At Perspectives, raising self-esteem doesn't mean lowering standards. Students who forget homework spend their lunch period copying columns from the dictionary. We know when they're not doing well. And they have our phone numbers, and when they have problems with homework they call us. So there's never any reason to not have homework done.
Test scores indicate that the extra attention has made a difference.
More than half of Perspectives students entered the program with reading scores below grade level. By the spring of 7th grade, about a fifth were at grade level and about half were above. Among the lowest scorers, some had progressed two levels in a single year. D.C. While studying the branches of government, students wrote letters to Congress, visited a juvenile court and conducted their own murder trial. Creating opportunities beyond the classroom, the teachers talked a number of organizations, including WBEZ Radio and a family health clinic, into taking students in one day a month for internships.