Kristen Graham | A blue-ribbon education

Robert Blair Pollock Elementary School works.

Teachers at the K-6 school in Northeast Philadelphia know it. The students certainly know it. And they show it by erupting in daily communal cheers of: "Pollock School is the best - we're ahead of all the rest!"

Now, federal officials know it, too. Pollock was recently honored as the only public school in Southeastern Pennsylvania to win the prestigious designation of "Blue Ribbon School" from the U.S. Department of Education.

Second grader Steven Martinez Sagias summarized: "Our school is the best because we have a blue ribbon, and the kids are nice."

Still, Pollock faces challenges - climbing class sizes, shrinking budgets, and a fairly high mobility rate. Nearly 200 students transferred in or out last year.

More than 620 students are enrolled at Pollock.

A full third of the students are English-language learners, speaking 25 languages. About half the students are poor enough to qualify for free or discounted lunches.

But principal Kathleen Quinn and her staff focus on setting high standards, raising achievement, encouraging parental participation and keeping a positive tone.

Test scores tell the story: Pollock got the honor for consistent improvement in its test scores. It ranks among the top 10 schools in the city in overall math, elementary math and elementary reading scores, besting city and state averages by wide margins. Special math and reading programs get kids jazzed up about those subjects.

Pollock has met the federal government's adequate-yearly-progress benchmarks five years running, which reflects the school's test scores. For instance, the school's fifth graders scored at 86 percent proficient or above in math and 77 percent in reading.

Teachers run frequent assemblies celebrating excellence in attendance, citizenship, math and reading.

The staff stresses attendance, with 96 percent of students in school on any given day.

Looking beyond the numbers, what makes Pollock special? Quinn, who has led the school for 14 years, laughed.

"Everything," she said. She was exaggerating only a little.

On a recent day, second-grade teacher Tracy Bradley sat on the floor, boys and girls grouped around her. It was morning meeting time - a daily exercise designed to teach respect and tolerance, to get students comfortable with speaking in front of groups, to talk about the day.

Around the circle, each student took a turn speaking to the group. One boy, newly emigrated from Russia, earned a hearty round of applause after shyly introducing himself and making eye contact with his peers.

In Neil Beitman's third-grade class, children learned about point of view and combined literacy and drama in a "reader's theater" - groups of children performing a story about a talking turkey taking a stand.

Microphones in hand, six girls stood in a scraggly line in front of their classmates, stifling giggles and preparing to act out their scene.

"Remember what tongue-in-cheek is," said Beitman, encouraging the students to practice changing their voices and think about what a turkey might sound like.

In Anita Schumer's science class, fourth-grade students armed with magnifying glasses walked out to Pollock Park - a spacious garden with nine vegetable beds - to harvest peppers, examine the damage done by harlequin beetles, to ponder the earth.

"I want you to make observations," Schumer said. "There's been some changes, and you should investigate them."

Miriam Barsky is the enrichment teacher (not "gifted," Quinn said, because all Pollock students are smart). Besides those duties, Barsky works with children who need extra learning support and offers mini-enrichment lessons to students who are not classified.

To her, the school succeeds because "there's a real belief that all kids can perform, and if they're not performing, we've got to find a way for them to learn."

An emphasis on the arts lets all students shine. The way Quinn sees it, students need to have a reason to come to school, to feel valued and interested.

"The arts is the most sensible way to do that," she said. "When you have a lot of children of different backgrounds and different needs, intelligence doesn't always show up in traditional ways."

Student work covers the hallway. A giant mural greets visitors, and classical music plays softly in most classrooms.

Twenty percent of the students play an instrument in either the orchestra, jazz or marching band, and artists-in-residence have taught opera, choreography and acting over the years. Teachers have been known to sing at faculty meetings.

Every student takes Allison Donovan's humanities class, where students might illustrate diamante poems, dance, create movies, or make drawings of the school based on da Vinci's architectural renderings.

Quinn brought humanities to Pollock because of her firm belief that arts help students see the big picture.

"I wanted something for the kids that was what they would get if they were in private school, or a gifted program," she said. "I believe it makes a huge difference in the lives of kids."

Bent over a computer, writing an essay about heroes, fifth grader Isaac Outland agreed.

"Pollock is good," he said. "At Pollock, we do cool stuff."

Pollock Elementary School in Northeast Philadelphia was the only public school in Southeastern Pennsylvania to win a prestigious 2007 federal Blue Ribbon award.

Three Pennsylvania private schools won the award - Gwynedd-Mercy Academy in Spring House, St. Anastasia in Newtown Square and St. Ignatius of Antioch in Yardley.

In New Jersey, Cooper Elementary in Cherry Hill earned the honor.

Schools are honored for their performance on state or national tests.

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