Ahead of the Curve

Three schools. Three fresh ideas for getting kids hooked on learning.

Building Civic Pride

In the push to improve education, test scores get most of the attention. That, many educators say, obscures other ways in which children can be inspired to learn. Here is a report card on the innovative methods three schools use to ensure students make the grade.

The school. Fairview Elementary School sits smack in the gang-infested south side of Modesto, California, where the spicy scent of taquerias mixes with a slaughterhouse's stench.

Fairview, with some 1,000 students from kindergarten through sixth grade (about 80 percent of them Latino), has long suffered from discipline problems, poor test scores, and a near total lack of parental involvement. The difficulties aren't surprising given that many of the parents -- immigrants who work on farms or in factories -- speak little or no English.

The strategy. Since 2002, Fairview Elementary School has been a First Amendment School, one of 97 developed across the country by the nonpartisan First Amendment Center. The idea behind the five-year-old program: To keep America strong, children must be trained to respect many points of view, weigh complex issues, and understand the five freedoms (speech, religion, press, assembly, petition) guaranteed by the Constitution's First Amendment. As students learn good citizenship, the theory goes, they'll develop the skills and attitude to excel academically.

The program has no set curriculum; participating schools commit to adding hands-on lessons in civics and community building to their usual academic fare. The only money involved: modest grants -- $12,000 a year in Fairview's case. Teachers participate in conferences to learn how to incorporate debate and critical thinking into their normal class routine.

Fairview students enjoy democratic "freedoms" other kids might envy (they voted to banish school uniforms, for example). But the children don't just exercise rights. They also accept such responsibilities as speaking up during class discussions, and keeping the school clean and safe (Fairview is rated the cleanest of 33 schools in its district). In one departure from tradition, there's no hand-raising in class. "Instead," says teacher Deborah Supnet, "we teach them to listen for when the other child stops talking." Call it an exercise in respect.

Signs of success. Last year, the number of students deemed proficient or advanced in math doubled, from 15 to 30 percent. Suspension rates dropped 50 percent. And Fairview graduates in their first middle-school trimester averaged B grades; 96 percent passed all subjects. Particularly encouraging to principal Rob Williams, the school now has an active parents' group, Padres con Voz (Parents With a Voice). One of those parents, Laura Malagon, credits the program for convincing her to play a more active role in her children's school life. First Amendment seminars, she says, "opened my brain like a cork from a bottle."

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