Public school students take up a tougher course

They signed up for a year in Beacon Academy, a new private school aimed at helping them secure a spot at a top preparatory school.

But the experience -- eight-hour school days, tiny classes with demanding teachers, and Saturday sessions -- was more trying than any of them expected. The students, who delayed high school a year to attend Beacon, have emerged with a sense of how satisfying a tough school can be, but also of how unchallenging their public school experiences had been.

``In the beginning, I felt like it was way too much work times two," said Dennishia Bell, 14, a former honor roll student at the Umana Barnes Middle School in East Boston. ``I didn't realize that I wasn't really being challenged in school until I came to Beacon Academy. If I stuck to the Boston Public Schools, I almost feel like they were cheating me out of my education."

A group of educators and entrepreneurs, including former prep school teachers and administrators, established Beacon last summer because of the concern that too few bright, motivated urban public school students could pass the entrance exams and meet the academic standards required for competitive prep schools and the city's exam schools, said Marsha Feinberg, one of the founders. The goal was to prepare students for the academic rigors, as well as the social environment, of prep schools, often filled with children of the rich and famous.

The students come to Beacon after finishing eighth grade, stay for 14 months before beginning as a ninth-grader at a prep school or a Boston exam school. The bulk of the students come from public or charter schools in Boston, Cambridge, and Brockton, while two came from private schools. Many were nominated for admission by prep school admissions officers who had rejected them last school year. To get accepted to Beacon, located at Temple Israel on Longwood Avenue , students must pass the school's entrance exam and fill out a 16-page application. They also are judged on grades and teacher recommendations.

The school's first year has been a struggle, as teachers try to challenge students who feel as if they are already being worked too hard. Four of the 19 original students left the school because they moved or found the pace too daunting. Thirteen have been admitted to private high schools, but none to the schools that some Beacon officials view as the most competitive.

``I've told them many times, `You don't study hard enough,' " said Dean Conway, the school's English and social studies teacher who had previously taught at The Park School in Brookline for 17 years. `` `You've got to study harder, fight harder.' The fine line we continually walk is pushing them too hard and alienating them and, on the other hand, coddling them."

Teachers tried to balance academics with cultural enrichment, worrying that, at times, they focused on the social aspects of prep schools at the expense of basic study skills.

``The cultural stuff is important, but, first and foremost, we're a school," said Robert Greene, the school's math teacher. ``It doesn't matter how much the kids have traveled, if they don't walk out of here with the requisite academic skills."

At Beacon, the only school of its kind in the nation, according to the National Association of Independent Schools, the school year begins the summer after eighth grade. The students received nearly full scholarships to cover the school's $25,000 tuition; the $500,000 budget is funded primarily by donations from parents of private school students. The students spent twice as much time in math and English classes as they had in their previous schools and received two hours of homework a night, compared with the 30 minutes some had before.

``We were like, man, we didn't know what was going on," said Justin Charles, 15, who attended Boston's James P. Timilty Middle School last year and will enter The Gunnery, a Connecticut boarding school, next year. ``Everything was flying at us. Sometimes, the week might seem interminable."

Gary Fisher, an eighth-grade civics teacher at Timilty, said class size is one of the biggest barriers for teachers trying to challenge every student. At his school, teachers have up to 32 students.

``Sometimes, we're just seen as baby sitters," said Fisher, who will send his son to a private high school in the fall. ``We can challenge them a lot more."

At Beacon, teachers will keep up the academic pressure in formal classes through Friday. Over the summer, students will receive individual instruction in their weakest academic areas, because Beacon has promised the private schools that students will be prepared, teachers said.

``We need to get them ready to be competitive," said Cindy Laba, the school's cofounder. ``They have to work right up until the last minute. . . . I just want them to be and do whatever they want and have access to anything kids who are born into families with money have access to."

Beacon's school days were frequently peppered with extracurricular activities including excursions to the opera, an evening performance of Hamlet on Boston Common, and rowing on the Charles River, activities that privileged teens are exposed to by their families.

``No one's ever been to the opera before," said Bell, who will attend The Williston Northampton School, a boarding school in Easthampton. ``You should experience those things."

But she agreed with some of her teachers: Academics should be the focus.

For the school's next group, Laba has cut the number of summer field trips, and teachers will instead spend the five weeks helping students overcome their academic weaknesses.

Beacon teachers said this year's students, despite their struggles, are light-years ahead of where they began. They have mastered algebra and dissected eight novels. They can present papers to peers without giggling, hold meaningful conversations with adults, and spout sentences peppered with words like gauche and bucolic.

But ninth grade will still come as a shock for many, teachers said.

`` We test their academic stamina, and they're just not used to it," said Greene, one of Beacon's founding directors who used to be a private school's admissions director. ``They think Beacon is hard. But Beacon is nothing compared to what they're going to face."

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.