KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Northwood Elementary wants to get back to basics

Northwood Elementary wants to get back to basics

by Jennifer Zilko
Friday, Jan. 11, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- There are many options in the Anchorage School District to choose from for your child's education -- from neighborhood to charter schools.

On Monday, the school board will decide whether or not to approve Northwood Elementary as an ABC school.    

But what is an ABC school and why does Northwood want to become one?

Sandi Rhude's sixth graders are learning about the future tense. But the future of this school may soon include a different title. An ABC school is one that offers a different curriculum and instruction than regular elementary schools.

Greg Balcao is the principal of Northwood Elementary School.

"The ABC philosophy is very -- it fits, dove-tails, with what we do at our school," Balcao said.

The philosophy has several key points:

-- A more traditional, whole-class approach where students are not broken up into smaller groups.
-- Back to the basics curriculum.
-- Emphasis on patriotism.
-- No multi-grade classes.

But why change? There are several reasons according to Balcao, first of which is the school's declining enrollment.

"Northwood sits in a community that is growing a little bit older so even though we have a high transient rate we've still managed over the last few years to decline by about 10 students a year," Balcao said.    

Northwood would potentially gain students from all over town, on a lottery basis, by becoming an ABC school.

There are currently more than 200 students on the waiting list at Northern Lights ABC School -- the only other ABC school in the Anchorage Bowl.     

Many of them would be able to fill the seats at Northwood.    

Another reason for the change, many teachers, including Rhude, already use the ABC program in their classrooms.

"For the most part we use direct instruction so for most of our students it works really well," Rhude said. "For them, when they're all focused and led through the material step by step it seems to make them more successful."   

And what it's all about, teachers said, is making students more successful, one lesson at a time.

Even though the school would take students through a lottery basis from all over Anchorage it would still serve as the main school for kids in the neighborhood.

Anchorage School District Superintendent Carol Comeau said changing to an ABC school would not cost anything. The only change would be the teaching structure.

Everyone would have to follow the ABC program guidelines and not just the teachers that want to use them.

Contact Jennifer Zilko at jzilko@ktuu.com