The educators at St. Ann's believe that every student can learn and will if given the proper guidance. This guidance involves both academic instruction and religious teaching. It is especially important to note that the educators at St. Ann's place such high importance on religious teaching. Even in the handbook it is listed alongside academic instruction as in page five: "Our students are taught to think critically, participate actively in problem solving, and to live the faith and ideals expressed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

The student body is composed of an even age spread of students, approximately twenty per grade, as there is only one class per grade. In the classes I observed the population was almost 80% black, with the remaining being split between white and Asian. I did not see any Hispanic students at the school, which struck me as odd, being that most Hispanics are catholic. There was a nearly even split between boys and girls, and the principle indicated that the students come from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds. About one-third are non-Catholic.

I thought that the academic climate at St. Ann's could best be described as demanding, both of time and of responsibility. The Mid-Atlantic Association accredits the school and the principle also stressed the importance of demanding a high standard of academic achievement from the students. In the classrooms I noted that the teachers demanded that the students take responsibility for their work. When asked if he could return to the classroom to get an assignment that he had forgotten, a student was told that he should have remembered it and was out of luck. This was in a fifth grade class. I also noted that the homework load for St. Ann's students was considerably higher than that given to the students at the public elementary school where I work. However, I did run into a teacher in the hall who was perplexed about how to get a paper he had left with her in to her son in one of the higher grades before he got into trouble for it. Demanding in some ways, but then again…..

Very few. The academy can not pay for special education teachers to work with those students so they are not accepted to the school. Those that do need a little extra help are given in only in the area of Language Arts and are given that special instruction in the classroom. St. Ann's does not exercise a pullout program.

If this is actually the case, and I am not so sure by my observations that it was, it is due to two factors: First, the teachers I observed felt free to discipline students in-front of their peers which obviously presents an incredible embarrassment factor. Second: the community at St. Ann's is so small and closed that you can only imagine that word will spread fast and everyone knows everyone else. There are probably few secrets at St. Ann's and a "problem child" would feel extremely uncomfortable staying there.

I viewed teachers ready and willing to discipline students in front of their peers. In most cases this involved raising one's voice and embarrassing the student. Whether or not this was the goal I do not know, but it was obviously the result. In a second grade I saw a teacher ask a question of a student to discipline him. The class was all sitting in a circle on the floor and the student had lain down on his back. The teacher asked, "Why are you laying down?" The response was instant. The student sat back up and was not embarrassed by the discipline.

The teachers were clearly in charge in the classrooms. Some of the classrooms were noisy at first and the teachers had difficulty settling them down, but once class was underway the rooms were very quiet. It seemed to me that the teachers had things planned out very well for the students.

Yes. As mentioned before, I noted that the homework load of the students at St. Ann's was greater than that I can remember from my public elementary school and from the one I teach at.

Usually around twenty students. The advanced math class was about ten.

I saw very little student participation. In the fifth grade classroom I saw that the students were going over their homework from the night before and were raising their hands to give the answers they got for specific questions. The teacher did not always call on anyone however, and the hand raising seemed almost a pretext for shouting out one's answer. In another class I observed the class repeating things the teacher said in unison. This was the extent of the participation I observed. There was very little of it and it all fell into the category of lower order thinking.

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