Campus, Charter Schools Team Up to Prep Kids for College

Scholarship is taken seriously at the California College Preparatory Academy, a charter school initiated with the help of UC Berkeley.

In a sixth-grade science class, Stephen Andrews, a UC Berkeley lecturer, calls each of his students “Doctor” and has child-size lab coats on hand for “serious thinking” and experiments.

It has been a year since charter school organization Aspire Public Schools, in partnership with UC Berkeley, first opened the Oakland school for sixth- and seventh-graders. The school will continue to expand each year until reaching grade 12.

Late last month, the Oakland Space Exploration Academies—a second charter program through the non-profit Space Science Outreach and Research, UC Berkeley College of Engineering, NASA and other community organizations—opened both a middle school and high school on site, with 50 sixth-grade and 20 ninth-grade students.

While UC Berkeley has a long history of education outreach, the recent partnerships with charter schools allow for more direct involvement at the schools to ensure that students are more prepared for college.

“The idea is to raise expectations and to raise the bar for students,” said Gail Kaufman, deputy director of the UC Berkeley Office of Educational Partnership. “It’s a high-demand environment, while providing a tremendous amount of support.”

The public charter schools were established with contracts with the Oakland Unified School District, which oversees the schools to ensure compliance with the initial charters.

Charter schools must comply with state standards, but they have more freedom with curriculum and may have numerous outside sponsors in addition to the state funding received for daily attendance.

Neither school requires an entrance exam and any student in the area can apply.

As part of the early college program at CAL Prep, students can take college classes as electives while still in middle or high school. By graduation, students can potentially earn up to 60 credits.

“The task that we are setting ourselves is that students develop a strong academic identity, but also that students believe that college is where they should be going and that they have the skills to succeed,” said Frank Worrell, professor from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education and co-director of research and development for CAL Prep.

Throughout the school day and after school, undergraduate and graduate students work as tutors and teaching assistants in the classroom.

“They would really look up to undergrad students not only as people

that know material but also as personal mentors,” said Adrian Down, a senior math and physics double major and a teaching assistant at CAL Prep.

For many students the special opportunities for field trips, summer programs and performances made possible through the campus partnership is one of the draws to the school.

“I really enjoy it,” said seventh-grader Ebnae Webb, who serves as an ambassador for visitors to the school. “They teach, but they try to make it fun.”

Similarly, the Space Academies, with NASA and community service groups, hopes to host astronauts and lead service days and field trips to UC Berkeley. Eventually the College of Engineering hopes to bring students to campus for internships, said George Gagnon, director of the Cal Pre-Engineering Partnership program.

While the space academies have only been able to prepare for the school year since its charter was approved in June, it has created a personalized academic plan for each student. The school will add a grade each year until it reaches a full middle school and high school.

“By really monitoring where the kids are at we are able to create something really customized,” said Camron Gorguinpour, executive director of a non-profit science educational organization that holds the space academy’s charter. “We are treating each kid as an individual and they are going to learn.”

In the same way, CAL Prep eighth-grader Chris Summers, 13, said his time at the charter school has not only increased expectations but also his performance.

“My homework is a lot harder, but at this school I feel like they are helping me a lot, and I’m not getting into any trouble,” he said.

Overall, parents said the charter schools have motivated their children to challenge themselves and look forward to college.

“The expectations are really good in terms of they expect kids to graduate and they require kids to do well,” said James Summers, Chris’ father. “Their attitude is failure is not an option.”

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