We’re going to a parent participation school two mornings a week this school year. My daughter will be doing this part time when I work. Combined with an ample dose of homelearning and a nature co-op that we’re running, this will be our fall. I’m looking forward to it now, and it’s feeling a little more manageable.

As children get older, the opportunities to be involved in their education in certain ways drops. Of course our local school wants parent volunteers. However, many of the teachers there are not overly keen to have parents in the classroom. Parents can volunteer to shelve books in the library or organize school lunches. While these are worthy tasks, in some classrooms the opportunity for parents to share their skills and work with the students is just not there.

In our parent participation preschool and school, parents are welcomed into the classroom. They help with the kids, they share their skills, and a community forms. It’s not just a community of children and teachers, it’s a community of families. Everyone gets to share and learn together.

It takes a great teacher to invite parents into the classroom in this way. As someone who teaches, I understand that it can be intimidating to see a lot of adults in the classroom, because it can feel like they’re judging you. Maybe they are, and maybe they aren’t. Most likely, they’re admiring your skills and glad of the opportunity to be involved in their children’s lives.

I wish that all education were like this. If it was, our family would feel so much more comfortable being part of a school system, because it wouldn’t be a school system any more. It would be a family system that embraces children and the adults who support them. It would be a part of the community that welcomes and asks for parents’ meaningful involvement in their children’s learning. That’s what we’re looking for in any kind of learning experience, whether it’s homelearning or schooling.

The Boys of Style have grown up.

It is substance, they now say, that matters.

The men, who formed a fraternity in the Birmingham schools nearly three decades ago as a way to give young black men a chance to succeed in school and in life, now walk the streets trying to change a world that has changed more than they can fathom since their own adventures in middle school.

They see young men with no respect for authority, who dress like thugs and don’t value an education.

Now, after two decades of inactivity, the group is reuniting to make a difference.

“Our purpose was to be a brotherhood that represented style and unity,” said LV Meadows, one of the fraternity’s founding members.”Proper etiquette with our young black boys is gone. They don’t wear belts. They don’t wear the proper clothes. They have no respect or honor for their teachers, their parents or themselves.”

The fraternity, which began in 1983 and changed its name from Boys of Style to Brothers of Style in 1985 as the members reached high school, grew to 60 members with chapters in just about every Birmingham high school. About 35 of them have reunited to launch a mentoring partnership with Hemphill and Lee elementary schools.

While they are starting small, by adopting just two of Birmingham’s 57 schools, they hope to continue to expand to other city schools in years to come.

Today, the group will hold a “Reunion in the Park” back-to-school rally at Woodward Park in West End, where they will give out school supplies, food and, likely, a little advice.

“We need to give them a sense of belonging, with purpose,” Meadows said. “These are the same streets we walked on as kids, and it’s changed so much.”

The fraternity, which the men refer to simply as B.O.S., began as a way to encourage each other to maintain good grades, dress well and dedicate themselves to receiving an education.

“B.O.S. became the family to many young men that didn’t have fathers or big brothers in their lives,” Meadows said.

Each week, the members would meet at the library to help each other study. They networked to help each other find jobs.

Scared straight

It would have been just as easy to join a gang, group members say.

That’s exactly what’s happening to young children in Birmingham now, says Derrick Brewer, 38, a member of B.O.S.

“There’s a lot of gang activity, and they’re starting at 11 or 12 years old,” he said.

Now older with real jobs and many with families and children of their own, the members say they want to be positive influences in children’s lives.

That could include scaring the children straight.

Jerome McMullin, a 1989 West End High School graduate and member of B.O.S., introduced a new person to the group he thought would be perfect to mentor the kids.

That man is Robert Malone, an ex-gang member from South Central Los Angeles who served nearly two decades in prison for drugs and murder.

During his time at Pelican Bay State Prison, Malone earned his GED and began mentoring his fellow inmates. He took up religion.

Malone is now a motivational speaker who has talked to students around the country about why gangs are dangerous. He ended up in Birmingham, where he will bring his message to Hemphill and Lee elementary students.

“I’m all about bringing a positive attitude to these children,” he said. “No violence.”

Join the conversation by clicking to comment or e-mail Leech at mleech@bhamnews.com.

