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"We don't want to love children into failure,"
Friday, July 23, 2004 · Last updated 12:09 a.m. PT
Virginia school aims to build character
By SONJA BARISIC
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Specialist Amanda Schorn visits with 2nd grade students Jazmin Chapman, 7, and Fareed Salahuddie, 8, after the completion of morning assembly at "An Achievable Dream school" in Newport News, Va., in this Jan 29, 2004 file photo. The magnet school, which takes inner-city kids and teaches them how to set a formal table, resolve conflict and speak proper business English as well solve math problems. (AP Photo/Daily Press/Adrin Snider
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Students walk into school, greet waiting teachers with a hearty look-you-in-the-eye handshake and assemble in the gym. There, they stand at attention, say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the national anthem under the watch of soldiers from nearby Fort Eustis, who also inspect the kids to make sure they're wearing their proper uniforms.
A few children pass around a microphone and take turns leading the group in shouting slogans such as "I am someone special" and "Believe in yourself."
Thus began a recent day at the magnet school, which takes inner-city kids and teaches them how to set a formal table, resolve conflict and speak proper business English as well as solve a math problem. After only a five-week summer break, the students return to school Monday while most public schools in Virginia reopen in late August or September.
"What we're attempting to do is take these kids with great potential and make sure they realize it," said Walter S. Segaloff, businessman and founder of An Achievable Dream. "We want to have productive, law-abiding, educated citizens."
Standardized test scores seem to indicate the school's approach is working, with officials saying they have closed the so-called achievement gap between minority and white children.
An Achievable Dream Academy even has caught the attention of U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, who visited in mid-June and lauded the school for demonstrating the power of education over poverty.
Other public school systems also are looking at An Achievable Dream as an urban educational model, school officials said. The Urban Learning and Leadership Center, the program's new consulting arm, has been contacted by school systems in Maryland, Indiana, Louisiana and elsewhere.
An Achievable Dream, located in the inner city, is a partnership among the Newport News public school system, the city and the local business community. It began in 1992 as a summer education and tennis program for about 100 fourth-graders, becoming a full-time school in 1994.
Nearly 1,000 children are enrolled in the program, which consists of a preparatory school for kindergarten through second grade, An Achievable Dream Academy for third through eighth grade and a high school component.
Ninety-six percent of the students are black. Most live in the city's poorest neighborhoods and many come from single-parent households. All qualify to receive free or reduced-cost lunches when they enter the program. The fathers of two students recently were murdered, school officials said.
Character education is the cornerstone of the program, which emphasizes integrity, honesty, courage, patriotism and respect for one's self and others. Banners with motivational phrases and school rules hang throughout the building.
"It's a safe place where you're going to be nurtured," said John Hodge, academy director.
But, he added, discipline and structure are key.
"We don't want to love children into failure," he said.
Some students said they didn't like some parts of the program, such as having to wear uniforms or sometimes having school on Saturdays.
"I don't like being here that long," Christal Peeples, 10, said last month of the academy's 8 1/2-hour days, compared with the typical 6 1/4-hour days in most public schools. The kids also attend school 210 days a year instead of the minimum 180 days required by state law.
But the kids said in interviews in June that they liked their teachers. "They don't make it hard, and we get to learn stuff," said Robjea Mitchell, also 10.
They also said they liked playing the only sport at the school, tennis, which is a requirement. The idea is that tennis teaches discipline and good sportsmanship, doesn't require a lot of expensive equipment and is something the students can play throughout their lives.
Eighty percent of the students passed the 2003 Virginia Standards of Learning tests, compared with 85 percent statewide for white students and 60 percent statewide for black students, according to the school.
Results on 2004 scores available so far showed 100 percent of the students passed algebra I and geometry, 93 percent passed eighth-grade writing and 86 percent passed the fifth-grade writing test.
About 90 percent of the program's high school graduates have gone to college, with the rest joining the military.
Rick Weigel, CEO of the Peninsula Alliance for Economic Development, said local businesses support An Achievable Dream because the program does a good job preparing children for work.
"I've been at a number of private and public schools, and I've never seen a school environment like that with those age levels where the kids were so well-behaved and so well-mannered," Weigel said. "It's hard to take a tour and keep a dry eye."
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On the Net:
An Achievable Dream Academy: dunbar.nn.k12.va.us, achievabledream.com
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