A student tells his teacher that he doesn't have his homework. He starts to offer an excuse, but is quickly cut off. "I don't want explanations," says Joyce Nishikawa, who teaches third grade at Bennett-Kew Elementary School in Inglewood. "Now go out to recess."
The student she scolded has made a habit of forgetting to turn in his homework lately, she says. "I do make exceptions sometimes because things happen. Sometimes students don't feel well. But students have to realize that doing well in school is their job. I want to teach them the responsibility of doing their homework, being on time and working together. I want to prepare them for a real job because eventually they will end up working at a job. If they look at school as being their job - and do well at it - they will be successful as adults."
It's obvious that excuses don't fly at Bennett-Kew. In fact, the school was one of 21 in the nation given a "No Excuses" award for being a high-poverty, yet high-performing school. Even though students are mostly poor and minority, teachers expect them to perform as well as or better than students from affluent neighborhoods.
And they do. Bennett-Kew has transitioned Hispanic children from "Limited English Proficient" designation to "Fluent English Proficient" at more than twice the statewide rate. Recognized by the California Department of Education as a "High Achieving Compensatory Education School" since 1982, Bennett-Kew has been featured on national television and has been visited by President George W. Bush, Gov. Gray Davis and other dignitaries who want to know the secret of the school's success.
"High expectations definitely play a big part in why children succeed here," says Nishikawa, a member of the Inglewood Teachers Association (ITA). "Students tend to strive to achieve whatever is expected from them."
"I think that when you have high expectations, you're constantly thinking that the sky is the limit, instead of thinking 'This is the best I can get,'" says Jonathan Chamberlain, a fourth-grade teacher who has been at the school for almost 18 years. "We tell the kids that we expect a lot from them because they are capable of a lot of hard work. When they know we are expecting them to do their very best, they don't become complacent. They know they won't be rewarded for doing the bare minimum."
Teachers at Bennett-Kew don't make excuses for themselves, either. "If you say, 'This is the best I can do,' it kind of gets you off the hook," says Chamberlain. "You don't have to come up with an alternative way to help students achieve. Sometimes teachers fall back on that. But it's never been allowed here."
Teachers believe in the philosophy of doing whatever it takes. If parents can't help with homework, teachers help students after school. Teachers say that they may not be able to control what happens outside of school, but they do have control over teaching and learning during the school day and will make the most of that time.
Student accountability is also a high priority at Bennett-Kew, says Adriana Perez, who has taught first grade for 10 years. "I tell students that nobody else is going to do it for them; they have to succeed on their own. I tell them that schoolwork and homework will help them learn and grow. Education will help them fulfill their dreams."
The school has a parent-teacher-student compact - or signed agreement - that spells out everyone's responsibility for teaching and learning. Students, for example, agree to come to school ready to learn. Parents agree to do whatever is necessary to support learning, such as providing a quiet place to study and do homework. And teachers vow to do their best for every student.
In order to reduce bad behavior, nearly all students wear uniforms - white shirts and navy blue pants. Peer mediators wear special T-shirts. Students are well-mannered, calling out "excuse me" while passing and a cheery "good morning" to visitors.
In addition to holding high expectations and providing accountability, the school is highly structured. Most students are reading at grade level. A visit to a kindergarten class showed students sounding out words such as "catch" and "shark" while reading from the white board. Because there are not enough computers to go around, students use portable word-processing keyboards, which can be connected to the classroom printer. High priority is placed on teaching keyboarding skills.
"Little computers can help little kids like us get ready for college," says Anthony Fortier, age 9, deftly typing his first draft of a journal entry.
"I had them typing the first week," notes his third-grade teacher Cindy Ratzlaff, a member of ITA. "I thought they'd be fearful, but they were really excited about it. They have gotten very sophisticated in their work. I really push them - beyond frustration sometimes - so they handle it well."
Students who don't keep up are retained. The school began the practice long before the state outlawed social promotion. Students who need an extra year of kindergarten are called "junior first graders" and have a full-day program, spending the early part of the day with the morning kindergarten teacher doing language arts and the latter part of the day with the afternoon kindergarten teacher.
"There's no stigma with junior first grade," says Sandra Schieldge, who teaches kindergartners and junior firsts. "We give them the gift of time. First grade is so demanding, like boot camp. This way they are really ready."
Despite the emphasis on academics, teachers still manage to squeeze in art lessons. Each month students study a different master and undertake projects that reflect the work of the artist they are studying. Nicole Minor, a third-grader, is eager to explain Picasso's cubism, Andy Warhol's repeating patterns and Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers.
In Nishikawa's class, students are creating their own interpretation of Van Gogh's
Starry Night
. "Rub in the chalk and smear it. Blend the black into the brown for a spooky feel," she urges. "Don't worry about doing it wrong. There's no such thing as wrong when it comes to art."
"I think it's really important that my students are well-rounded and exposed to different aspects of life," says Nishikawa. "With all the emphasis on test scores, it's hard to fit it all in. But we do the best we can."
Bennett-Kew was not always recognized for high achievement, says Schieldge, who has taught at the school for 31 years. But Schieldge and fellow ITA members credit the school's former principal, Nancy Ichinaga, with inspiring teachers to cause a dramatic turnaround in the learning curve.
"It wasn't a quick fix," says Schieldge. "When I first started teaching, there were no coordinated programs where everyone was expected to teach at grade level. One grade didn't connect into the next grade because there wasn't a set curriculum. There was 'progressive education' where kids were calling the shots, teachers were running around getting materials and there was no curriculum. It was a total disaster.
"In came this 95-pound Asian woman who was a dynamo. She looked around and said, 'This is not the way we're going to get kids to be successful.' One of things she said that amazed me was, 'I'm not running a school for dishwashers. These children will go to college.'"
At first teachers were skeptical when Ichinaga said teachers and administration would work together. "But she meant it. She believed in giving teachers a manageable situation, which means giving teachers everything they need to succeed. If we need construction paper, we get it. We budget our money well to have the supplies necessary to teach. We know what our priorities are and don't spend frivolously.
"As far as decision-making, we became a part of everything. Teachers weren't condemned for having problems; they were helped. It was a breath of fresh air. We found strong teachers at each grade level to work with other teachers in that grade level, but not in a threatening way. Teachers worked together and came up with ideas of how to make things more efficient. We learned classroom management techniques from each other. We were listened to."
Although Ichinaga has left the school to serve on the state Board of Education, the mindset continues with the current principal, Lorraine Fong.
"All decisions are based on what is right for the children," says Chamberlain. "If it won't help them succeed, the idea is nixed."
Decisions being made by administrators in the district office don't reflect this philosophy, however. Teachers say those at the top are punishing Bennett-Kew for its independent spirit by changing its schedule against the will of teachers.
Bennett-Kew's "E-Track," developed by teachers and not used at any other school in the district, is credited with boosting student achievement. The schedule allows students to start school in mid-August and have four weeks off at Christmas - and several weeks off in the summer - to accommodate Hispanic families that take extended vacations to Mexico. The E-Track has cut down on absenteeism and increased ADA. But now, for no apparent reason, Bennett-Kew has been told to change to a more traditional calendar year.
District administrators are also trying to change the school from a single-track to a multi-track schedule, even though the campus is not overcrowded. Teachers say they fear this could jeopardize the close-knit environment of the campus as well as teachers' time to collaborate.
"This makes us feel horrible," says Ratzlaff. "We feel like we're being forced to take a step backward in the face of progress. We have worked so hard to raise standards and educate children at this inner-city school - and the district is fighting us."
However, says Ratzlaff, "We are teachers, and we will do our best to make this work. We don't ever want to go back to the way things were."
