A School Where a G-Word Ranks With the 3 Rs

Discussions of accountability and goals generate all the excitement of cafeteria meals in most schools. But few schools put goal-setting into practice with the fervor of Bunche Elementary School in Carson.

The campus is literally decorated in goals. Principal Mikara Solomon requires every student to write them. What will they accomplish this year? What will they do when they grow up? And which college will they attend? She asks them to be specific.

Christian, a fourth-grader, lists his in some detail. (His goals, like those of other children, are presented precisely as written):

“1. My goal is to pass to fifth grade. 2. The college that I will be in is UCLA because when I was in third grade my teacher take me there. 3. My goal for my life is to be a soccer player. to be the best of the best of the world. 4. My final goal is to help the poor people so that they won’t be sleeping in the street. 5. My final goal is to be a millioner and give money to my family and have Big houses with pool and stuff like that.”

Timothy, a fifth-grader, also has an elaborate plan:

“My goal this year is to pass fifth grade, go to Enterprize [Middle School] as I may get a heard start on college and I will be able to pass to college and go to graduate school and learn about life itself. I’ll go to USC and learn algebra and algebra two. Also algebra 3, 4, 5, and six. My long term goal is to go to graduate school and learn how to the play the drums. How to play the piano. How to have a good life. And to get married. Have children. that was my long-term goal.”

Setting goals “makes them focus like no other exercise I’ve seen,” says Thaddisa Fulwood, a second-year teacher at Bunche. “You get all these conversations breaking out about the future.”

Teachers must post the goals in their classrooms, on what she calls “goals walls.”

Solomon, in just the first weeks of school, began walking through classrooms to remind students to formulate their goals. Some instructors submit their own. Parents read the students’ goals and are asked to sign contracts promising to help.

The principal--who started using the goal sheets as a method of discipline when she was a teacher--also writes one. She also has posted her main objective--a huge rise in student test scores--on a sign out front.

The campus serves a poor student body; English is unfamiliar to many. But despite the obstacles, an afternoon spent reading through the goal sheets shows this much: Elementary school students aim high. A substantial majority expect to become upwardly mobile professionals such as doctors and lawyers.

Many see themselves enrolling at UCLA or an Ivy League school. Solomon likes to chat up first-graders about Harvard and UCLA, where the school’s namesake, the statesman Ralph J. Bunche, earned degrees.

In Ramon Richardson’s first-grade class, students have given names to the tables, based on college preferences. There’s a Princeton table, a Yale table and a Harvard table.

In other grades, students are just as ambitious:

“My goal this year is to score high on my SAT nine test. The college that I would like to attend is USC to study sea animals. My long term goal is to be a sea biologist and the President of the United States of America.”

--Brittnei, fifth grade

“My goal for this year is to try not to talk to others when I am working. I also want to read all four Harry Potter books. And I want to go to Harvard College to learn a lot.”

--Eurrica, third grade

“My goal for this school year is to be an example to all of the other children in a lower grade than I am. I would like to attend UCLa to study Biology and Science. My long term goal is to achieve as many goals as I can. First I will finish high school. Then I will finish college. After that I will finish graduate school. But I will still have other goals.”

--Andre, fifth grade

The odds, unfortunately, are against most of these students ever reaching their lofty goals. Students at Bunche, even after recent improvements, rank in the 30th percentile nationally on standardized tests (their principal’s goal is to raise that to the 70th percentile).

In the Compton Unified School District, of which Bunche is a part, only 178 of more than 1,000 high school seniors even bothered to apply to a four-year college. The school district sent 29 students to University of California campuses this fall. And that is double the number of UC students from Compton the previous year.

Solomon and Bunche teachers say such statistics demonstrate why it’s so important to raise expectations and, yes, set goals.

For all the misspellings, grammatical errors and sometimes unrealistic aspirations, the goals provide a reason for hope--and hard work.

“My goal for the school year is to go to fourth grade. My goal for life is to be a cosmologist and cut boys hair. The college I will attend is Spelman in Atlanta.”

--Rozlyn, third grade

“My goals is to be a superhiro. I could have my own Super R. I will be the hiro uf eth. I will be the namber one super hero. I wot to help pipo and save pipo. I want to get the bat pipo and I wot to save the eth.”

--Ramon, fourth grade

“This year, I hope to learn and read and spell and wright and math. I will go to Brown University. I will respect others.”

--Uakialton, second grade

“My goal is to respect big persons.”

--Genesis, fourth grade