No Stress School is a Tough Sell

SCORES FOR ALL STATE STUDENTS MAKE MODEST GAINS BUT TROUBLING GAP PERSISTS

By Patty Fisher

Mercury News

Article Launched: 11/04/2008 05:56:41 PM PST
As Principal Louise Ostrov walked through a second- and third-grade classroom Tuesday at Christa McAuliffe School, a little girl in a tie-dyed shirt jumped up and waved.

"Hi Louise!" the girl called cheerily.

"We're on a first-name basis here," Ostrov explained.

McAuliffe teachers don't give grades or tests, but it's not some hippie private school. It's not a new, experimental charter school either.

It's a 30-year-old public school in the top-rated Cupertino Union district, one of four "alternative" programs the district offers. Parents used to have to camp out overnight to get their kids in. These days, there's no waiting list at McAuliffe. It's not even full. Parents have launched an outreach campaign to try to build enrollment.

Out of step?

In a district that has become a magnet for high-achieving families, McAuliffe seems out of step. It's the only school where children aren't encouraged to take state standardized tests. Fewer than half the kids take them, and the school's scores are below district average. And it's the only school in the district where white students outnumber Asian. Meanwhile, parents line up to get their kids into Faria Elementary, a back-to-basics alternative that always scores tops in the state.

With all the concern about depression and eating disorders linked to student stress, I hear from lots of parents — of all races — who are sick of testing and want schools where kids can get individual attention, explore and learn at their own pace. Yet, here is McAuliffe with empty seats. "In our society, we're very focused on results." said Pearl Hall, a parent of two McAuliffe students and two alums. "But we only count what we can count. We
miss a lot that we can't track."

Like all McAuliffe parents, Hall is expected to volunteer in the classroom. That frees teachers up to work with children individually and in small groups. "We're constantly assessing our students, their progress, their understanding," Ostrov said. Her students are encouraged to think for themselves, not just memorize answers, she says. They go on a
lot of field trips. They learn to garden and cook. With no grades — even in seventh and eighth grades — there's no incentive for kids to stress out or cheat.

And no incentive for teachers to teach to the test. McAuliffe's policy puts the district in a tough spot because No Child Left Behind penalizes districts for not testing kids.

Still, Trustee Pearl Cheng said the school board supports McAuliffe. "In stressed-filled Silicon Valley, programs like this can be a good option for some kids," she said.

The district doesn't keep statistics on where McAuliffe students go to college, but parents say their kids compete just fine in high school and beyond.

What struck me about the kids was how interested they were in their work, whether reading or experimenting with dry ice in a science lab. No one looked bored, not even the seventh-graders.

Parent Rick Kitson knows McAuliffe has a reputation as a "hippie school," but he calls it a "research magnet school" where children strive to understand, ask questions and think creatively. "There's a fallacy that it's somehow easier here, but it's actually more difficult because the kids are always engaged."

A school that keeps kids engaged without stressing them out? That shouldn't be tough to sell.