A Grade-A Celebration

Friday night sports heroes aren’t the only ones inspiring festive balloon arches and rowdy cheers at pep rallies any more.

Students at many local junior high and high schools who make the grades now celebrate their academic victories by breaking through paper banners and jogging into decorated gyms.

Academic pep rallies and incentives such as free T-shirts and fast-food lunches are the cornerstone of Renaissance, a national program designed to improve academic achievement that is gaining popularity in Orange County schools.

Principals say the incentive-based recognition program, which has been adopted by about 15 Orange County junior high and high schools, boosts grade point averages and attendance rates and encourages local business involvement in schools.

“The idea is to make academics just as important as extra-curricular activities,” said Bert Raiche, principal of Esperanza High School in Anaheim, which adopted the program in September. “We’re trying to encourage a nice balance.”

Elise Cyrus, 13, of Anaheim said the academic pep rallies and giveaways at Brookhurst Junior High in Anaheim honor all students, not just a select few.

“There’s a lot of screaming and yelling and it’s really exciting,” the eighth-grade student said. “It’s like there’s electricity when we do it. You actually feel that you’re being recognized for something and are getting rewarded for it. Other programs just give you a little pencil or something.”

Renaissance began in 1984 as a joint project between Conway High School in North Carolina and Jostens, a company that sells school rings and graduation gowns nationally. The program used incentives and recognition to combat falling test scores and student apathy.

After the school saw significant improvements in students’ grades and attendance, Jostens began sponsoring seminars around the country teaching administrators and students how to set up the program. More than 7,000 schools nationally have Renaissance programs, Jostens representatives said.

In the past year, seminars and word of mouth gave the program, which made its Orange County debut at Fullerton High School in 1990, a boost locally, said Dave Olbright, Jostens state captain for Renaissance.

He said he hopes to see Renaissance programs in at least eight more Orange County junior high and high schools by June.

“We’ve got a whole host of kids who are proud of their academic successes instead of shrugging it off,” Olbright said. “It gets them in a good frame of mind about being in school.”

Each school creates its own version of Renaissance, which can include spotlighting students at rallies, giving out gift certificates and discount cards donated by local businesses, handing out Renaissance T-shirts, or printing up coupons to skip a homework assignment or cut to the front of the cafeteria line.

“Incentives are substantially different from school to school,” Olbright said. “The program needs to be customized for kids to get involved.”

Students at most schools qualify for rewards by keeping their grades above a B average or improving their grade-point average by at least a half-point if they have a C average.

Cal State Fullerton education professor Ron Pahl said the Renaissance program is a good vehicle for recognizing students in all achievement ranges.

“In a program like this, anybody who’s doing work is recognized,” Pahl said. “It’s a neat way to really infuse interest in students and get them to stay in school.”

The program’s accessibility to all students, not just high achievers, gives it widespread appeal, said John F. Kennedy High School Principal Norie Atherton, who hopes to bring Renaissance to her school next year.

“It focuses on the middle-range student,” she said. “We have about one-third of the student body that are doing super, but they never get any recognition because there are so many of them. They deserve something and we need to let them know we appreciate them.”

Besides improving grades and attendance, Fullerton High School principal Cindy Ranii said she has seen increased community involvement and parent satisfaction.

Fullerton High, which doesn’t have rallies but offers weekly prize giveaways, received more than $41,000 from local businesses last year for Renaissance incentives and saw a 31% increase in student satisfaction since 1990.

By increasing business involvement in schools, Renaissance also attracts the attention of the entire community and encourages people who may not have children in school to take an interest in education, said Mike Martelli, a Jostens sales representative for Orange County.

Their involvement gives schools much-needed private support and allows businesses to have their names associated with a positive program, he said.

Students say they’re just happy to be recognized for good grades and feel good about doing well in school.

“Most kids don’t get rewarded by their families for getting good grades, and I’m one of them,” said Brookhurst eighth-grader Marisa Lengor, 13, of Anaheim. “Our school is actually rewarding us and the rewards are cool. It keeps you going.”

Because the program recognizes students before their friends and has useful prizes, it has become a desirable award, said Gabriel McGowan, 15, of Fullerton.

“It’s not something that’s considered ‘geeky,’ ” the Fullerton High sophomore said. “The stuff they give is for places you go a lot, or T-shirts people wear a lot. I’ve gotten some really nice stuff and my friends are surprised I got it at school.”