Dishon Ware, pre-kindergartner at Brentwood Elementary School, eats breakfast at the school, where 95 percent of the students are on a free or reduced lunch program. On a recent Thursday, as the children line up for bagels and boxes of Froot Loops, several dart over to give Johnson a hug, whisper an urgent message or show off a new shirt. Brentwood Elementary may seem an unlikely success story. It's in a low-income neighborhood with a history of frequent crime.
Many students live in a public housing complex.
Ninety-five percent of all students qualify for free or reduced breakfast and lunch, one of the highest rates in the Duval County school system. Yet the school of 405 students is flourishing. May. Basic skills test scores at the school have increased at nearly all grade levels, sometimes dramatically. By 1996, only 44 percent scored better. In doing so, they more than doubled their scores infour years.