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On a warm October morning, Henry begins school with Life Skills, a required class. When it ends, he waits by the door for his friend Jessica Martinez, who greets him with a hug and then lays her head on his shoulder. Two other girls come to join her, and Henry leaves to go to French 3.
Class is conducted in a mix of English and elementary French, with almost all of the French coming from the teacher, Richard Jessel. The students go over an assignment in which they wrote two- and three-word sentences, such as "She walks" and "You are working." Henry -- known here as Henri -- seems among the more advanced, whispering prompts to a girl next to him when she is called on to speak. Jessel, a veteran teacher who grew up partly in France, is patient, never condescending, but clearly frustrated. "They're not really ready for French 3, but they're here," he said.
Where would they be in a standard French curriculum? "I'd place them in the middle of my second semester of French 1," he said. "There's not a lot of willingness to study at home, not a lot of motivation." The students are also shy, he said, fearful of sounding stupid. And there is almost no chance that any have traveled to French-speaking countries.
Henry spends lunch working with another student on a project for their English class. Afterward, he has Introduction to Sociology, a project-based class that seems impressively stimulating, and Geometry, which he is repeating. Since Jefferson is on a block schedule, his other classes are on alternate days: Honors U.S. History, Honors American Literature, Chemistry and Algebra 2. Henry takes no Advanced Placement classes, a disadvantage when he applies to college. But it's hardly a slacker's schedule.
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Let's confront a hard truth. Any visitor to your two schools can't help but notice that the La Canada students, while hardly perfect, seem more focused, more driven to succeed than the average student at Jefferson. It's something that deeply frustrates Juan Flecha, the Jefferson principal. "They're such nice kids," he said of his pupils, adding: "They're so unmotivated." Flecha understands where they're coming from. He grew up poor, 10 blocks from Jefferson.
Flecha makes no excuses. Although he has presided over a sharp increase in test scores, he volunteered that only 27% of his students graduate in four years and only 16% take a college prep curriculum. "That's terrible," he said. But he speaks compassionately about the challenges they face: failing elementary and middle schools. Collapsing families. Entrenched poverty. Epidemic violence. On the first day of class this year, at 10:30 a.m., a man with an AK-47 was spotted firing shots a half-block from campus.
