SCHOOL MAKING HEADWAY ITS WAY : PALMDALE LEARNING PLAZA PUSHES STUDENTS TO ACHIEVE WITHOUT GRADES.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Last year, Carol Woodson noticed that her 8-year-old son, Trent, would come home from school, finish his homework and be bored.

In search of a more challenging program, Woodson enrolled her third-grader this year at the Palmdale Learning Plaza, an innovative public school noted for pushing instruction beyond the classroom walls.

``It seems to be working,'' Woodson said. ``He's learned more, and he's not as bored at home. It takes him more time to finish his work. He has more reading, which is mandatory, with book reports at the end of the month.''

As for Trent, he has had to tackle projects at the plaza such as writing a book about Hopi Indians and assembling a diorama of the ocean. He said it is fun because he has a lot of friends and enjoys the science experiments, but he acknowledged the students work hard.

``I gotta do more work. I don't like it, but I'm learning more,'' Trent said.

Three years after opening the first Antelope Valley public school that touted absence of letter grades, ``learning by doing'' and extensive parent participation, school officials have declared it a success, although they encountered some early disappointments and made some changes from early visions.

``We've experienced rough spots as anybody would,'' said Rick Grove, principal at the kindergarten through eighth grade school.

But, he said, ``We're doing exceptionally well. We have Palmdale School District's Teacher of the Year, test scores are showing steady improvement and show we're No. 1 in reading this year.''

Teacher Lori Clapper, one of the original 10 teachers hired, said the staff has stuck together through hard times, overcoming doubters and obstacles.

The school ran into a major drawback early when it lost an expected grant of up to $200,000 from New American Schools Development Corp., a Washington, D.C., nonprofit corporation funded by major U.S. businesses. At the last minute, the program was not funded.

``The school had developed a plan with the grant in mind, but then found the $200,000 we were supposed to get wasn't coming,'' Grove said.

Opening day enrollment started at more than 700 students, about double what the school was designed for, but enrollment dropped as promised programs - such as evening classes, preschool courses and specialty classes - failed to develop because of the cut in funding. The plaza's student population has now settled at about 550.

``The buildup was great,'' Clapper said. ``With the grant not coming through and enrollment getting higher, we were not prepared to meet needs, and people left.''

Clapper added there was a misperception that children were running ``wild and free'' with no discipline or academics.

Darcy Tremonti, the plaza's PTA president, has three children at the school in grades three, six and seven. She was attracted to the school in part because of its stress on parental involvement.

``If you have strong skills, you can go as far as you can,'' Tremonti said. ``If not, you can stay where you need to be and develop and go on and advance. You can't find that at other schools. That's what the Learning Plaza is all about, individualized curriculum. If a child is not learning, it's the teacher's job to do what it takes. You won't find that in every school.''

Composite scores for 1995-96 in reading, language and math indicate steady improvement for all grades over a three-year period, while three grades - second, fifth and sixth - show individual declines.

The biggest jump was in the first grade, where the score jumped from 43 in 1993-94 to 58 in 1995-96, according to district records of the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills. The sharpest drop was in the second grade, where the score decreased from 45 to 38.

Overall, test scores show Learning Plaza students generally scored the same or better than their counterparts in Palmdale School District as a whole, with the exception of the second grade.

Over the three years, the school has dropped some of its original plans. Those include adding traditional letter grades in the three upper grade levels and having student progress portfolios to assess academic performance.

``Kids at that age tend to procrastinate,'' Grove said. ``We found that, one, the high school district wanted to see letter grades, and kids at that age tend to respond to letter grades.''

The school also has ended its nomadic existence after inhabiting three different campuses in three years. The school is now housed on a temporary campus next door to Summerwind School.

The plaza is considered unique in that pupils are allowed to learn mostly by doing. There are combined classes, classes for parents and ``prescriptive,'' individualized learning, in which students are assessed to find out what level they are at and teachers build from there.

``A lot of schools talk about a hands-on approach, but we go one step beyond in that we are committed to that approach,'' Grove said. ``Our absolute commitment is to make learning relevant for students.''

Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders attend classes at an Antelope Valley Mall classroom equipped with a state-of-the-art technology lab and computer-based instruction tools.

There students have built a Kit Fox airplane - a two-seat, single-engine craft - under the guidance of local aerospace engineers. The plane is expected to be rolled out later this year.

Unlike other Palmdale schools, the Learning Plaza has parent-teacher conferences every month and an all-day kindergarten. The plaza has a year-round schedule in which families get to pick which off-track days they want.

On the administrative side, the school operates much like a charter school. Rather than getting an allocation from the district, the plaza has its own budget, and spending decisions are made by the staff as a whole.

``We are creating children who will be risk-takers and independent thinkers, who can work independently as well as in a group,'' Clapper said. ``I think that children . . . enjoy coming here. They look forward to coming to school each day. They know we have high expectations for them, and they enjoy meeting those expectations.''

Comparison of test scores

Following are Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills scores from the 1995-96 school year comparing the Palmdale Learning Plazato Palmdale School District overall.

Grade District Plaza

1st 47 58

2nd 47 38

3rd 49 51

4th 47 51

5th 46 46

6th 46 49

7th 45 52

8th 47 52

CAPTION(S):

Chart

Chart: Comparison of Test Scores (see text)