There are a lot of articles that I call "Poor Me" stories which describe some wonderful school who teaches the "whole child" and strives to make "life long learners" but yet is under sanction by the evil George Bush administration's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act which "takes all the fun out of teaching." So, when I see stories that celebrate schools that are having success in getting poor and minority students to grade level proficiency in large numbers, I get really excited.

This San Francisco Chronicle story celebrates the success of Monarch Academy an Aspire Public Schools Charter school in Oakland Unified.

Monarch serves 355 predominantly low-income Latino children in kindergarten through fifth grade, many of whom are still learning English - a demographic often linked to bottom-of-the-barrel test scores.

While education officials often say schools like Monarch are "beating the odds," Principal Tatiana Epanchin says it isn't complicated. She believes it involves hard work and high expectations.

"There's not a single child who cannot learn," she said. "One of our main mottos at Monarch is: 'Think you can! Work hard! Get smart!' All the people in the Monarch community deeply hold the belief that when a child believes in himself or herself and applies effective effort, he or she can learn anything. Our scores are a testament to that belief."

Day to day, that belief system translates into strict school and classroom routines, uniforms, organic lunches and a no-sugar policy, a morning greeting with group cheers about college, art classes, music and physical education, and teachers who talk to each other.

And there are tests - lots of tests. The students and staff spend a great deal of time preparing for, talking about, practicing and taking tests.

Ten weeks before this year's high-stakes standardized tests in May, Monarch shifted into high gear with student practice tests for an hour or so each week. They call it "Figure it out Friday." They also review material and talk about the test between other lessons.

Recently, on one such Friday, students walked to their classrooms along hallways festooned with college banners. Every classroom at Monarch is named after a university - part of the school's effort to put college on the radar of children with no exposure to higher education.

Whatever Monarch Academy is doing works. All you have to do is look at these charts from Just for the Kids - California:

English/Language Arts:

Mathematics:

Monarch Academy is a great example of what I'm talking about. This is a school that is having success at getting poor and minority students to grade-level. They realize they're not getting them all there, but they're making great progress.

The emphasis on testing is part of the philosophy of Monarch's operator, Aspire Public Schools, a nonprofit organization with 21 charter schools across the state. Aspire uses quarterly assessments to determine the progress of every child learning grade-level academic skills. The annual statewide test comes too infrequently and too late to help a child who's fallen behind, Aspire leaders say.

Epanchin believes in even more frequent standardized testing. In her office, for example, charts cover a wall with the names of every student in grades 2 through 5 - each child located above or below a red line based on recent assessments. Above is proficient; below is not. More than half the students are below. Epanchin wonders out loud how a school can be so close to the state's coveted 800 points "and still have so many students, according to this one measure, who aren't proficient."

While she believes in data and in regular assessment to help get the children above the red line, she's aware there are those who believe the emphasis on testing and test preparation is sucking the life out of learning.

Epanchin said taking tests is a skill that every student and adult must have.

"I think it's important for people not to be scared to take a test," she said. "It is a part of life."

In addition, the tests provide information to her and the teachers about each child's needs. Another school motto is: "We're down with data."

Every week, Epanchin makes sure the teachers in each grade have 50 minutes to share information with each other about their students' progress and how to improve the teaching.

"The amount of collaboration that goes on is really amazing," Shafer said. "We have time built into the day to look at student work and data together."

Wow, I couldn't agree more. I'm also puzzled how a school only 5 points from the state's goal of 800 on the API can still have more than half of their students who aren't yet at grade-level in Language Arts. Monarch Academy has made great progress, but they still have a long way to go, yet the state says they're almost there.

That's because the state's API model has set mediocrity as its goal. You can have an API of 800 and still have more than half your students below grade-level. For example, Mark Twain Elementary in Lawndale Elementary only had 46.7% of its students at grade-level in Language Arts last year, but scored an API of 800 points, making the state's goal. At this point, according to the California Department of Education, all the school needs to do is maintain that 800 score.

Test-taking is a skill that students need to learn. I'm not aware of a single college or university that doesn't require that students take tests. Many professions require certification testing as part of the licensing process. Testing doesn't just go away because you graduate high school. Basic test-taking skills is something that all students should learn in their public school.

Critics, however, question the kind of success a charter school like Monarch has achieved, wondering whether the students choosing and attending such schools would have done well anywhere. These successful charters, they say, are simply "skimming" the best kids off the top of the public school system.

Yet, in 2001, Monarch's first year in business, the students scored in the bottom 10 percent on statewide tests, posting an embarrassing API of 466. In the years since, the school has seen everything from a 31-point decline in 2004 to the recent dramatic gains.

Epanchin believes the high test scores represent more than points on a scale. They represent dreams. In March, she arranged for her students and their families to board chartered buses for UC Berkeley, where many of the 1,000 visitors stepped onto a college campus for the first time.

Sanchez was one of those visitors to Cal. The Oakland mother said Monarch's focus on college has been ingrained in her sons, although she graduated from a continuation high school and her husband never got his diploma.

"For us to push them, to have that instilled in them since kindergarten, that's a big dream for us," she said.

As for Epanchin, even this year's goal of an 800 score won't be good enough, she said with a smile. She wants every child to be proficient - and a score of 950 would be nice. "I just think the work is going to get harder and harder," she said.

As I've said before, I think that the high expectations adopted by schools like Monarch Academy is one of the major reasons for their success. Before Monarch Academy, many of these students wouldn't have been talking about colleges. They wouldn't be talking positively about assessments. Their parents also wouldn't have been talking seriously about their student going to college. This is why these students are going to a charter school. Their parents have high expectations for them. Their parents want their school to have these same high expectations for their students. Until our traditional public schools start to change, charter schools are going to continue to grow in enrollment.