Teachers are doing all their planning together, and we are norming consistent standards of assessment. We emphasize writing across the entire curriculum. And it helps that we're aligning with California's new frameworks and assessment. With a 13 percent student turnover rate, Lincoln no longer rests on the stability of suburbia. Instead, despite adverse circumstances that would have thrown many institutions into disarray, this school has developed a new kind of unity, founded on a more inclusive style of teaching and learning.
Some administrators now teach in the classroom.
A collaborative system of decision-making is in its early stages. Parents come regularly to workshops, in Spanish and English, on issues of early adolescence. Community mentors work with at-risk students. The actual earthquake, it seems, is now mere metaphor. Daily, Lincoln walks the fault line of change.