ATTEMPTING A TURNAROUND Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette photos
	Tony Cowell, left, a first-grader in East Orange, N.J., wants to answer a question about a book he's just read. His school uses the America's Choice education program, the same system that's coming to Pittsburgh.
	First-graders at J. Garfield Jackson Sr. Academy in East Orange, N.J., find a comfortable place to write about a story they'd just read. From left are Lamar Brown, Antonio Coates, Tabatha Herchavaria and Kiara Smith.
	First-grade teacher Christine Crooks brings her pupils together for a "mini-lesson" at Jackson Academy. This is the first in an occasional series about efforts to change the course of Pittsburgh's public schools. More stories • Benefits seen putting middle schools into K-8's (06/25/06) • All-new $8.4 million city school curriculum (07/16/06) • Nontraditional leader moves schools ahead in Philadelphia (08/13/06) • Academies key to plan for raising achievement (08/20/06) • "Lighthouse Project helps students shine" (04/21/08) • "City schools work so that vocational education sheds stigma" (05/27/08)

EAST ORANGE, N.J. -- AnnaMaria Makris began the America's Choice readers workshop in signature fashion, with a 20-minute lesson designed to help her first-graders at J. Garfield Jackson Sr. Academy master one of the program's literacy requirements.

On a board at one side of the classroom, Miss Makris had written the requirement, or standard, to be covered that day: "Getting the meaning."

Sixteen fresh-faced pupils listened intently as Miss Makris, seated in a rocking chair, read aloud from the children's classic "Stone Soup" and explained the author's use of "first" and "next."

"We are learning to identify the sequence of events," she said.

America's Choice, a package of teaching techniques and curriculum offerings, is coming Aug. 21 to eight city schools. Developed by the National Center on Education and the Economy, or NCEE, the program is designed to give structure and intensity to school districts struggling to meet state and federal performance requirements.

Lessons are geared to preparing pupils for state reading and math exams. Reading comprehension and vocabulary, key standards in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states, dominated the classrooms at Jackson Academy on a recent Wednesday.

By leading pupils in a detailed discussion of Ann McGovern's book, Miss Makris hoped to increase their understanding of the story and how it developed. When a pupil described one of the characters as "stingy," Miss Makris quickly seized on the word.

"Stingy," she repeated to the class. "I like how you used that word."

In other classrooms, pupils developed lists of adjectives to describe how popcorn tastes, smells and feels; identified metaphors in poetry; and tried to predict the plot of a story from a synopsis on the cover.

Officials at Jackson Academy had struggled with how to coax better test scores from poor, inner-city pupils until they brought in America's Choice three years ago.

With America's Choice, they said, the percentage of general-education fourth-graders meeting the state language-arts standards increased from 69 percent in 2003 to 81 percent last year. Math proficiency increased from 61 percent in 2003 to 93 percent last year.

"We think the program works," literacy coach Lenore Eskow said. Results nationwide -- the program has been implemented in about 600 schools since 1998 -- are mixed.

NCEE officials began developing America's Choice in the late 1980s, before state standards were common. A study of education in other countries convinced them that the U.S. system was foundering because it lacked coherence. That is, it lacked standards for what pupils should know and be able to do, research-tested methods and materials for teaching the standards, periodic tests to see whether pupils were grasping the standards and professional development to help teachers do their jobs.

All became features of America's Choice. "What do we want in an excellent school? It's putting it all under one umbrella," said Lynn Spampinato, Pittsburgh's deputy superintendent for instruction, assessment and accountability, in explaining plans for America's Choice and the academies.

The coherence is seen in the so-called "rituals and routines," designed to guide classroom instruction and focus pupils on the day's work.

First-, second- and third-graders have 30 minutes of skills development, an hour of reading and an hour of writing, preferably in a block, each day.

Every teacher begins the "readers workshop" with a brief lesson related to a standard. About 20 minutes later, the class separates, and the teacher works with pupils individually or in small groups.

Some pupils continue working on the day's lesson, but slower pupils might be going over a previous topic. Ms. Eskow said teacher-pupil interaction is closer than before America's Choice and helps teachers address pupils' needs in a way that isn't possible in large-group instruction.

Dr. Spampinato, trying to turn around three years of low test scores, said she liked the "every minute counts" approach of America's Choice.

Pupils have reason to work industriously: At the end of the workshop at Jackson Academy, the class reassembles. A pupil is asked to sit in the rocking chair, called the author's chair, to summarize the lesson or explain his or her work.

