Rethinking Schools: Scenes From the Front Line of Education Reform in L.A. : Lincoln’s Learning Curve Builds on Learning Cores : Groups of 100 to 150 students are led by three or four teachers at the Santa Monica middle school. Close interaction helps tailor instruction to their needs.

Morning break time at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica. Jim Pitcher, wearing a gilt paper hat, is distributing chocolates wrapped in gold foil to many of the 150-plus students he shares with three other teachers.

The treats are rewards for seventh-graders in the Gold Core who promptly returned parent questionnaires sent home the day before. Although this lighthearted moment may seem unimportant, the technique is one small manifestation of a guiding principle at Lincoln: Give all 1,050 students lots of personal attention and a sense of belonging.

“One of the failings of secondary schools is that they are not connected to kids’ lives,” said Principal Ilene Straus, the leader of a staff that has worked several years to make Lincoln “a place kids want to be.”

Lincoln’s sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders are organized in color-coded teams, called cores. Each core of 100 to 175 students reflects a mix of abilities and has its own section of the campus. Cores are led by a team of three or four teachers who coordinate lessons, discuss pupils’ progress and confer with parents.

Classroom desks are arranged in small groups so students can work together, reflecting a hands-on learning, teacher-as-coach approach. One morning, the Purple Core brainstormed questions they could use to get to know classmates better. On another part of the campus, the Green Core began a yearlong study of civilizations by creating one of its own.

Straus said the core approach has “changed the entire school culture” by allowing teachers to get to know a relatively small group of students very well and tailor instruction to their needs. She said the faculty is planning to take the concept a big step further by forming “houses,” groups of students and teachers who would remain together throughout the three years of middle school.

The teams arrangement has helped the school attain a nurturing, family approach to educating youngsters during the turbulent years of early adolescence, providing consistency in discipline, classroom management and academic accountability, Straus said.

And it has created a collaborative, cooperative atmosphere among the staff. Early in the school year, for example, Straus called a lunchtime meeting of the eighth-grade Red Core teachers. In 20 minutes, offering their observations and ideas between bites of sandwiches, the group shuffled pupil assignments to resolve class size, academic balance and scheduling problems.

They also broke up a small knot of students found that morning shaking down classmates for lunch money. In addition, the team leaders decided on suspensions--plus a stern talk with a community relations police officer--for the young extortionists.

“It takes a lot more work, but I think the kids learn a lot more and get a lot more out of school,” said Pitcher, the science teacher who lobs chocolates to his team and is in his 37th year in the profession. “I was a very traditional teacher when I came here, totally focused on classroom control. Now I’m a totally different kind of teacher. I’m more excited about it now than ever before.”

Each team gives rewards--parties at lunchtime, bonus coupons, certificates--for students demonstrating responsibility and good citizenship. Students drifting toward academic trouble do not go unnoticed. A pupil who fails to bring in a homework assignment is required to stay after school the same day to complete it. A Saturday work and study program often is used in lieu of suspension, and there is an assistance center for students who need help with study and organizational skills.

Lincoln’s personalized approach can be seen in scores of other ways--schoolwide recognition for good citizenship and academic achievement, strong counseling services, links with community and service agencies and free, twice-monthly parent sessions, in Spanish and English, on issues of early adolescence.

Most of the changes have been made with no additional money. Straus gave up one of the school’s two assistant principal slots to hire another counselor and scrapes to find enough money for additional teacher training.

The efforts are paying off for the ethnically mixed school, whose students are 58% white, 21% Latino, 12% Asian American, 8% black and 1% Filipino. Discipline and attendance are better, test scores higher and parent involvement on the rise, said Straus, one of several staff members whose children attend the school.

“Our own observations of our classrooms tell us every day that things are different,” she added. Lincoln recently was named a California Distinguished School by the state Department of Education.

But perhaps the strongest testament comes from a parent whose two daughters attended Lincoln before moving on to Santa Monica High.

“What I felt at Lincoln was an incredible spirit among the staff in terms of really caring about their students and their school,” said Kathy Sultan, former PTA president at Lincoln.

“They always provided personalized service, always tried to work on solutions that everybody could buy into. My daughters forged some special relationships there and felt very much they knew who they could talk to if something came up.”

The Lincoln Story

Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica belongs to the Coalition of Essential Schools, founded in 1984 by one of the nation’s most visible and respected education reform leaders, Theodore R. Sizer of Brown University in Rhode Island. The coalition requires its 750 secondary schools to develop their own programs for improving learning, based on these common principles:

* Focus on helping students learn to use their minds well.

* Goals should be simple: Each student should master a limited number of essential skills and areas of knowledge thoroughly.

* Goals should apply to all students, with only the means varying from student to student. Practices should be tailor-made to meet the needs of each student group or class.

* Teaching should be personalized, with no teacher having direct responsibility for more than 80 students.

* Schools should approach instruction with the student as worker and teacher as coach, in contrast to the traditional teacher-as-deliverer-of-information approach.

* Students entering secondary school should show competence in language and mathematics; those who cannot should be given intensive remedial instruction. Diplomas should be awarded only after a student demonstrates mastery of key central skills and knowledge.

* The school should stress the values of unanxious expectation--”I won’t threaten you but I expect much of you”--trust and decency. Appropriate incentives should be offered and parents should be viewed as essential collaborators.

* Faculty members should consider themselves teachers in general education first. All should expect to fulfill multiple roles (teacher, counselor, manager) and should have a sense of commitment to the entire school.

* Schools should make allowances in their budgets for substantial planning and collaboration time for teachers and for competitive salaries, yet not exceed the costs at traditional schools by more than 10%.

- More information is available through the Coalition of Essential Schools, Box 1969, Brown University, Providence, R.I. 02912