By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 7, 2007
With a 3.83 grade-point average, Nathan Saunders has been working hard to make it into a top school. He's in the junior honor society, the art club, and is treasurer of the gentlemen's association, a mentoring and community service group for boys.
His goal is to attend Morehouse College or Howard University, two of the nation's top historically black colleges. But his applications to those schools won't go out until 2011. Right now, the 13-year-old from Largo is worried about high school.
Nathan, an eighth-grader at Ernest Everett Just Middle School in Mitchellville, is among nearly 1,500 students who have applied to the science and technology program at Eleanor Roosevelt in Greenbelt, the leading public high school in Prince George's County as measured by scores on statewide tests.
Roosevelt admits between 225 and 250 students to its highly regarded program each year -- an admission rate just slightly more forgiving than a typical Ivy League university.
Nathan has also applied to Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale, which is nearly as difficult to get into. The schools will notify students and their parents in March. Those who don't get accepted will have to consider one of the county's other public schools or a costly private education.
Beyond Roosevelt and Flowers, Prince George's County high schools have performed poorly on statewide tests, finishing behind every Maryland school system except Baltimore's.
That has led parents such as Lavon Snowden, whose son Alex is an eighth-grader at Holy Trinity Episcopal Day School in the county, to write off the public schools. "I'm trying to be politically correct," Snowden said, "but I just would not be comfortable" with Alex going to his neighborhood school.
In the Washington area, only the District suffers from a similar skepticism toward public education. In Montgomery and Fairfax counties, for instance, there are plenty of schools with strong test scores to choose from.
Since taking over the Prince George's system in May, schools chief John E. Deasy has fought to enhance the public schools' reputation by ensuring that all high schools offer academic programs as challenging as those at Roosevelt. He is pushing a broad package of changes, including the expansion of Advanced Placement courses and the International Baccalaureate program, bolstering the involvement of parents, improving teacher qualifications and offering parents more choices about what kinds of schools their children can attend.
But Deasy has said it could be years before such changes make an impact.
In the interim, that leaves the school system to face the loss of bright students to area private schools, which can be as competitive as their collegiate counterparts.
Nathan is applying to three popular Catholic schools: DeMatha, Bishop McNamara and St. John's College High School.
DeMatha, an all-boys school, attracts about 630 applications each year but admits only about 270 students, according to Mike Jones, the school's admissions director.
At Holy Trinity, the high school application process begins in earnest in the seventh grade. By the next year, parents and students work through their applications, submitting transcripts, test results, two letters of recommendation and essays.
"It's basically like applying for college, and it's very stressful to the kids, to be honest with you," said Judy Smolen, the head of Holy Trinity's middle school.
The stress was etched into Nathan's face as he spoke with a reporter recently at a Borders bookstore in Largo, where he occasionally plays chess. Poised between childhood and adulthood, he knows that a lot is riding on getting into the right high school. Parents are important -- some lobby administrators, draw on their networking connections or change residences to improve their kids' chances of making it into one of the top schools -- but in the end, it comes down to the student.
Nathan is determined. His transcript reads like that of someone applying to an elite college: He has strong grades, good test scores, a mix of extracurricular activities, and he plays tennis and basketball.
If Nathan can't make it into Roosevelt or Flowers, he's hoping his skills at art and public speaking will land him a scholarship from one of the three private schools to which he's applied. That would ease the financial burden on his mother, Theresa, a single parent, who works as a financial manager.
"It's not a day gone by I don't think about this stuff," Nathan said. His mother, who sat at a nearby table listening to her son, had already described a typical day in his life.
"Tuesday, he got to school at 9," she said. "He was wrapping gifts for a homeless shelter from 4 to 5. There's choir rehearsal from 6:30 to 7:45. He'll get a sandwich between 5 and 6:30. He's doing his homework in the car to choir practice."
It has taken its toll on her, too: "I'm a nervous wreck right now trying to make sure he gets everything he needs to the schools," she said. But the effort is necessary, she said, to instill in him the habits of learning and the success that comes with it.
"It's tough to do what I do and have fun at the same time," Nathan said. During the few occasions when he gets to relax, he talks to his friends ("I've got to hang out with the best, because that's the only way you will get smarter," he observed) or turns on some music (his favorite rapper is Nas, known for his complex poetic style).
He'd like to be an architectural engineer, a doctor or a lawyer, he said. But before he can do that, he's got to make it into high school, amassing the tokens of a successful childhood.
Just then, his mother reminded him of one of his other feats: He is a black belt in karate.
Slightly embarrassed, he said, "My mom is trying to make it like I'm a hero all of a sudden."
"What I taught him was 'mind over body,' " she said.
"As long as I believe it, I can achieve it," Nathan said.
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