (K-8) at 3200 Monogram Ave. was one of a handful of California schools to be chosen as a National Blue Ribbon School. Principal Gillian Klinkert shows me a seventh grade algebra class and second- graders working on writing. The students share a rough draft with a friend and then have a conference with the teacher.

Prominently displayed on one wall is the "Grade Two Writing Rubric" that outlines six levels of writing and what is involved to move up the ladder in
sophistication and completeness.

Klinkert says the writer's workshop approach to teaching writing can be found in many districts. What is unusual, she says, is how Long Beach has "put together an incredibly comprehensive set of benchmark content standards that drive instruction."

A newcomer to the district from Northern California, Klinkert still retains an outsider's perspective. A principal in the Elk Grove Unified School District near Sacramento, she was so impressed with the Long Beach teachers and administrators she had met at educational conferences that she only interviewed with Long Beach Unified when she decided to move to Southern California.

"I decided Long Beach was where I wanted to be," says Klinkert, a native of England with a degree from the University of Edinburgh. "Within education, they have an outstanding reputation. I was impressed with their level of staff development and the forward thinking of the district."

III. Turning Points

In 1994, LBUSD made national headlines by becoming the first public school district in the country to make uniforms mandatory for its elementary and middle school students. The dress code helped bring about a radical reduction in crime and disruption at the 60 elementary and 15 middle schools. In the first year, fights dropped by half and suspensions fell by one-third.

In the years prior, school fights between ethnic groups were a common occurrence. Another big problem was keeping gangs out of the schools. In the early '90s, gang violence between Asian and Latino gangs ripped up a number of Long Beach neighborhoods.

In a way psychologist Abraham Maslow would appreciate, Long Beach Unified began with the basic need of safety before moving on to the more esoteric matter of mastering algebra-trig. The district used uniforms as a way to bring safety and order back to the campuses.

"Safety and security really are critical issues," says Cohn. (In the wake of the Littleton massacre, a Long Beach police officer is on duty at each high school. At Poly, the officer was plainly visible in the main quad at morning snack.)

Uniforms fit into a larger reform agenda. Cohn says, "The whole deal is about standards: dress better, behave better and achieve more. It is a package."

He says the uniform initiative came from parents. "When parents and families told us they wanted school uniforms, we listened." The key, says Cohn, is that parents in the more affluent east side of town spoke out at school meetings in favor of a district-wide policy after several schools had tested the idea.

"When parents at Rogers Middle School in Belmont Shore said, 'It is not only good for those kids (on the west side of town) but it's good for our kids too ­p; that made the difference'."

After first-year figures showed a sharp decline in school violence, the district received national attention when first Attorney General Janet Reno and then President Clinton came to town to praise the initiative and encouraged other districts across the nation to follow suit.

In 1994, the board and superintendent made a strategic decision. Knowing they risked open defiance and civil liberties lawsuits if they asked high school students to toe the line, Cohn and the board limited the uniform initiative to K-8. As a result, protest was min-imal, community support great and lawsuits avoided. Some on the board, particularly Ed Eveland, want to see uniforms at the high school level. This year, freshmen and sophomores at Wilson High School signed a code of conduct and agreed to wear uniforms as part of Wilson's new rigorous college prep curriculum. By September 2000, the classical curriculum will be fully implemented and all Wilson students will wear uniforms.

Another concern was making sure very low-income families could afford the uniforms. A number of schools and service organizations chipped in to help ensure that the poorest students had the proper clothing. Many uniforms are donated back to the schools as children move up in age and size.

One of the key values of uniforms is that it puts kids on a level playing field when they are in school. Long Beach is a city with an enormous range of household incomes and uniforms have created equality between the haves and have-nots. Collins says uniforms "broke down the class system that exists when you don't wear the 'right' clothes. Now, it is more about what you do with your head and your brains."

