Talk about getting back to basics:
The elementary school with the top student test scores in the state, located in Tarpon Springs, uses a strict approach. Parents must be involved. Students must behave. If parents and students don't play by the rules at Tarpon Springs Fundamental School, children can be transferred out. The school led the state this year in test scores...Its performance - 100 percent of its kids made the highest scores in writing - makes many schools drool with jealousy.Now, Hillsborough County public school educators plan to duplicate some elements of the school's unique approach this fall at three elementary schools being converted to fundamental academies. The elementary schools - Just, Potter and Booker T. Washington - are all in poor neighborhoods...
But based on early plans, parents should not expect the Hillsborough version of fundamental schools to be a mirror image of those in Pinellas County. Hillsborough's fundamental schools will be organized and run much differently than those in the neighboring county.
In Pinellas, the rules at fundamental schools are more strict, and children who do not follow them are moved elsewhere. But in Hillsborough, the rules will not be so explicit...
The article refers to the proposed Hillsborough rules as "squishy," but I don't know if I agree. I do find it interesting that it is explicitly stated that schools should have the right to transfer problematic children. Indeed, this is cited as one of the primary reasons for why the Pinellas system works.
Tarpon Springs Fundamental School is described in more detail here. The school policies are here. Note that while the weapons policy is saner than most (i.e., it's got to be a gun, or look just like one, to be considered a weapon), there's zero tolerance for bad behavior, missed homework, and trashy clothes (even parents must adhere to the dress code when on school grounds).
Posted by kswygert at July 11, 2005 07:18 AM