SMALL SCHOOLS - Miracle School: A Child of the Civil Rights Movement.(Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, Oakland, California) From: Phi Delta Kappan | Date: June 1, 2004| Author: Epstein, Kitty Kelly | COPYRIGHT 2004 Phi Delta Kappa, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Imagine a school that offers its students a safe environment, a rigorous college-prep curriculum, high expectations for student responsibility, and individualized attention. Ms. Epstein describes such a school, but it is not an elite private school for the wealthy. It is the Street Academy in Oakland, California, which serves a population of primarily low-income, urban, disenfranchised students.

NOTHING IN school reform has changed the fact that most urban teachers conti...