Reflecting on the change the dress code has had, Collins says uniforms helped re-establish the student-teacher relationship by saying, "You are the child" and "We are the adults."
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Poly is an inner city high school, about that there is no doubt. On PCH, just north of campus, many stores and apartments have bars on the windows. The area is densely populated and poor. Nearly 60 percent of the students who attend Poly come from families on welfare. Still, going to Poly they know they can make it. Because of the school's long-standing reputation for excellence, there is the feeling that, "If I do well at Poly, I can do well after I graduate."

However, in the late '60s and early '70s, racial tensions threatened to tear Poly apart. Fistfights were common and, in what is known as "the riot," as many as 500 students fought in the school's quad on three successive days in 1972.

But the city refused to let Poly fail. Community leaders such as Nancy Latimer of Bixby Knolls (a well-to-do Anglo area north of downtown), Dale Clinton from the central city (largely African-American and Latino ­p; and now Cambodian) and Bill Barnes of Long Beach City College were part of the Poly Community Interracial Council. Out of these candid discussions came the push to improve Poly academically and socially.

A key innovation was a program to improve racial understanding on campus. For more than 25 years, groups of up to 160 10th-graders take part in what is called "the Poly experience." On three successive weekends, the students go to "Poly North," a YMCA campground in Big Bear where they get to know one another as individuals and break through ethnic stereotypes. Woods says, "It is an optional program, but when people come back they say, 'Like wow!' It really opens up communication when you get away from the city and break into smaller groups where people can talk. We have really good attitudes here."

"Even during Rodney King, Poly remained calm," says Blair Carty, administrator of PAAL, a Poly satellite campus. "Poly is very neutral territory. You just don't do stuff on campus."

Poly also launched two magnet programs that helped the high school establish a name for academic excellence. The PACE program is the brainchild of a gifted teacher, Nancy Gray, now retired. "She started it alone, in a cubbyhole, 23 years ago," says PACE Coordinator Richard Garretson.

"PACE is a school within a school," he says. It is a college prep program designed to help students "be successful at very powerful universities." Each year, about 600 of Long Beach's best and brightest eighth-graders apply for the 185 freshman slots. They are ranked by GPA and test scores in math, English and writing. Students usually need GPAs of 3.8 to gain admittance.

PACE is recognized as one of the top college prep programs in California. Each year PACE students take more than 700 Advanced Placement tests with a pass rate averaging between 70 and 80 percent. AP classes offered through PACE include Art History, Calculus, Physics, Music Theory, Psychology and Economics. "To pass these tests you have to know a vast amount of information, be an effective writer and be able to analyze," says Garretson.

Every year, PACE students earn more than 50 acceptance letters from UC Berkeley and UCLA. Many students gain acceptance to prestigious private universities but because of family finances, most choose to attend UCLA and Berkeley over Pomona and Princeton.

Cohn says PACE was intentionally designed to attract white students when Anglo families were leaving for the suburbs. In the beginning, PACE students from outlying areas of Long Beach were bused to Poly and then left at noon to go back to their home high school for athletics and activities. Now, PACE and Poly are hot and the busing option was recently dropped. Few students were using it.

Sarah Daigh, 17, grew up in the Poly area and will attend MIT this fall. She acknowledges there is some tension between the PACE students ­p; who take nearly all their classes together with PACE teachers ­p; and others at Poly. "But you can reach out," says Daigh. "If you are willing to be friends, there are lots of great people here. The cross-country guys are really nice."

Michael VanValkenburgh, 17, will attend UCLA in the fall. He says the heavy academic demands of PACE make many students think twice about stretching themselves thin with extra-curricular activities.

The other magnet at Poly is the Center for International Commerce, a program focusing on participation in the global economy, with a heavy emphasis on languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Russian and French. Entering students need a minimum GPA of 3.0 and standardized test scores in the 60th percentile or higher. CIC students take honors and advanced placement courses in English, U.S. history, government and science.

Poly administrators say the two programs have helped raise the academic performance of the entire student body. This has been aided by dividing the 4,200 student body into 600-700 schools or "academies." Here students concentrate on the fine arts, business and math or science and share teachers with like-minded friends.

