Student Option: Contest of Brains : Education: Students labeled failures by the L.A. school district get chance to prove themselves in today’s Academic Decathlon.

Instructor Bill Cathers’ morning study session had the feel of a college music class.

Strains of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 wafted through the room, and the small group of high school students listened intently, then talked with Cathers of timbre and tempo, interludes and instrumentality.

A few short months ago, the fledgling music experts were among those considered school district failures--students who, for various reasons, could not succeed in traditional schools.

Now, they are among almost 500 students training for the Los Angeles Unified School District’s annual Academic Decathlon, a rigorous intellectual competition that tests teams of students from 55 district high schools in subjects such as economics, literature, music, math and science.

Months of study culminate in competition today at Cal State L.A. in an all-day session that includes essays, written exams, speeches, interviews and the grueling Super Quiz, where each student takes center stage to answer questions on a pre-selected topic--this year it is “American Indians: Our American Heritage.” Only the Super Quiz, at 4 p.m., is open to the public.

Students’ scores in each category are tallied and the school whose nine-member team has the highest total will be crowned champion Nov. 28.

This is the second year the district has fielded a team from its Senior High Options Program, which encompasses a variety of alternative classes for students who are not able to attend regular schools.

Some of the students are pregnant or young mothers. Others have been expelled or dropped out. Still more are underachievers, who have had chronic problems in traditional schools.

Under Cathers’ tutelage, all of them are winners.

“Realistically, we can’t hope to win the competition,” Cathers said, after a five-hour study session this week . “But we study as hard as we can, as long as we can, and we have some fun along the way.”

Cathers’ brood may be a long shot because, unlike most teams, its members come from schools spread across the district. Logistical problems limit the amount of time the group can spend together studying.

The students try to meet daily on the USC campus, with teacher Bob Spencer, a fellow coach, driving some in from the San Fernando Valley. Others get there on their own from the South Bay, South-Central, West and East Los Angeles.

To maximize their chances, the youngsters also study alone at night--using audio cassettes narrated by Cathers that focus on important sections in their reference books. Sometimes, small groups get together on weekends as well.

“Sometimes it seems like all I do is work,” said Michelle Oakley, a 17-year-old senior who occasionally attends study sessions with her 10-month-old son perched on her knee.

“But it’s made me feel good,” said Oakley, who half-heartedly attended alternative high schools during her pregnancy and since her son’s birth, but plans to return to Dorsey High School next semester.

“It’s made me realize that all along I could’ve been doing better in school,” she said. “If I can do this, I can get through anybody’s high school.”

The Options students all were referred to Cathers by teachers or counselors at their alternative schools. And for them, the stakes are much higher than winning a single academic competition.

For Andrew Nelson, the decathlon training has meant the difference between dropping out of high school and going to college. Nelson, 18, of Marina del Rey, had already left his continuation school--the last stop in a series of schools he had tried--when he was called at home by the principal and told of Cathers’ “enrichment program.”

He began meeting with Cathers last spring, was selected as one of 18 students on the two Options decathlon teams, and in the process of studying the arts this fall, he discovered a love and aptitude for music--and made a career choice.

“I’m going to graduate, I’m going to go to college to study music,” he said. “For the first time, I know what I’m going to do with my life . . . it’s going to involve teaching, conducting, composing.”

The sessions with Cathers and Spencer have “turned me around,” Nelson said. He has learned about economics and literature, but more than that, he has learned about himself.

“One of the most important things I’ve learned is that there’s a place for me. I believe in myself now. . . . There’s a big world and a lot to learn, and I’m excited about that for the first time.”

Cathers persuaded the district to let him coach an Options team two years ago, after five years of teaching district students who had been expelled from school.

“I kept seeing these very bright students, who needed an enrichment experience in education to get them excited about learning,” Cathers said.

Cathers seems to have provided just that. His students are clearly turned on by what they’re doing.

“He’s the best teacher I’ve ever had,” said Sheila Coker, at 14, the youngest member of the Options team. “He makes learning fun; he makes you care about what you’re learning.”

Before meeting Cathers, Coker had given up on the school system. After being expelled from John Burroughs Junior High in February for bringing a knife to school--”A really dumb thing, I know,” she says now--she wound up at a continuation school where she says she was surrounded by unmotivated students.

“The students were so disruptive and disrespectful, it just wasn’t a good place to learn,” said the young woman Cathers describes as a “sponge” because of the way she soaks up information.

Coker, who once was a good student, had begun skipping school last spring and considered dropping out, until the principal sent her to Cathers.

Now, the 10th-grader hopes to attend one of the district’s medical magnet schools and plans to attend college and study medicine.

And all humility aside, she said she has big plans for today’s competition. “I’ll be there to win.”

BACKGROUND

High schools across the state will compete in local decathlons today, with winners in each county going on to the statewide competition in Bakersfield in March. The California champion will then advance to the national competition in Des Moines in April. Last year, Taft High in Woodland Hills won the local, state and national titles. Three separate contests will be held in Los Angeles County--for county public schools, private schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District. Winners will be announced later this month.