Writers workshops follow the same format, with pupils each day taking on new writing assignments, refining their work or critiquing peers. To expand their horizons, pupils in every grade level take part in six-week studies of authors and literary genres each year.

The program supplements a district's math curriculum with "core assignments" emphasizing key skills and concepts. "Ramp-up" classes are offered to middle-school pupils two years behind in reading or math.

Ms. Eskow said America's Choice had had the surprising effect of reducing discipline problems. She said children know what is expected of them and appear to take comfort in the routine.

Teachers in America's Choice elementary schools stay with the same pupils for two years or more to help children adjust to new grade levels. Unlike the typical elementary school, where teachers handle most subjects, third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers in America's Choice schools may specialize in math or language arts so they can provide stronger lessons.

Sala Small, mother of three Jackson Academy pupils, said she believed America's Choice writing assignments require more detail and deeper thinking than previously was demanded of pupils. Cheryl Stroud chuckled while recalling the day her third-grader, out of the blue, used "genre" in conversation.

"I think Pittsburgh will really enjoy having America's Choice," she said.

America's Choice is one of hundreds of "comprehensive school reform" designs that nonprofit groups, educators and innovators have developed to help school districts, often low-performing urban districts, meet increasingly stringent federal performance requirements.

Helping troubled schools has become big business.

In documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service for the 2003-04 fiscal year, the nonprofit NCEE reported revenues of nearly $40.8 million and expenses of $34.7 million. NCEE President Marc Tucker reported compensation of about $414,000, while eight other directors and officers were paid as much as $372,000.

In a November report analyzing research on 22 widely used turnaround programs, the Comprehensive School Reform Quality Center said America's Choice had a "moderate" impact on pupils' achievement. The center, a federally funded group that aids school districts with turnaround efforts, gave a higher rating to two programs, Direct Instruction and Success for All.

In Duvall County, Fla., pupils in America's Choice schools performed better on writing tests than peers at other schools, according to a study of data from 1999-2001 by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, a group of researchers from Harvard and four other universities.

The study, commissioned by NCEE, found America's Choice had a more limited impact on math and reading scores.

In Rochester, N.Y., America's Choice pupils in grades one through three averaged scores 6 percent higher in reading and 7 percent higher in math annually than peers in other city schools, according to a study the consortium conducted for NCEE in 1998-2003. America's Choice pupils in grades six through eight averaged scores 17 percent higher in reading and 25 percent higher in math annually than peers in other schools.

Minority and low-performing pupils saw the greatest gains over peers in other schools. The program had more limited benefits for white and high-performing pupils.

Those results offer hope to Pittsburgh Superintendent Mark Roosevelt's plan for closing the racial achievement gap and spurring the district's worst pupils to do better. But parents of high-performing pupils already have signaled they want something out of the academies, too.

In East Orange, three of five elementary schools using America's Choice and five of seven using Success for All met federal goals last year.

Research has suggested that success depends, in part, on how well the America's Choice structure is implemented.

Teachers sometimes are asked to vow loyalty to the design, and the program requires that schools designate math, literacy and design coaches to lead teacher training and enforce implementation. Schools must hire parent coordinators to build outside support for the program.

To guide instruction, America's Choice provides teachers with examples of pupils' work that meet standards. Teachers may discuss the examples among themselves to build coherence in the building, or show them to pupils.

Ms. Eskow said Principal Gladys Calhoun hadn't cut corners. She said Ms. Calhoun had named as many coaches as America's Choice wanted and had been flexible about scheduling, so coaches could hold grade-level meetings with teachers.

Jackson Academy is unabashedly proud of its program, and America's Choice is proud of the school. Before the Pittsburgh school board approved a three-year, $3.6-million contract with America's Choice, administrators visited Jackson to observe the program.

Pittsburgh's academies will be created out of low-performing Fort Pitt and Northview K-5 schools; Arlington, Colfax, King, Murray and Weil K-8 schools; and the Rooney 6-8 school.

The schools will adopt the America's Choice format and be staffed by district principals and teachers. Although it isn't part of the America's Choice format, the academies will have a school day that's 45 minutes longer and year that's 10 days longer than other city schools.

America's Choice partly is about attitude.

At Jackson Academy, lists of vocabulary words dot classroom walls. Standards are written on the board to keep teachers and pupils focused on their goals. NCEE says it sets high expectations for all pupils, and Ms. Calhoun sets the tone each morning, weather permitting, when pupils line up for a pep rally outside the building.

"Look, listen and internalize," she told them on a recent morning. "Let's go in and have a fabulous day."