School Choices Multiply with Competition : Education: After a slow start, administrators are moving toward a more consumer-oriented approach.

In one corner of this busy, non-traditional classroom in Ventura, the youngest elementary schoolchildren learn math skills--not with a pencil and workbook--but by doubling a recipe and combining the ingredients to make strawberry tarts.

Once the treats come out of the oven, the excited children scatter in different directions to present them to their “special friends,” older children assigned as mentors to younger students at Blanche Reynolds Elementary School.

“They’re hardly even aware they’re learning, because it’s fun to them,” said Jan Magson, a mother spending time as a volunteer in her son’s class.

In the next room, fifth- and sixth-graders give oral history reports by dressing in costume as the historical figure they’ve chosen to learn about. They speak in first-person and stay in character to answer questions about their lives.

“When you give children responsibility for their learning at a younger age, they can rise to the occasion,” Magson said.

The popular educational program exemplifies a widening effort among public schools to offer alternative types of instruction that captivate students and enchant parents who might otherwise consider placing their children in private schools.

Public schools in Simi Valley, Ventura, Camarillo and Santa Paula operate alternative programs that are so popular that openings are highly coveted by eager parents.

In Thousand Oaks, school officials decided to launch an alternative program next fall, and 150 parents applied, including 30 who had previously enrolled their children in private schools or decided to teach them at home.

The push among public schools to rethink the traditional classroom and expand instructional choices has been spurred by a controversial ballot measure that threatens to hemorrhage public school funding by allowing families who send their children to private or parochial schools to collect state-funded vouchers to help defray the cost.

Last week, Gov. Pete Wilson added a sense of urgency among public school administrators by scheduling the measure for a statewide vote Nov. 2, said Dr. Charles Weis, director of curriculum for the Ventura County Superintendent of Schools.

“The voucher issue is bringing this to a head,” Weis said. “Public schools know they have to respond quickly.”

Until recently, administrators have been slow to develop such choices for parents. But now they are embracing a national trend toward a more consumer-oriented approach.

In the Conejo Valley Unified School District, for instance, it took a group of parents three years to persuade school board members to go forward with an alternative program.

The parents’ enthusiasm finally triumphed over the board’s fears about the added expense of innovative programs.

“People just kept coming out of the woodwork,” said Berta Hurley of Newbury Park, who helped to form the group but whose 14-year-old son is now too old to enroll in the new program for kindergarten through fourth-graders.

Linda Davis, a parent in the Thousand Oaks district, said the program’s focus on learning through activity is causing her to reconsider public schools for her 8-year-old daughter, who has been enrolled in a private school for two years.

“Not every kid can learn by reading a textbook or listening to a teacher lecture,” Davis said. “Some learn by touching and smelling and hearing. There are ways to learn through experiencing.”

Two open classrooms of 64 children at Conejo Elementary School will be modeled after programs in Ventura, Camarillo and Santa Paula, where kindergarten through sixth-grade students intermingle with younger and older children instead of being strictly separated by age.

A cornerstone of the program’s success is parent involvement, said teachers running three open classrooms at Blanche Reynolds. Each parent is required to spend four hours a week helping in the classroom.

“When parents support education, wonderful things happen,” said Roni Adams, a teacher for four years in the 16-year-old program.

Waiting lists are growing, particularly for the younger grades, as interest in schools of choice has exploded in recent years, Adams said. Large class sizes and typically low parent involvement figure in the trend away from traditional classrooms, she added.

“People see when you have 36 students per teacher, real learning can’t take place,” Adams said.

With parents helping at various “stations” where the students separate into small groups for activities, teachers in the open classrooms are freed to spend more time with children one-on-one, teachers said.

Educators say hands-on activities encourage independent thought and love of learning, and the students often learn best when they are allowed to advance at their own pace.

Children in the Blanche Reynolds program said it makes school fun without reducing how much they learn.

“I used to try to make myself sick to get out of school,” said Matt Amendt, 10, a fifth-grader in the program who previously attended a traditional school. “Now, I’m upset if I can’t come.”

Aaron Singer-Englar, 10, said he used to think he couldn’t do multiplication at all. His experience was based on performing poorly during timed tests where he was supposed to solve 100 problems in five minutes.

In the alternative program, his confidence in math has grown as he is allowed to proceed at his own pace. “I didn’t need to know 100 (answers) in five minutes,” the fifth-grader said. “I just needed to know them.”

Open classrooms are just one choice being offered to parents in local districts to keep them interested in public instruction.

Some school systems have become more flexible in allowing students to attend schools of their choice within the school district.

Simi Valley Assistant Supt. Susan Parks said liberal transfer policies, alternative classroom instruction and other innovations reflect the growing importance of consumer-control in American society. Americans have grown accustomed to having products and services tailored to their needs and are beginning to expect the same from public schools.

“I can remember a time when you went to McDonald’s and got a McDonald’s hamburger; that was all there was,” Parks said. “Now, people expect to have choices.”

Simi Valley school officials now readily allow students to transfer within the district, Parks said. In addition, the district’s two 11-year-old “fundamental” schools of choice now have waiting lists for the younger grades, officials said.

High expectations and frequent recognition of student achievement are hallmarks of the Hollow Hills program, said Principal Leslie Frank.

Students must demonstrate their understanding of lessons through projects and activities, she said. The dress code is strict, and the staff continuously works to find new ways to raise student motivation, Frank said.

But probably the biggest factor in the schools’ success is the fact that parents choose to send their kids there, Frank said.

“That gives us very committed parents, and committed parents are probably one of the most critical variables for success at any school,” Frank said.

School choice is not a new concept, said Conejo Valley school board member Dolores Didio. It has been around at the high school level for decades, but now it’s filtering into the lower grades, she said.

“People like to be involved in deciding what is best for their child, and if that means choice, then that is the trend we’re moving toward,” Didio said.

Administrators at the county Superintendent of Schools’ office consider the shift healthy, because it encourages parents to be actively involved and ultimately leads to more satisfaction.

The challenge ahead for public schools will be to develop greater variety of educational choices they offer, Weis said. A wider selection benefits instruction, he said, because “what works for one kid doesn’t necessarily work for all kids.”

“It’s going to be a fascinating couple of years,” he said.

Jock Scott, a longtime teacher in Blanche Reynolds’ open-class program, believes innovation is essential to stanch the flow of students leaving public schools.

“I would hate to see the disparities that would occur between private schools and public schools if we don’t succeed,” Scott said.