Helene Goodman, counselor for the PACE program, says that since Poly began the academies the number of students taking the PSAT has shot up from 200 to 750 a year and the number of Advanced Placement tests being taken has gone from about 600 to more than 1,000.

Many more high school-age children live in the Poly area than anywhere else in Long Beach and the overflow of students is distributed to the other high schools ­p; Millikan, Jordan, Lakewood, Wilson and Cabrillo.

Collins says two factors are critical to Poly's success. "The faculty has been here years and years and they are excellent teachers. And the students who come to Poly are sophisticated ­p; whether they are from an AFDC or an affluent family.

"Twenty years ago, we were an inner city, racially troubled school," says Collins. "Now, everyone says our academics and athletics are unsurpassed. The parents may not know exactly what it is but they know we have a reputation for excellence and they will commit highway robbery to get their kids in here.

"I've had fathers tell me that when they attended Poly they mostly came to raise hell and chase girls. But they tell me that they want me to make sure their kids behave. Everyone knows that there is competition for these spots."

IV. Leadership

Leadership at many California school districts is either weak, fractured or nonexistent. Nationally, big city superintendents come and go more rapidly than the wash cycle. Undermined by board members, entrenched bureaucrats and powerful teacher's unions, most superintendents have a hard time keeping their job let alone shaking up the system in a healthy direction.

What gives in Long Beach? Is there a recipe for success?

A board and a superintendent will stumble unless they work together and are open to innovation. "We see ourselves as a six- person team," says Cohn. "We think it is important to come up with initiatives to improve the schools. In addition to being the right thing to do, it doesn't place us as the status quo. Too many urban school districts see themselves as defenders of the status quo. By contrast, we beat people to the punch."

A second ingredient is putting forth a united front on major reforms. "We have watched other districts try to launch major changes with a 3-2 vote. If we are divided, we won't go there. Forget it. Part of our strategy is to make sure we are unanimous before pushing forward with a major initiative. For example, on uniforms there was no way we could pull that off with a divided vote and split views."

Cohn says that when a board is split, the reaction in the district is, "'This superintendent is only going to be here a few years. The board will be gone. We can just sit back and this will pass.' However, if we say that we are unanimous, that sends the message that this is the direction for the next five to seven years. Anyone who doesn't like the change has to come to grips with the fact that it is not going to go away or be switched."

Cohn credits the school board for pushing him and the district to implement an aggressive reform agenda. Board President Polacheck says, "This board still believes it has local control and works in that framework. We respond to what parents and the community view as important in their schools. We believe it is a doable job and are not looking for excuses. Too many school districts act as if they are victims. They say, 'We can't because there is not enough money from Sacramento, or because we have too many poor kids or because we have to change so fast.'

"Sure it is crazy to say that every child can learn, but it is our charge to teach every child and to help him or her get the skills to function in society.

"Yes, things were better in 1955 and 1960 with local control and more funding. Today, the Boston school system spends $8,348 per student while Long Beach spends about $4,218 per child, depending on categorical grants. People argue that money is not the answer to everything. I say: 'Just give me a level playing field.' How can we be near the bottom in school funding when California is the seventh largest economy in the world?"

Between 1969 and 1994, California slid in per-pupil school allocations from among the top 10 states to No. 41. The state is slowly climbing back, moving from No. 36 in 1995 to No. 33 in 1996.

One reason that principals and teachers are willing to support change is because Cohn has a reputation in the district for having the childrens' best interests at heart.

Says Carty, "The philosophy communicated by Dr. Cohn is that 'Kids come first and that all students can learn and that all students deserve a quality education.' It is very clear that he is here for the kids."

A former counselor, Cohn is politically astute and a good listener. He helps board members be responsive to their constituencies. Polacheck says, "The superintendent respects the board members' need to respond to people." For example, for several years Lakewood has been trying to break away from Long Beach and three other districts to form its own school district. "I represent Lakewood and the superintendent spends a lot of time on the Lakewood issue and the other board members understand. Ed Eveland's constituents wanted to transform Wilson High School. The key is to listen to what the individual board member from a particular area may need, but make it right for the whole district."

