CAT's leaders hammer on what they call leadership skills, creating team projects that build reading and writing proficiency and push kids to formulate tightly organized arguments. It's like blending the passion of Sting with the logic of Perry Mason. So, Raquel reads about environmental problems and learns computer graphics while remaking her apartment building. Or, one morning Johnson's class took sides debating health care reform, after studying a variety of evidence on all sides (several kids railed against doctors' high salaries).
CAT's teachers say that they simply care about their students' growth. "You don't just let kids fail," Johnson explains. "We keep track of each kid."
CAT, like any high school, operates under certain rules. But these dictates guide the quality of classroom conversations. Johnson, for example, gently calls out students if they spout off arguments without citing a credible source. "You can get louder," Johnson tells her students. "But it's better to use your evidence."
"Teachers here really care about whether you learn," 10th-grader Pablo told me one day. "It's small. If we have a debate, everyone has a chance to speak up."
Eager moms and dad filled classrooms one chilly evening last month to hear their kids argue over who was the greatest leader of the Mexican Revolution. Each student made a case in English and Spanish. A clutch of lanky boys stood in the back, listening intently as each went before their families, armed with note cards, then projecting a video montage of their favorite revolutionary, followed by rumbling applause from proud parents.
This teacher magic pays off in measurable results. Three-fifths of CAT students come from poor homes, but about half score at proficient or advanced levels on state tests. A remarkable four-fifths of all seniors enter a four-year college.
Bruce Fuller is professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley. Lynette Parker is a UC Berkeley graduate student.
This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/17/IN9C1BGRJ0.DTL#ixzz0eP9Sxlyu
