Dream Makers

But finding ways to enforce the so-called non-negotiables is no easy task for Dream School principals. Livingston lacks the autonomy that Lorraine Monroe had at her academy. Whereas she could -- and did - expel kids who failed to follow the program, no SFUSD principal can expel a student without the approval of the district's Peer Services Division. Even lesser punishments can get nixed by the higher-ups. In the beginning of the school year, for instance, Livingston created a detention room where he sent students who were not in full uniform. The district put the kibosh on the detention room.

"It sends the wrong message," says Ackerman. "Is the goal the uniforms, or to get the kids in class to teach them?"

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On the whiteboard, seventh-grade social studies teacher VanCedric Williams has written "Do Now: Define Samurai, Shinto, and Shogun, then use the three words in two sentences." Most of his 18 students scribble quietly, consulting their textbooks. Others fiddle with their pencils or stare off into space.

Williams, 36, has a shaved head and a soul patch and wears a yellow card on his tie that contains the word "Ensure." In an imitation of the Douglass Academy, Davis' walls are covered with vocabulary words that will appear on the state language arts tests. Today, Davis' staff is covered, too.

Next to the "Do Now" exercise, Williams has written out today's lesson plan. These step-by-step classroom instructions that the kids can clearly follow each day are one of the few teaching innovations initiated by the Dream Schools program. They were developed by Lorraine Monroe, and are referred to as the "Black Board Configuration," or BBC for short.

"Beep beep beep beep!" goes Williams' timer, and the kids put down their pencils.

"Now can someone tell me again what shoguns do?" asks Williams.

"They battle for the nobles!" pipes up a girl in the back.

"So if there was a mayor of Bayview, he would be like the noble," says Williams, pacing back and forth energetically. "He would hire some cats from Big Block or West Mob to defend him."

"And then they'd end up shootin' each other," astutely points out honor roll student Mister Simmons Jr.

Williams is one of the Gloria R. Davis veterans. He's been at the school for four years and was one of only two teachers who chose to reapply for their jobs and got rehired. Williams admits that teaching at Davis isn't easy.

"Just trying to deal with survival is more important to some of these kids than their educations," says Williams.

Most of the school's 185 scholars live in the Bayview and qualify for the free lunch program, meaning that they are economically disadvantaged. Many come from single-parent households; often the absent parent is incarcerated. Delinquency is caused more often than not by students staying home to help care for little sisters and brothers. The students live with the constant threat of drive-by shootings; many have had family members or friends murdered.

"The kids have an edge, and a hard crust that's difficult to break through," says another veteran, reading and band teacher Jill Hendricks.

"Our students have a lot of impulse-control issues," says Wendy Snider, the school's learning support consultant, and a marriage and family therapist. "It comes from having more responsibilities than the average student, and having to protect themselves. Nobody has taught them how to express feelings of anger, grief, and loss appropriately."

As part of Davis' Dream School makeover, the district hired Snider, who had been at the school part time, on a full-time basis. Now teachers can come to Snider if a student's grades suddenly drop, or there are problems at home, and Snider has more time to investigate. She sets up a meeting with the student and his or her parents, makes house calls, or refers families to outside social services agencies. A full-time therapist is a step in the right direction for the Dream Schools, but no solution.

"You have no idea of the magnitude," says Twenty-First Century Academy's principal, Kanani Choy. "We need 10 therapists!"

Both Williams and Hendricks say the controversial Dream School reapplication process really did help bring in more committed, better-qualified teachers. (Of the 15 on staff, only four have fewer than five years' teaching experience, Williams being one of them.) But some teachers are still struggling to gain the control and respect of their classrooms that Williams commands in his.

"One day I went by a room and heard a child screaming at the top of his lungs," says one mother. "I wanted to go in there and say, 'Shut up!' The poor teacher!"

On top of challenging students, Davis teachers have long work hours. Per the Dream School extended day, school starts at 8 a.m. and goes until 5 p.m. During two extra periods, students either participate in new electives like cooking, dance, choir, or martial arts, or get tutoring in their academic subjects, depending on which day of the week it is. Teachers receive additional compensation for the longer day.