Part of listening is allowing local teachers and community members to fashion solutions. In the Wilson area, there was a need to raise standards of education and behavior. Out of this grew the classical high school initiative. At Poly, an accreditation review several years ago found the campus was too small for the student body. The district owned some land near the campus and Carty says, "Cohn told school officials, 'You get student and parents together and decide what you want to do with the land.'"

Out of this grew the Poly Academy of Accelerated Learning (PAAL), a program for 11th-and 12th-graders who are in a hurry to finish high school or who are missing credits and want to catch up. Students have the option of 80-plus credits per year at PAAL as compared to 60 credits on the main Poly campus.

Part of listening is going out to schools with the president of the teacher's union to hear what teachers are thinking. On this day, union President Patricia Williams and Cohn are at Grant Elementary School, the district's largest elementary school with more than 1,600 students. As a dozen first-grade teachers take seats, Williams and Cohn tell them that it is their meeting and agenda.

Earlier in the morning, teachers from the other grades have asked questions about air conditioning, test scores, class size reduction in fourth and fifth grade, peer review, bilingual instruction and Lakewood's attempt to break away from LBUSD. As fans spin overhead, Cohn tells the teachers that Grant will have air conditioning by the spring of 2000.

About half the teachers are in their first or second year and some are earning their credential while they teach. "I appreciate the moral support I get from the more senior teachers. You get stressed out as a first-year teacher," says Robin Pich. Asked about peer review, Williams says she hopes it is "95 percent assistance and 5 percent review."

Cohn says, "Sometimes the media gets into a mode that new teachers are bad. I take the position that when we hire a new teacher it is our responsibility to make them a good teacher."

Both Cohn and board President Polacheck are proud of the teacher training programs offered by the district.

Isabel Mena, 26, says, "I was a bilingual aide in Compton Unified. Sometimes we had to teach without books. Coming here is like going to heaven." Cohn sympathizes, saying, "I started my career in Compton, too. It is a character- building experience."

V. A Focus on Improvement

All of this said, Long Beach Unified is not the poster child of educational success. Like most California districts, test scores at many schools are mediocre and, particularly in the downtown area, teachers struggle to reach youngsters who must overcome multiple hurdles to learn their lessons. Polacheck says, "This board wanted to make a difference in urban education. Our focus is to sustain improvement."

Cohn says he and the board made a commitment to the community during the 1993 voucher campaign. "We told them that if they voted against the voucher that we would do everything we could to improve the schools." By a vote of 69.5 percent to 30.5 percent, California voters overwhelmingly rejected the voucher measure, which would have given $2,600 checks to all students who were in or who wanted to be in private school. If passed, the measure would have cost taxpayers $1.3 billion for students already attending private school. (Last week, Florida lawmakers approved the nation's first statewide voucher plan.)

On Seventh Street, smack in the middle of Long Beach, stands Jefferson Middle School. The school is old; the aging walls come right to the sidewalk. Jefferson looks as if Babe Ruth could have been a student. But next fall, Jefferson will be the center of attention as it becomes the first California public school to separate girls and boys in all academic classes.

Chosen for this experiment because of its central location, Jefferson will be a pilot districtwide magnet school for approximately 500 girls and 500 boys in grades six, seven and eight. The only larger single-gender public school in the U.S. is a 1,200-student all-girls school in Baltimore.

The Board of Education acted after a January survey showed 58 percent of parents were interested in having their children attend single-gender classes. "Single-gender instruction has long been available to families who choose parochial or private schools," says Karen DeVries, area superintendent. "Those families often report that their children benefit from the single-gender academic environment."

Board member Bobbie Smith says, "We are really excited about our single-gender school. This is the time when hormones begin and kids are more aware of the opposite sex. Not all the studies are complete and there will always be pros and cons. Karin and I came on to the board 10 years ago. I feel very good about where we are and what we have accomplished. We are not afraid to try new things."

Huck Finn might say, "Ain't that the truth."