Oxford alone has already rejected around 12,500 candidates, many of whom are expected to gain A*s.

The disclosure came as it emerged on Friday that the official qualifications regulator had ordered exam boards to alter A-level grade boundaries because too many candidates than expected were gaining the A*.

The confusion will add to warnings of university admissions chaos for students across Britain next week following a record rise in the number of applications this summer.

Just days before the publication of A-level results, it has also emerged that:

*The number of places available through clearing is expected to drop by a third overall, with many top universities already declaring they are “full”.

*Former polytechnics are reporting their “lowest ever” number of spare places, with some reporting drops of more than two-thirds.

*Seven students will be competing for every clearing place, with subjects such as science, maths, computing and business among those with the most vacancies.

*Record numbers of teenagers are already preparing to re-sit exams, with specialist colleges being flooded with enquiries.

Many universities have already warned that they will have to reject students who fall narrowly short of predicted grades because of a 12 per cent rise in applications this year.

According to figures, demand is up by 68,000, with competition swelled by some 45,000 students reapplying after being rejected in 2009.

For the first time this year, students scoring at least 90 per cent in the second year of their A-levels will be awarded an A*.

The elite grade was introduced by Labour to allow universities to identify the best candidates from record numbers applying with As. Last year, almost 27 per cent of A-levels were graded an A – double the number 20 years ago.

But figures published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service show only 13 universities are using the A*, with some 6,000 offers requiring at least one of the elite grades.

Oxford – among a string of top universities refusing to acknowledge it – has already rejected around 12,500 candidates, many of whom are expected to gain A*s.

Exeter told the Telegraph that it had “rejected some very highly qualified applicants” for the most sought-after courses.

Other institutions such as Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Exeter, King’s College London, Lancaster, Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield and York are not using the A* in formal admissions offers.

Two years ago, Gordon Brown’s education advisors recommended delaying using the grade for the “first few years” because teachers may find it difficult to predict which students should be awarded it. At the moment, most students apply for university on the basis of predicted grades.

There were also fears that the grade could be dominated by private school pupils – leading to a drop in admissions from state comprehensives.

Geoff Lucas, secretary of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, which represents leading independent schools, said: “It does seem odd that universities, having asked for a tool to help them differentiate between candidates, don’t now use it. They are in danger of cutting off their noses to spite their faces.”

Prof Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: “I can understand why there is a degree of caution surrounding the A* because it is a bit of an unknown quantity. But I would be alarmed if the reason for not using it was linked to the schools obtaining it. It seems wholly unfair to attempt to rig the intake.”

The only leading universities to make degree offers based on the A* are Cambridge, Imperial, Warwick and University College London.

In most cases students need one A* and two A grades. Cambridge is considering raising its minimum entry requirement to two A*s in coming years, while Imperial said they would require two elite grades in certain maths courses.

But despite using the grade, many of these universities admitted it would not be enough to guarantee a place following the huge rise in applications.

Up to 8,000 candidates have been rejected from Cambridge alone.

“Applicants who have been predicted A* grades have been turned down for all our courses,” the university told the Telegraph.

This already promises to be the most competitive year on record for university admissions, with many already declaring themselves “full”.

Imperial, Birmingham and Aberystwyth confirmed that they would not be using clearing – the system operated by Ucas to match students to spare courses. Oxford, Cambridge, the LSE, University College London, Edinburgh and Bristol never use clearing.

Even those with traditionally large numbers of clearing places are reporting record lows in 2010.

Goldsmiths, University of London, said spare places had dropped from 200 last year to 100 this summer. Lincoln said it had 100 places, compared with 300 last year.

Places at Northampton have dropped from 550 to 200, while the University of the West of England said clearing had been slashed from 600 to 200 – a drop of two-thirds. A similar fall has been recorded at Thames Valley, which expects to have just 250 spare places compared with 700 in 2009.

The University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, said it had 150 clearing places, compared with 300 last year.

Some universities are still offering degrees in science, maths, technology and engineering after the Coalition announced extra places in these subjects. Other available courses include computing, business management, law and journalism.

Scattered air-conditioning outages at two of the largest city high schools required quick fixes Monday as the school year opened to temperatures that reached 97 by early afternoon.

