Julie Biddle, director of the satellite center at UD, explained that the accelerated schools model replaces remediation with stimulating engagement, higher expectations of students and teachers, and greater parent involvement. All students can learn and have an equal right to high-quality education. School staff and community cooperate by meeting, talking and learning from each other's experiences. Students engage in problem-solving exercises and interpretive approaches to lessons. Teachers and other adults analyze and consider ideas for school improvement.
Teachers begin experimental programs after discussing the school's problems.
Though some new programs may fail, the ones that succeed are the keys to lasting school improvement. It's an approach that seems to be working at Emerson Elementary in the Springfield Public Schools. Schneider started using some of the foundations of the accelerated schools model several years ago after meeting the movement's founder, who piloted the model in 1986 after evaluating the progress of education programs instituted in President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty in 1964. Now, not a day passes, Schneider says, without parents, Kiwanis Club tutors, college students and business people from the school's Partner in Education, Columbia Gas, helping in classrooms or doing individual tutoring or counseling. Because 95 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, Emerson receives funding through Title 1, a federal program designed to serve students at risk of not meeting the state standards in reading, math and language arts.