Joanne Jacobs comments on the Preuss charter school in San Diego which has the right approach for poor kids - brutality:
The school is an intensive college-preparatory school for low-income students in grades 6-12, most of them minorities and all of them required to prove they would be the first in their families who would graduate from college.
This spring's high-stakes college admission season for the school's first graduating class has given Preuss powerful evidence that it is achieving its ambition...
About two-thirds of the first graduating class gained admission to the University of California system, including its most prestigious campus, Berkeley. Students have been accepted at Dartmouth College, New York University, Spelman College and Claremont McKenna College. All but five of the 55 students in the class won admission to four-year institutions...
Preuss (rhymes with choice) promises its 750 students the kind of education that will allow them to succeed in a college admissions process that makes no concessions for race or ethnicity. It also promises to be an example for schools across the state and country struggling to improve the education of poor, minority students...
One word characterizes Preuss: more. The school year is nearly a month longer. The school day is an hour longer. Classes are intense, scheduled in every-other-day blocks that run for 1 hour, 42 minutes, rather than the typical 55 minutes. Some students return for Saturday-morning sessions.
One senior, David Iaea, who is headed to New York University, says with a nod toward the brutal schedule, "College will be a breeze after Preuss".
Good for Preuss for taking an approach that "makes no concessions for race or ethnicity." As Joanne notes:
Not everyone makes it through. But those who do will be the first in their families to attend college.
Posted by kswygert at May 11, 2004 02:31 PM