Popularity of Area Fundamental Schools Growing

“Number one?” asks a teacher going over homework assignments at Hollow Hills Fundamental Elementary School in Simi Valley.

“Complete!” the fifth-graders answer in unison.

“Number two?” the teacher asks.

“Complete!” they repeat again until they come to question number seven, and one of the students hasn’t finished that problem.

“Why not?” the teacher wants to know, not about to let an unfinished project pass by without a good reason. “Oh, OK, yes, we’ve talked about that. All right class, number eight?”

“Complete!” they say, and so on.

Enter the structured scenario of one of Ventura County’s five fundamental schools, which emphasize rigid homework regimens, dress codes and back to basics education.

Reacting to certain 1960s and 1970s teaching approaches that stressed open classrooms and offered choices to students, public school officials have been reshaping campuses across the state into ‘fundamental,” “structured” or “back to basics” schools.

The result has been schools with long waiting lists--and high marks from parents and teachers.

“Personally, I’m concerned society as a whole is lax and people are full of excuses,” said Hollow Hills Principal Leslie Frank. “It’s up to institutions to hold on to some of these values and teach that there isn’t always an excuse for everything. We teach, myself included, that you should own up to your mistakes.”

Some educators say the fundamental schools offer little more than a label to reassure concerned parents. And it is parents’ commitment to the programs, more than any changes in curriculum, that accounts for the schools’ popularity, they say.

“Ventura County is a case in point,” said Carol Kennedy, coordinator of the Distinguished Schools award program for the state Department of Education. “You’ve got a lot of conservative parents who want to emphasize something or react to something, like phonics. And they come up with a new school name. . . . It’s a reflection of the local political direction.”

Fundamental school advocates, though, say their schools offer more than just a label.

“You’d have to spend the whole day at my school to see a real difference,” said Judy Harding, principal of Camarillo’s El Rancho Structured School, where children must be accompanied by teachers everywhere, even to their buses after school. “All the parents here want their children to learn. They are afraid that if you don’t have tight discipline, more things will happen and kids will get involved with the wrong crowd.”

Reflection of Desire for Education Choices

In most districts, the fundamental campuses coexist with more liberal-minded schools, which, for instance, might do away with traditional grading systems or group children by skill rather than age.

Educators who tour the state say the seemingly bipolar approaches to education are a reflection of communities wanting--and receiving--choices.

There is no evidence that either type of school--strict or relaxed--produces better, smarter children.

But over the past decade, the dean of education at the University of Southern California has noticed a surge in communities wanting to improve student performance and retrieve local control. The result, he said, has been a return to fundamental values, sometimes with a bit of religious zeal mixed in.

“Over the 10-year perspective, there is a definite trend toward structure . . . at the expense of other electives and feel-good courses,” said Guilbert Hentschke.

Whether the trend is good or bad is still undetermined, he said.

But if it turns out that this strict system is turning out students who get good jobs and make good money, the truth will then be told, he said.

Hollows Hills Fundamental Elementary was one of nine Ventura County schools nominated for the 1998 California Distinguished School award last week.

But last year, Simi Valley’s Park View Elementary School--a neighborhood campus that groups children according to achievement instead of age and uses personal evaluations instead of grades--won the same award.

And as always, traditional public schools that demonstrate exemplary scores, teacher professionalism and creative approaches also win the prestigious state honor.

The experts do notice, however, one factor that is different about fundamental schools, and indeed any type of magnet school: If parents choose to take their child to a particular campus beyond their neighborhood, that means they already have bought into the school’s philosophy and are more willing to get involved in their children’s academic life.

And that, the educators and parents say, can only be good.

“There is a natural sifting element for any magnet,” said Simi Valley parent Coleen Ary, who sends her children to Hollow Hills Fundamental, where missing a homework assignment is not tolerated and children may not wear shorts or skimpy clothing. “You weed out the parents who aren’t as concerned. . . . The kids’ hair already will be combed.”

Ary said she is fearful of what will happen to her elementary schoolchildren when they graduate and go to a regular junior high. For years, she has been encouraging the school board to look into creating a fundamental middle school.

“There is a real alarm out there among parents who don’t want their kids to go to a regular junior high,” she said. “They’ll get free reign. Now they do an hour and a half of homework a night. They might come home in junior high and not have anything. Plus, there is no dress code and they will be in with kids whose parents don’t care as much. . . . I call it academic apathy.”

