Pueblo – In principal Lawrence Hernandez’s small corner office at César Chávez Academy, desks and chairs are piled with color-coded test results, student schedules and manuals about the science of reading. Awards and children’s photos cover the walls.
On a recent morning, Hernandez signs papers for assistants and gives a quick hug and pep talk to Lauren, his 9-year-old daughter who is a student.
Then he turns to fourth-grader Lorenzo Mondragon, a spiky-haired 9-year- old, and preps him to do the morning announcements, including a reminder of the test-taking skill of the week: “fact and opinion.”
At 8 a.m., when the first bell chimes, it’s followed by Hernandez’s enthusiastic voice over the intercom: “Good morning, César Chávez Academy students and staff. It’s another great day at CCA.”
And so another rigorous day of learning begins at what is arguably the most distinguished K-8 charter school in Colorado. Here, the work of educating children is serious.
There is an unrelenting focus on raising performance on the Colorado Student Achievement Program, or CSAP, even among students who are already categorized as “advanced.” Instruction is highly focused – particularly in reading. Teacher accountability is high. All students are being groomed for college.
“Our kids have so many needs,” Hernandez said. “We don’t have a moment to waste.”
Indeed, the charter school serves a population that in many districts is least likely to thrive. Of roughly 600 students enrolled, 65 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, and 80 percent are Latino.
Yet they are successful. On the 2005 CSAP, which measures how well students meet state standards for reading, writing, math and science, 100 percent of the school’s third- and fifth-grade students were reading at or above grade level.
And last year, CCA was the only elementary school – and one of just two middle schools – in Pueblo 60 School District to receive an “excellent” rating on the School Accountability Reports, an annual report card the state issues on each of Colorado’s public schools.
“A lot of charters are strong in student performance, but given the population they serve in Pueblo, that’s caught people’s attention,” said Jim Griffin, executive director of the Colorado League of Charter Schools. “Traditional, middle-class Anglo families from the other side of town are trying to get in there.”
The school, named for the late American farmworkers’ rights leader, is in its fifth year. Hernandez, a Pueblo native and former Harvard University educator, founded the school in 2001 with his wife, Annette, in Pueblo’s working-class Hyde Park neighborhood.
But their success hasn’t been without controversy. For the past four years, the school and district have had such a hostile relationship that Hernandez is seeking state approval to cut ties with Pueblo 60 and became a state-run charter school.
This year, after a handful of parents alleged that Hernandez encouraged students to cheat on the CSAP exam, the district launched an investigation into CCA’s testing practices.
The district’s director of assessment, John Brainard, said an investigation could not prove there had been any cheating.
Hernandez, who says he is more focused on education, attributes CCA’s success to a program that is heavy on tutoring, frequent evaluations to gauge where each student is academically, and regular practice with CSAP skills.
For example, twice a year, Hernandez has students do “writing on demand” exercises where he’ll walk into a classroom and give students a topic to write about on the spot.
Ann Beshany, the school’s literacy coordinator, said students are tested in every subject area every eight weeks. Teachers use results to set goals and determine what’s needed for students who are behind.
Throughout the school, learning is active. On a recent Monday, a group of second-graders learned about Louis Pasteur’s rabies vaccine and made fake scabs. Next door, another group danced to an R.E.M. song, “Stand,” to learn about directions.
In a fourth-grade Spanish class, kids answered the question: “¿En donde juegas?” (Where do you play?) In an eighth-grade honors science class, students studied the luster, density and breakage properties of various rocks.
And in a small corner classroom, 9-year-old Aaron Garcia sounded out the words in a story while Janelle Espinoza, one of a dozen CCA tutors, took notes.
“If these kids are reading at their level and they’re reading well, they can do well in every class,” she said.
After school, students remain active, playing instruments in the “Mariachi Aguila” band, dancing in “Folklorico Aguila,” or participating in wrestling.
For teachers, who work on lessons from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day, 205 days a year, in addition to tutoring students after school and on Saturdays, the pace is as rigorous.
“Teachers are highly accountable to making sure kids don’t fall through the cracks,” said Hernandez, who has fired six teachers over five years. “If you’re the kind of person who says, ‘I don’t want to work under this kind of intensity,’ this isn’t a good place (to teach).”
Nancy Gordon, a third-grade writing and science teacher, tells new teachers not to “look at this as a career,” but rather, “you should look at this as a mission and a calling.”
Pueblo native Jennifer Castro said she wishes she had had the same opportunity as her daughters – Darian, 9, and Logan, 6 – to attend CCA.
“When you choose to bring your child to a school like this,” she said, “you do have hope for them.”
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-820-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