School Reform:

How Long Beach Unified ended social promotion and began a 'classical' high school.

(SECOND OF TWO PARTS)

By Kevin O'Leary
Orange County Monitor

Kerrill Kephart of Santa Ana and Heather Magner of Huntington Beach are English teachers. They are two of the reasons why the Long Beach Unified School District is making headway teaching children and earn-ing national recognition for education reform.

Kephart teaches Advanced Placement English to 12th-grade honor students at Long Beach Polytechnic High School. Today, the class is discussing a short story by David Guterson entitled "Wood Grouse on a High Promontory Overlooking Canada." Kephart begins by telling her students that Guterson is best known as the author of the novel "Snow Falling on Cedars," a beautifully written story of the impact of World War II on a small community in the Pacific Northwest and, in particular, about the coming of age of an Anglo boy and a Japanese American girl.

Only four pages, "Wood Grouse" involves similar themes. It is the story of two brothers hiking in the mountains of Washington shortly after the eldest has returned from the Vietnam War. Kephart calls on different groups of students to discuss the plot line, imagery, difficult words ("Give us the definition in your own words," she reminds one student. "You know how I feel about dictionary definitions"), character development, conflict and meaning.

This honors English class is part of the Program of Additional Curricular Experiences (PACE) program at Poly ­p; a top notch college prep program that prepares 185 students a year for a slew of Advanced Placement exams and then acceptance by elite colleges from UC Berkeley to Northwestern to MIT. As one might expect, it is a quiet, serious class. On a blackboard in the back of the room is a diagram ­p; "Structure of Short Story" ­p; showing exposition (rising arrow), culminating in a climax, and then resolution (declining arrow).

Early in the story, Gary, the older brother, refers to Canada as "draft-dodger heaven." Ross Cuff, 17, tells the class that Canada symbolizes the innocence that Gary has now lost.

The climax in the story comes when the younger brother, Bud, throws a rock and fatally injures a bird. Gary is appalled that his younger brother shows so little respect for life. "Look what you did," Gary shouts. Seeing the bird is beyond help, Gary steps on its head, halting its misery.

Later, Bud asks Gary if he killed anyone in Vietnam. Gary never answers directly yet we know from his tears. As the class analyzes the story, Kephart asks them to think back to a book they read in the ninth grade, "To Kill a Mockingbird." "Think about when Atticus talks to Jim and tells him that it is a sin to kill for the sheer hell of it," she says. "That is the same message here."

Coming a week after the Littleton massacre, Kephart's final remark undoubtedly registered ­p; even with two boys in the front of the class who act as if they are too cool for school.

Fourteen blocks away on the same morning, Magner is preparing her students at Long Beach Preparatory Academy for the Stanford 9 tests. These students earned entry to this special "prep school" by flunking at least two classes in eighth grade. At the Prep Academy, they get a second chance to get their academic act together.

Magner tells her 20 students, again and again, "Don't think. We have spent all year thinking, connecting and asking questions. But on a standardized test that can get you in trouble.

"Don't think! The answer is right there in front of you in the lines. Go find it!"

The second unorthodox thing is that Magner is having her students read and analyze a rap song by Lauryn Hill entitled, "Everything is Everything."

The classroom is relaxed. Some students sit at desks, two sit on sofas, and two sit in living room chairs.

"Who did Lauryn Hill write this song for?" asks Magner. Sitting in his large blue and yellow warm-up jacket, Andre Johnson quickly finds the answer in the first verse: "I wrote these words for everyone Who struggles in their youth."

Magner asks the class: "Is this song more like a report, a novel or a poem?" Again Johnson has the answer saying, "Ms. Magner, it's like a poem because it has deep feelings and rhyme."

Later, Magner explains the logic behind her teaching tactic. "You have to start their interest in literacy by giving them something they can relate to. The first novel I gave them was 'Drive-by.' Some of these kids come from neighborhoods and families where they literally grow up in a gang. After 'Drive-by,' we moved on to 'The Hobbit.'"