Principals of the fundamental schools agree the nature of the magnet program helps in their overall success, because--aside from a few extra rules here and there--their campuses, teachers, and certainly their core curriculum, are not that much different from other public schools.

What they do see is a remarkable show of parental support and involvement, with parents spending more time volunteering or working with children on homework and less time haggling over dress codes.

“There is 100% support at the fundamental schools,” said Janice DiFatta, president of the Simi Valley school board. “There are clear expectations, clear behavior and clear dress codes. It’s clear: If you do not follow the rules, you’re out of there.”

A basically homogenous clientele also helps in defraying friction and building a solid culture, which adds to a school’s overall success, educators say.

Waiting Lists at Several Area Schools

The schools have proved popular: Hollow Hills now has 60 to 100 students waiting to be admitted to each grade. Camarillo’s Los Primeros Structured School has 115 students on a waiting list for kindergarten this fall and another 55 for each of the other grades. In Ventura, at least 20 students have returned from private schools to attend the 2-year-old program at Will Rogers Basics Plus Elementary School.

These strict schools, however, are not for everyone.

A few parents pulled their children out of Will Rogers when the new, simple dress code went into effect, Principal Jose Montano said.

And one Hollow Hills mother pulled all four of her children out of the school when she had her fifth baby last year. She said the homework schedule--where parents must sit with their children each night, correct their work and sign off on their homework--was too much for her too handle.

Another Simi Valley mother took her two children out of the rigid setting of Vista Fundamental School. She said her child’s self-esteem began to erode because of the school’s demanding policy of redoing homework until the questions are answered correctly.

Even Hollow Hills Principal Frank said she tries to dissuade people from coming to the school if she believes they won’t like the rules.

“Some just say it’s more structured than they want,” she said. “People shouldn’t come here just because it’s convenient, and it’s right across the street. It just may not be the best answer for everyone.”

Selling the Fundamental Program

It’s not as if any California public school aims for academic failure, or tells its students to skip homework assignments or run in the halls.

So what, if anything, makes a fundamental school more structured than any other setting?

Basically, the ideology and the wording used to describe a fundamental school play a significant part in shaping the differences, said Kennedy, coordinator of the Distinguished Schools award program.

Like any other product, selling a fundamental program--in an age when many say the California public education system can’t compete with the strict private school environment--appeals to a certain niche, she said.

Kennedy said Hollow Hills’ written promise of promoting “American values” of “diligence, punctuality and personal responsibility” in its parental handout folders reveals buzz words that attract many Simi Valley moms and dads.

Fundamental schools began springing up statewide after 1976, when state legislation allowed for setting up magnet schools that would draw students from across school districts to special programs.

The strict schools were, in part, a reaction to a trend of teaching called “cooperative learning,” where students learned in group pods.

“That set a lot of parents off,” Kennedy said. “By God, set those seats in a row! they said. Why are they sitting together like that? they wanted to know. . . . And the schools became more like an academy.”

But there is no way to track exactly how many of these schools exist statewide, Kennedy said, because there is no formal definition for the terms fundamental, structured, basics or anything else for that matter.

Kennedy said one California school, which employs a similar discipline program and homework schedule, is known by the acronym TALENT, and another school refers to itself as the “Kingdom of Dunlapia.”

“There’s no consistency, other than back to basics, to what they call themselves,” Kennedy said.

Ventura County Supt. Charles Weis said based on a quick glance he would not know whether he was in a fundamental or traditional classroom. Of the 3,000 classrooms he has visited, Weis said all walls are plastered with art, all children are encouraged to finish their assignments and everyone says the pledge of the allegiance.

The difference lies in parents’ mind-sets, he said, making the analogy to buying a car: Consumers who buy Mustangs are happy with Mustangs. Those who buy Hondas, love their Hondas. It’s the same comparison to school shopping, Weis said. Parents usually believe the school they bought into is the best.

“Parents select a school because of the name,” he said. “The symbol gives us an emotion that makes us feel comfortable. . . . And this choice, apparently, has an effect on the commitment to the school.”

He also said these fundamental schools are not the answers to every problem. Recalling the old-style military schools, Weis said sometimes these schools are magnets for trouble kids who need more help in straightening out.

But Peggy Moro says she saw the results, first-hand, after sending her fifth-grader, David, to Hollow Hills.

“David is bright but will also take the easy way out . . .,” Moro said. “He has to be pushed the whole time. He likes it. He’s proud when he makes the honor roll.”