Every grade level in the elementary school has a stock of books - sets of about 40 titles per grade and enough for each child to borrow one of each. This is one less excuse. And then there is the bookstore. Students work the store as graphic ad designers, clerks, cashiers, security guards and book reviewers. Volunteer teachers advise young children and their parents on their choices.
Little children leaf through the pages, eyes brightening as they find a picture or a drawing.
Within minutes they have a small pile, and they want all of them. About 80 percent of P.S. 161's kindergartners can read. By second grade, fewer than 15 percent need help with reading. In fifth grade, more than half the students are scoring in the upper ranks. From here, many of P.S. 161's elementary school students advance to what is known as The Crown School - middle grades added six years ago by former principal Irwin Kurz to provide a small, rigorous middle school that would keep excellent students at P.S. 161 while getting them into New York's selective specialized high schools.