High-achieving, high-poverty schools are no longer a novelty for elementary or middle school-aged kids, but helping disadvantaged youngsters succeed in high school has been more challenging. An article in Teacher Magazine describes the efforts of an organized group of parents in California to prevent their kids from becoming high school dropout statistics. Parents of Children of African Descent (PCAD) was formed by a group of Berkeley High School parents after they learned that half of the school's African American 9th graders were flunking core academic classes. Invited by the school's principal to develop an intervention plan, the parents created an alternative learning community within the high school where failing 9th graders would be taught in small classes by hand-picked teachers. Participating freshmen would be supported by student mentors and adult learning partners, and by their parents, who would agree to respond promptly to teachers' calls home. After the first year, there were signs that many students participating in the program had turned themselves around, but the program itself was discontinued for reasons that are easy to understand but hard to stomach. For more, see "Damage Control," by Meredith Maran, Teacher Magazine, August 2001, http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/tmstory.cfm?slug=01berkeley.h13