At the new $24.1 million Riverwood Elementary in Cordova, the air was cool and charged as 800 children found their places in classrooms furnished with computers, Wi-Fi and gleaming hallways.

“They let me enter the building July 12. There was still a lot to do then,” said Rita White, Riverwood principal, in the running shoes and crew socks she intends to wear the rest of the year.

The perimeter of the first-floor hallway is 1,500 feet, which she has already measured with a pedometer and plugged into her workout routine.

The student body speaks 12 languages, including African dialects, Chinese and Japanese.

“This the model,” Supt. Kriner Cash said. “This is what we want for all Memphis City Schools.”

School buses ran into the usual first-day issues, said Terry Lovan, president and business manager of the Teamsters Local 984.

“All the buses were late getting back, due to changes in routes and traffic,” Lovan said. “This is not the best week to be starting something when it’s Elvis week and you have a bunch of tourists out there who don’t know which way to turn.”

At least the buses were cool. Under a new contract, the district received more than 300 new, air-conditioned vehicles this summer.

Elsewhere, air conditioning was working sporadically at Whitehaven High and not at all in the central wing at White Station High, where computer foul-ups meant two systems couldn’t interface.

The schools are among the largest high schools in the city. Students were shuffled to other classrooms and makeshift quarters in the auditorium.

“Fifty classrooms did have heat issues,” said district spokesman Staci Franklin. “That’s 50 classrooms out of 7,000 total classrooms.”

Crews were on the scene early, and the problems were under control by the time the day ended, she said.

Keith Williams, president of the Memphis Education Association, says district administrators changed schedules in July, allowing more flexibility in the 90-minute block-schedule format it adopted last year.

“Principals are given great latitude,” he said. “Some classes are blocked and some are not.”

Cash adopted block scheduling last year to give students a chance to take more classes, and at the same time, make up classes they failed without getting behind.

Under last year’s model, students earn eight credits a year or 32 for their high school careers, nine credits more than the state requires for graduation. But the change set off a firestorm among teachers because the extra classes took away their daily preparation period.

Cash felt the heat all last year; in April, he announced a modification that returned the daily prep time.

But, “Some teachers have been told because they have prep period every day, they may be doing some lunch duty,” Williams said.

At Riverwood, the mood was serene as Cash greeted students and shook hands on a tour guided by White.

In October, the principal will be honored in Washington as a National Distinguished Principal, one of only two in Tennessee, largely for improving school culture.

“When I started at Egypt Elementary in 1998, we had 11,000 discipline referrals. Last year, we had less than 200,” she said.

– Jane Roberts: 529-2512

Rebecca Panter (left) and Jasmyn Wright, who moved from out of state to teach at Evans Elementary School, set up for the first day of class.

First-year Memphis City Schools teacher Jasmyn Wright, 21, grew up in South New Jersey, studied a semester in Africa and graduated a semester early from Spelman College with a 3.7 GPA.

She’s OK with Monday, the first day of classes; the thought of Tuesday makes her hands sweat.

“I’m extremely nervous. … I’m nervous for the other days after Monday.”

Understandable. By Tuesday, when the introductions are over and the desks assigned and filled, Wright will be in charge of the progress 20 third-graders make toward their eventual lives in a global economy.

Their test scores will become her résumé and the basis of her paycheck. While nothing in the homes they come from or the streets outside them has changed, their outcomes must.

“Now, it’s starting to be physical; it’s tangible,” Wright said, looking over the debris of unpacked boxes and walls still sticky with last year’s tape in her classroom at Evans Elementary.

One of 100 new Teach for America teachers at MCS, bringing the district’s total to 150, Wright arrives at a time of unprecedented opportunity — as well as pressure — at the Memphis system.

She and hundreds of other hires moved here over the summer in part because Memphis in the last year has received more federal and philanthropic support for schools than any city in the nation.

Memphis was one of four recipients of $290 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve teacher effectiveness last fall.

Memphis will receive $90 million over seven years. Only Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa received more.

On top of the Gates grant and the $68 million that will flow to Memphis as a result of Tennessee’s winning $500 million in Race to the Top stimulus dollars for innovation, the city schools also received nearly $600,000 last week in federal money to improve the quality of its principals.

