The Street Academy, in contrast, has an egalitarian outlook, implemented every year in a thousand tiny decisions. The unstated implication of the consulting teacher system is that each adolescent is worthy of sustained individual attention from a school adult. The Street Academy curriculum is structured on the assumption that all students should be ready for college. Four days out of five are devoted to an unvarying set of academic subjects which all are expected to complete. Students enroll in three or four academic courses each quarter.
Classes are one hour and fifteen minutes long.
On the fifth day, students participate in intensive elective classes. Bicycling class trained for a trip from Northern California to Mexico last year. The Street Academy practices multiculturalism, which lauds the communities from which its students emerge. A majority of Street Academy staff have always been African-American and Latino. Asian, Latino, Native American, and African-American literature is thoroughly integrated into the curriculum alongside Shakespeare and Chaucer.