The PACE class at Poly and the eighth grade retention class at Long Beach Preparatory are worlds apart. Yet, Kephart and Magner are both reaching students and teaching them to appreciate the power of words.

Ending Social Promotion

"One of the most difficult things for a parent is to be notified that their child is not going to be promoted to the next grade. Imagine the frustration and anger you would feel," says Bill Habermehl, associate superintendent of the Orange County Department of Education.

Habermehl is addressing a group of more than 100 Orange County educators who have gathered in Costa Mesa to hear Long Beach Superintendent Carl Cohn talk about his district's cutting-edge approach to an emotionally charged issue ­p; "ending social promotion."

Starting next fall, school districts across Orange County will begin following a new state mandate ­p; aggressively holding back students who are failing in school.

Sounds reasonable. In fact, retention policy has long been policy in most California school districts. Yet, most teachers have passed failing students on to the next grade with the result that children get further behind. We have all heard sorry tales of teenagers graduating high school without being able to read. In Japan, the bottom 50 percent of the workforce is famous for being the best trained and educated in the world. That is certainly not the case in the United States.

Educators from districts across Orange County, including Newport-Mesa, Orange Unified and Anaheim, have come to hear Dr. Cohn speak because the Long Beach district already has two years experience holding failing students back and giving them extra instruction.

Cohn begins by acknowledging that research is very clear that retention (holding students back) does not work. "However, there has not been much retention. This is not a 1950s version of the student repeating the same grade with the same teacher. We're talking about intervening with students who are falling behind and only using retention as a last-ditch effort."

He says the Long Beach program came about as the result of an "honest, in-depth, two-year conversa-tion with the community" and believes that conversa-tion must take place if an intervention program is going to work.

"The initial salvo is, 'Why are you punishing kids for a school system that has failed?' You can expect that in every district ­p; urban, suburban and rural."

Long Beach has established a third grade summer reading program for students who are behind, a special junior high for students who have failed two subjects in the last semester of eighth grade and a high school writing requirement.

Cohn says, "There is nothing more sobering than to sit down with a group of teachers and ask: How many youngsters need third grade summer reading help and how many eighth graders have multiple Fs?"

These hurdles at the third, eighth and 11th grades put students, parents and teachers on notice. Cohn says sixth and seventh graders are working harder to avoid academic trouble in eighth grade. When Long Beach put its multiple Fs policy into effect in June 1996 there were 748 eighth graders with multiple Fs on their final report card. In June 1997, the number dropped to 457 and by June 1998 the number was 346.

"Most parents are gratified if their child is having difficulty and needs some extra help," he says. "It is very important to have checkpoints for intervention along the way ­p; not just at the third, eighth and 11th grades."

Carolyn Houston, principal of South Junior High in the Anaheim Union High School District, says, "We are looking to set up a retention process. It is very immediate for us. Personally, I would like to keep the intervention program at our campus. I really think we should act before the end of the eighth grade by being pro-active with seventh graders."

The reading program in third grade is a "big winner and a delight," says Cohn. But getting Long Beach Preparatory Academy off the ground was a struggle. It began with resistance from the city of Signal Hill to having the special campus placed in its midst and continuing through a difficult first year when some teachers were not prepared for their special assignment.

"It's a huge challenge," says Cohn. The first year was difficult as the students tested the teachers and administrators. Cohn says it was a mistake to use "continuation" teachers. Even though they volunteered for the assignment, some did not understand that the district really wants these children to do better. Magner says seven teachers left after the first year. Another lesson: instead of one campus it would be better to have multiple smaller campuses.

The key to this radical intervention is having dedicated, imaginative, loving teachers like Magner and Principal Antonia Issa Lahera.

Issa Lahera says Long Beach Prep is the only school in Long Beach where the staff greets students coming off their buses and waves goodbye to them at the end of the day.

A parent of teens, Issa Lahera says, "There are two things these teenagers need: food and sleep." And she might add ­p; an understanding, gifted teacher. Her goal is for every child to bond with one adult on the campus.

