Three R's, Studied With a Fourth: Rigor

Seventy-five percent go on to challenging public and private high schools, such as St. Albans, National Cathedral, Benjamin Banneker Academic and the School Without Walls, and 95 percent of the children who complete Higher Achievement's four years go onto college. Higher Achievement kids have graduated from Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Howard and Brown, among dozens of other schools.

At Higher Achievement's center at Stuart-Hobson Middle School on Capitol Hill, teacher Rudy McCann of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop dragooned her trio of students into a discussion of a poem titled "Kaleidoscope," by Philadelphia poet Sonia Sanchez. The boys reacted with typical teenage apathy, but, with only three in the class, there was no room to hide from their teacher's prodding.

"I don't think it's very good because it's slow and it's boring," said Driscoll Warner, 12.

"What does boring mean?" McCann asked.

"The first two lines don't make me want to read it," he said.

"Okay," McCann said. "That's a very good way to express yourself."

They searched for the verbs in the poem, and Driscoll corrected Chris Jackson when he mistakenly labeled an adverb as a verb.

In interviews, several children said they didn't mind that their studies keep going after the school day ends.

"The program is superb," said Aaron Garvin, a solemn-faced 11-year-old who attends the Ward 7 Higher Achievement center at Plummer Elementary. "Sometimes, I'm going to admit, when my mother brings me, I fuss and fight. And then when I get here, all those troubles are gone."

Like some of the children in the program, Higher Achievement has been through hard times.

Launched by Jesuit teachers at Gonzaga College High School in Northwest Washington in 1975 to help bright inner-city middle school kids get more prepared for Gonzaga's rigorous academics, the program had expanded to nine centers over two decades.

But with lackluster fundraising, falling enrollment and parents who were unhappy with the program's limited hours, the volunteer board of directors laid off the staff and shut down Higher Achievement in early 1998.

Then the leaders regrouped and hired Holla. The program reopened six months later with just 30 students, but with expanded services. The number of hours available to the children was quadrupled, and they were offered homework help on top of Higher Achievement's curriculum.

Nkechi Feaster, 30, whose 12-year-old son Chris joined Higher Achievement last spring, is pleased with his progress.

"When I found the program, I thought it would be great, because on a regular basis he would be with kids who were along his level of intelligence. He has some place to go with kids that are more like him," said Feaster, formerly a homeless single mom who now works as a clerk at a Georgetown law firm. "When he's with [Higher Achievement], I don't worry about him. And there aren't too many places like that."

For more information, call 202-544-3633 or visithttp://higherachievement.org.