The principal and teachers at Atlanta’s Capitol View Elementary School know that most people expect their students to fail. Nine of 10 live in poverty. Their parents are not well traveled, their bedrooms lack shelves sagging with books. When they walk to school, they might step around drug paraphernalia.
But expectations change at the schoolhouse door. Inside, the students study classic and modern literature. They have half-hour French lessons pegged to the subjects they are studying. Unlike many inner-city schools that focus solely on reading and math, these students soak up the world, drawing on the “core knowledge” curriculum developed by education professor and author E.D. Hirsch.
And it works: Student test scores outshine those at other Atlanta schools and even some schools in wealthier parts of the state.
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