"These kids all have a story," says Magner. "And usually it's sad.

"In the teen years, kids tend to push you away just when they need the most support. Many of these kids grew up in neighborhoods where there are drugs and gangs. Add family problems to that and they are tough.

"They are like porcupines. 'This is my life and I can take care of myself.' You just have to be patient and get those little quills to lay down. You think they are not listening but they are.

"We only have them for 10 months; that is asking a lot."

She wonders how these kids will do in high school. "To counsel someone you need to get to know them. High school is so content-driven. You need to know where your kids are emotionally. How can you do that in a classroom of 35 teenagers times six periods? It would be better if we broke high school into teams.

"High school may have to change. I am not talking about watering down. It needs to be rigorous. But you have to do what is necessary to reach the kids."

A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Magner says most of the kids she teaches at Long Beach Prep are capable of going to college.

"I'd say a majority are smart enough," she says. "But most are not engaged in school. They do not see themselves as students. When they make that psychological adjustment you see a dramatic change."

A teacher with special training in reading instruction, Magner says many of the students are very smart but just learn differently.

"Some of them are really kinetic (learn by doing). Other kids are really good readers but they have no confidence in it. If it does not have meaning for them they get bored."

In 1998, 266 students and their parents got the good news that they had graduated from Long Beach Preparatory Academy (93 percent of the first-year class) and would be going on to high school. Twenty-one students failed to make the cut and were sent on to continuation or storefront schools.
Cohn says, "The critical year for us is how do these kids do in the ninth grade? They had a good year because of a smaller setting and caring teachers. Now, how will they do in a school where the enrollment is 4,000 kids?"

A 'Classical' High School

Over a four-year time span, Wilson High School on the east side of the city near Long Beach State is being transformed into Woodrow Wilson Classical High School. This year, freshmen and sophomores are part of this magnet college prep secondary school and this means they are required to wear white shirts and khaki pants or skirts, sign a contract promising good behavior and take seven classes a semester instead of the normal six.

The idea is to raise standards and raise the bar of academic performance, says Linda Drummond, former chair of the English department and now the administrative coordinator for Wilson's changing identity.

"Here the whole school is becoming a magnet program versus the PACE program at Poly High, which is small and selective," says Drummond. "We are actively recruiting good, college-bound students districtwide and are also recruiting heavily in the Catholic elementary schools. They give us equal time."

"The difference with our program is that it is the entire school. That's a big deal," says Keith Hansen, assistant principal for the ninth grade.

The idea of a classical high school began during the '80s and at that point the idea was to make the curriculum truly classical by offering Latin or Greek and focusing the school heavily on the humanities.

Three years ago, the classical idea was resurrected and a curriculum covering math, science, English and history was designed to meet and exceed the admission requirements for both the California State University system and the University of California. In addition to the classical curriculum required of all students, Wilson also offers an honors/Advanced Placement program based on a 3.0 grade point average in middle school, counselor recommendations and high achievement test scores.

Many in the community felt that Wilson was not the school it once was. "The school district is responding to the desire that this be a really strong well-rounded school," Drummond says.

"This is what parents have been requesting for years ­p; higher standards, stricter dress code, stricter behavior code and stronger academics," says parent Charlene Ebright.

Unlike other high schools, Wilson students will have to take 280 credits to graduate with a classical diploma instead of 220 units at a regular high school. This translates into seven classes a semester instead of six. All Wilson students will take four years of a foreign language and four years of math. Wilson has 20 science teachers and Dummond says the high school is hiring more science, art and language teachers. This is partially the result of a class size reduction program in the ninth grade that will allow a maximum of 20 students per class.

Both Wilson and Poly have broken the traditional mold of offering 50-minute classes. Now, students in both high schools take classes in longer 90-minute time blocks. This allows more in-depth teaching and time for projects but means classes do not meet every day. While math and language teachers would rather see their students every day, teachers in art, science and humanities "love" the block schedule.

