High Expectations Push All Students to Achieve : Accelerated School pupils follow the same curriculum in each grade regardless of academic ability. The theory is that even slow learners will benefit when they--and their parents--are challenged.

Teachers at the Accelerated School do not shuffle low-achieving students into classes for slow learners. The guiding ethic is that all children, even those who stumble on academics, can perform like gifted students if nurtured to do so.

“At most schools, expectations of kids are not high,” said Johnathan Williams, co-director of the school. “Here, kids understand that their parents and teachers expect them to perform. They want to be like other kids, so they try and keep up.”

Located in a former Catholic school near 37th and Main streets in South-Central Los Angeles, the Accelerated School opened in September. Its 50 students in kindergarten through fourth grade tend to be from poor and minority families.

A main component of the accelerated schools concept is to insist that all students in each grade follow the same curriculum regardless of academic ability. The theory is that even slow learners excel academically if challenged to do so.

For instance, for a third-grader who could not yet read, teacher Barbara De Hart did not excuse her from reading assignments. Instead, she expected the girl’s mother to spend at least 15 minutes a night helping her daughter with phonics tapes. The mother also had to rearrange her work schedule and come to school every Friday afternoon to tutor her daughter.

“We’re holding the mother accountable because she’s not illiterate, so there’s no reason why her daughter should not be able to read,” said De Hart, one of two teachers at the new school. “A lot of kids in the class have weaknesses, and it would be really easy to dummy the work down, but I can’t do that.”

De Hart also recently had her class of second-, third- and fourth-graders complete a math autobiography in which they wrote answers to such questions as, “What is your favorite thing about math?”

Even though some of the students in the class had yet to learn to write, De Hart did not alter the assignment. Instead, she had those students dictate their responses to her, then practice writing their responses on a separate sheet of paper.

“You’ve got to build their confidence by giving them the tools first,” De Hart said. “Accelerated learning is about allowing all children access to all parts of the curriculum and not limiting them to certain assignments based on their ability.”

When children in Ana Ponce’s kindergarten-through-second-grade class tug on her clothing to show her their obscure crayon scribblings, Ponce never wrinkles her forehead and asks, “What is that?”

“Instead I say, ‘Tell me what it is,’ ” she said. “The whole point is to be positive and avoid anything that’s negative.”

Teachers at most public schools must adhere to an established curriculum, but Ponce and De Hart can teach whatever they want. They develop their own assignments and pick out their own books and material.

“For example, I don’t plan to work with traditional math books because they tend to be 90% computation,” De Hart said. “When children play math games or do classroom activities, they understand math concepts and not just how to solve problems.”

Another main tenet of the accelerated schools model, which was developed at Stanford University, is involving parents, teachers and community members in almost every decision that affects the school. Parents at the Accelerated School, for instance, are expected to help plan the school calendar, organize events and develop a discipline policy for the school.

At a meeting early this month, parents said they were interested in adopting a school uniform. A parent agreed to research the subject and will present the information to other parents at the next meeting.

Parents also are required to sign a contract obliging them to attend all school meetings and to spend at least three hours a month volunteering at the school.

“I have no problem being here. In fact, I want to be here,” said Veita Hassan, who transferred her three daughters from 74th Street School this fall. “At 74th Street School, I didn’t feel like I had a lot of input as a parent, and I didn’t like that.”

Accelerated schools depend on parents, teachers and community members to be involved in decisions because they are the ones who can best assess a school’s strengths and weaknesses, said Henry Levin, a Stanford University professor and the concept’s originator. Once the group comes up with a vision, they work together to implement the plan and share the responsibility if it fails or succeeds.

“This is a whole different way of thinking about children, teachers, parents and how the strengths of these different groups work together,” Levin said.

Williams and co-director Kevin Sved learned about the accelerated schools concept when they were teachers at 99th Street School, a nearby Los Angeles Unified School District campus. Although the Accelerated School is part of the district and receives public funds, its status as a state charter school allows it to set salaries, hire teachers and design its own curricula.

“You have to be autonomous to make this work,” Sved said. “Part of the philosophy of accelerated schools is to empower teachers and parents. But what often happens in a regular school is that principals will see their power diminish, which creates conflict.”

Although it is still too early to tell whether the accelerated schools model is truly effective at bringing at-risk students into the educational mainstream, early signs indicate that it does boost academic performance. Scores in the California Test of Basic Skills at 99th Street School, for instance, have increased by 40% in reading, 50% in math and 10% in language since the campus adopted the accelerated schools model in 1990.

“In schools where the model is fully implemented, you’ll see fewer suspensions, higher attendance and higher test scores,” Levin said. “You’ll also notice that teachers are enthusiastic, parents are involved and kids are excited about learning.”

To recruit students, Williams and Sved knocked on doors and dropped off flyers at local churches.

Bridget Wilson saw one of those flyers and immediately enrolled her son, 7.

“I was looking for a good school, but I couldn’t afford a private school,” said Wilson, who recently moved to the Crenshaw district from Georgia. “When I heard about this school, I couldn’t believe it, because it sounded too good to be true.”

Accelerated Concept

The accelerated schools model was created nine years ago by a team led by Henry Levin, a professor at Stanford University. A key component is offering an accelerated curriculum to all students, regardless of academic ability, based on the theory that even slow learners can excel if challenged to do so. Although the Accelerated School is the first school to be specifically based on Levin’s principles, the model has been used at more than 700 elementary and middle schools in 36 states. The Accelerated School receives public funds and was started with grants from Wells Fargo and the Weingart Foundation.