“Yes, the funding is coming in,” said Jon Schnur, founder of New Leaders for New Schools. “But there is also the recognition that not all the places that get the investment will emerge.”

For Memphis to move from pockets of success — White Station High and Richland Elementary, for instance — to a city of excellent schools will take enormous effort, he said.

“The outcome is not inevitable. With hard work, Memphis has a shot to be at the forefront of education reform.”

The windfall, coupled with what educators and politicians call “an unprecedented aligning of the stars” — new laws tying teacher evaluations to test scores, union buy-in, bipartisan unity and a president determined to reward innovation in education — makes the start of the school year a rare moment for public education in Memphis.

“Other than people being envious, Memphis has a tremendous opportunity to put in place some of the reforms a lot of districts are talking about,” said Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality.

The acid test? “Look for changes in the rates teachers earn tenure; look at teacher dismissal rates, retention rates and what happens to effective teachers.”

Nationally, economists say the quality of the current teacher workforce looks like a bell curve: 15 percent are highly effective; 15 percent are ineffective and the rest are in the middle.

At Evans, Wright has no idea who will be assigned to her class. But she does know that many students at the school on Cottonwood near Perkins will speak Spanish and Vietnamese as their first language. Another percentage will be special education children, which law mandates must be educated with their age peers.

If she succeeds in moving the bar — giving her students more than one year’s academic gain per year — she may be eligible for a bonus in her first year.

With Gates’ help, the strongest teachers in Memphis, Wright included, can expect to earn close to six-figure salaries, the best way reformers know to apply marketplace principles to education.

Meantime, the district is also working on exit strategies for the less-talented and ways to make tenure more difficult.

About 93 percent get tenure, which until now has been considered a “pass-through” for those who last three years.

“It’s very clear that, come fall, principals will make harder decisions about non-renewal of teachers,” said Supt. Kriner Cash.

“I don’t expect a huge difference, but I do expect change.”

Starting this year, Memphis teachers can expect more frequent observations by a team of their subject/grade peers and the school principal.

A new teacher evaluation format will be tested in 15-25 schools, based on input from the Memphis Education Association and a task force of teachers. Dozens of envoys (students and teachers trained in ways to change school culture) will fan out in the city’s middle schools, hoping to tamp down the violence and destructive behavior that sociologists tie to poverty, negative neighborhoods and the culture of failure.

“It takes a bold vision to be the first to say ‘we’ll try it,’” said Walsh.

“But you can’t get that much money and not have people watching carefully.”

Cash feels the tension. “When steering a big ocean liner, it’s the hidden icebergs that keep you up at night,” he said.

Evans Elementary is a good example. The school did not not make the progress last year required by federal No Child Left Behind rules.

But for three years, its teachers have earned A’s for imparting more than a year’s worth of knowledge to their students.

“By the time we get them to fifth grade, they are off the charts,” said Evans principal Cynthia Alexander.

The measure is called value-added and is based on the the trajectory of students’ previous test scores.

Reformers say value-added is the fairest way to judge teachers because it shows how much they advance learning.

In Tennessee, a third of teachers and principals get less than one year’s gain in the classroom.

Unless they make progress, the climate is shaping up to remove them.

Gates has been clear that the money will stop if the district does not meet its goals.

MEA president Keith Williams says district administrators spent much of the summer fighting to keep eight of the most severely under-performing schools out of state control.

“Had that happened, we would have stood to lose 300 teachers and 6,000 students,” he said, gutting the spirit of the Gates work.

Two weeks ago when district officials met in Seattle to discuss progress with the Gates foundation, much of the talk centered on getting public buy-in, Williams said.

Nancy Coffee, president of The Leadership Academy, says the public is beginning to understand the magnitude of the attention.

“The piece they need to understand even more is we also have the accountability measures in place with Race to the Top and Gates.”

One measure of awareness may be contributions to the MCS Foundation.

To date, $14.7 million has been pledged since spring, when Memphis philanthropists got on board. The goal is $21.3 million by the end of the year

“People are thinking, yes, we dare to hope,” Coffee said. … “I think there is a sense that now may be the moment.”