Drummond says the campus is calmer with the block schedule. Fewer passing periods mean there are fewer chances for disturbances. "Now the kids only change class three times a day. There has been a big drop in fights. Our suspension rate is now the lowest of any high school is the district."

One reason for the institution of a college prep curriculum and a code of conduct was a feeling among some parents that too many students were coming to Wilson who were either disruptive or not college bound. Because a majority of high school students in Long Beach live in the central city area around Poly High, each of the other high schools must take a certain amount of transfer students.

"There was a perception in the community that a larger number of students was coming to Wilson because of demographic changes in the city and that these students were not necessarily college bound," says Drummond.

With the transition to the classical high school, students come to Wilson because they and their parents chose to attend knowing that more is expected of them at Wilson than at other high schools.

Drummond says, "Teachers say this year they see a big difference in classroom behavior. Now, most classes are a real pleasure."

In addition to Wilson and Poly, all the Long Beach high schools offer special programs to attract either high-achieving teens or students interested in specific career options. For example, Lakewood High has a magnet for students aiming for high-tech careers while Jordan High has programs in law enforcement, paralegal, medical services and the performing arts.

Board member Bobbi Smith says, "The magnet programs have been a savior for the district. We don't want to leave any kids behind. We recognize that there are diverse ways to learn and different rates and methods."

No Magic Wand

In addition to state-mandated tests, Long Beach Unified has developed its own districtwide testing program. Lynn Winters, assistant superintendent for research, says students in the third, fifth, sixth, eighth and 10th grades are tested on their ability to write an essay and solve math problems. In addition, students in the K-5 grades are tested on reading comprehension. "This enables us to track where kids are in terms of our district standards," says Winters.

While the state has changed tests and thus makes it difficult to judge how districts are doing over time, Winters says one way to measure academic progress is to count how many students are completing algebra in the eighth grade, how many students drop out, how many students are completing the University of California A-F requirements for admission and how many students take the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) or college entrance exam.

Here are the numbers in Long Beach: 34.1 percent of students completed algebra in 1998 compared to only 16.8 percent in 1996, the dropout rate has declined from 10.16 percent in 1996 (2,113 students) to 3.75 percent in 1998 (835 students) and 32.5 percent of seniors took the SAT in 1998 compared to 29.1 percent in 1996.

"We are happy that more students are thinking about attending college," says Winters.

Thirty-three percent of LBUSD students are labeled as having limited English proficiency. That is another way of saying one-third of Long Beach students speak English as a second language. Los Angeles Unified is a similar district with 38 percent of students with limited English skills. On the Stanford 9 test in 1998, Long Beach did better than LAUSD, scoring 31 vs. 24 in fifth grade reading and 37 vs. 30 in eighth grade math. But most Orange County districts score higher. For example, the Fullerton schools scored 48 on fifth grade reading and 61 on eighth grade math.

However, Winters says Long Beach scores in reading, language and math were significantly improved (between seventh and 16th percentile ranks higher) from the previous statewide exam, the CAP test administered in 1991, even though the Stanford 9 is a more difficult test.

Clearly, Long Beach Unified is not going to be confused with the elite suburban districts such as Irvine and Palo Alto, which score in the 80th percentile on the Stanford 9 and send more than 90 percent of their students to junior college or four-year universities. But for public education to improve and for California to have a well-educated workforce in the 21st century, it is districts such as Long Beach that have to do a better job.

Board of Education President Karin Polacheck has words of wisdom for Orange County school districts embarking on reform programs to improve instruction.

"Any kind of improvement or reform takes time," says Polacheck, who is pursuing her doctorate in education at UCLA. "Change must be institutionalized. It takes four or five years for a change to get rooted.

"Look at Long Beach Unified over the last five years. We implemented a K-8 uniform policy, a social promotion policy including launching Long Beach Preparatory Academy, we have improved staff development including a collaboration with Cal State Long Beach, we refined our area structure, we have pushed forward with standards driving teaching and finally, we have set up special benchmarks at the third, eighth and 11th grades.

"None of these changes can be measured in a two-year period. There is no quick fix."

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