This charter school makes the grade

16 November 2001

What is the secret of the Academy of the Pacific Rim? The Hyde Park charter school had zero - that's right, zero - failures on this year's all-important 10th-grade MCAS.

A fluke perhaps? That class, now in the 11th grade, was the first ever for the five-year-old school and has but 11 students. But overall, the Academy, now with 295 students, has for three years ranked third among the city's public schools on MCAS, just behind two of Boston's elite exam schools. Ever since it was founded, its students have consistently improved by more than a full grade on the nationally administered Stanford 9 exam.

Why is it succeeding where so many other urban schools fail?

My first guess was that it had to be the physical plant. For years, the educational establishment has been urging us to spend millions upgrading schools, giving kids every amenity possible. The Academy's indoor pool, many playing fields, gymnasium, 500,000- volume library - those must be the things that made the difference.

Except there is no pool or anything else of that kind. Until last year, the Academy was in cramped and far-flung quarters: the second floor of a Catholic school on Hyde Park Avenue, a rehabbed barber shop across the street and a third space a mile away.

Then it moved to Westinghouse Plaza, a small industrial park. It now rents two floors; its neighbors include an ambulance company, offices and a sheet metal warehouse. The classrooms are clean but spartan. Frills are minimal.

OK, if it's not the physical plant, then it must be the well-paid teachers, the small class sizes and the mandatory certification of all staff.

Wrong. Except for the 11th grade, classes average 28 students. Teachers are drawn from all walks of life. They receive a salary and bonus that - if the bonus is paid - is about equal to the salary of a teacher in the Boston Public School system. That's a big if, by the way. Bonuses are tied to student performance. If the students don't learn, the bonus isn't paid.

In fact, measured on an hourly basis, teachers are paid a lot less. The Academy's school day is two hours longer than the norm and its school year extends through July - a full six weeks extra.

Well, then, I thought, it must be the kids themselves: a select group drawn from the upper end of the socio-economic scale, the kind of kids whose parents read to them while in the womb and push them to excel at everything.

Wrong again. Kids are chosen randomly. Half the students are living in poverty. Over 75 percent of the student body is non-white: 65 percent African-American, 5 percent Asian and 5 percent Hispanic.

Perhaps then, the secret is that the Academy is a neighborhood school. Neighborhood schools have been a shibboleth for Boston pols ever since mandatory busing was first introduced in the early 1970s.

Nope. Only 38 percent of the Academy's students come from Hyde Park. Located almost on the southern border of Boston, the Academy is terrifically inconvenient to get to; students often have to travel long distances each day. This seems to be the kind of school for which parents and kids willingly will cross the city.

Is it simply that the Academy "teaches to the test," drilling kids day after day in the art of using No. 2 pencils to fill in circles?

Not that it's apparent.

But the school does require all students to take Mandarin Chinese and Tai Chi. Neither, for those of you who haven't been following the MCAS closely, is on the state's exam. In fact, the school's curriculum is drawn in large measure from programs such as the International Baccalaureate and the Advanced Placement curricula.

So, then, why does the Academy succeed?

Because it's a place to learn.

All students finish algebra by the eighth grade. Every grade reads Shakespeare's plays. There is a continuous emphasis on effort, with daily rewards for trying, weekly report cards and constant communication with parents. Students are responsible every day for cleaning the school building as well as setting up and serving lunch. "Gambatte" - a Japanese word meaning, "persist, don't give up" - is an ever-present cheer. All students keep a journal where they chart their accomplishments. They meet each Friday with an adviser to assess where they are and what they should be doing to improve.

By doing all of these things, the school relentlessly creates, in the words of Spencer Blasdale, its director, a "culture of achievement." The thought is that if students constantly strive to succeed they will succeed.

Imagine that. I'm sure an attractive physical plant, small classes, close-by schools and well-paid teachers are all nice things to have. But as the Academy is proving year after year, what really matters is learning.