Courtesy Photo from The L.A. Times: At the Elite Educational Institute in Northridge, instructor Elizabeth Cho,
left, and student Christine Cao, 15, make a point to each other in a class on how to write an SAT essay.
By Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 29, 2008
For fun this summer, Mario Zubia spent six hours a day, five days a week in a Caltech classroom studying neuroscience and physics. He topped it off with five hours of homework a night. And the 17-year-old Santa Maria resident did it by choice.
"Some of my friends are like, 'What's wrong with you?' " said Mario, chuckling. "A high school counselor told me about it. I always liked science and math, and it seemed like a great opportunity."
Teens such as Mario -- who eschew such summer rituals as hitting the beach in favor of hitting the books -- appear to be growing in number, according to high school and college administrators.
Students' specific goals vary: improving SAT scores,
gilding college applications or just freeing up class schedules so they can fit in yet another Advanced Placement course or internship But their motivations are much the same: boosting their chances of getting into top colleges at a time that may be the toughest ever, thanks to a population peak of high school seniors, greater rates of college attendance and a stagnant number of college slots. (Read more)
"It's more competitive today to get into your college of choice than ever before," said Carl Hampton, principal of Chino Hills High School.
Hampton said he was seeing more and more students taking summer classes and tutoring to burnish their college applications, including his nephew, who just enrolled at the Air Force Academy.
"Unfortunately, it's just something that's become necessary if you want to get ahead," he said. "To get accepted into some schools, the competition is so steep, and they have to decide if that's worth the price."
His nephew has no regrets, but Hampton said he worried that some students may miss out on the time to be carefree teenagers.
"I worry about that," he said. "I think some of the creativity gets kind of drilled out of them."
As a new school year begins, students such as Julia Chang, 16, who attends Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, say the results will make their summer sacrifices worthwhile. The Calabasas resident spent eight weeks of her summer immersed in an SAT boot camp run by Elite Educational Institute, which was founded more than two decades ago in a Koreatown storefront and now runs 18 centers in California, six in Canada, five in South Korea and one in Thailand.
At the institute's Northridge campus this month, hundreds of teens hustled between classrooms, devoting five hours a day, five days a week to math, reading comprehension and writing classes and taking one full-length practice test each week.
Their goal is to boost their scores on the 2,400-point, three-part college entrance exam, helping their prospects at the nation's most competitive colleges.
"It's a lot of hours, it's intense, we have homework," said Julia, who hopes to study theater or pre-med at Georgetown University. "My parents are kind of making me, but I know it will be totally worthwhile when I take the SAT."
Mario, who attended Caltech's Young Engineering and Science Scholars summer program, said he hoped it would increase his chances of attending the school once he graduates from Santa Maria's Ernest Righetti High School.
The Caltech program, which attracted 67 applications in 2002, received 459 last year. Fewer than three dozen are accepted each year. The students then spend three weeks living on campus, taking classes, doing lab experiments and completing research projects. They also meet with university admissions officials, faculty and current Caltech students.
Students are also using their summers to take classes at local community colleges, so they can complete high school requisites, which will free up their schedules so they can take more electives or high-level classes.
At Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, 940 high school students took classes this summer, an enrollment that has nearly quadrupled since 1999.
"The jump is because high school students are starting earlier to work on their college degree," said Jenny McCue, spokeswoman for the college.
McCue, 36, said that when she was in high school, she spent her summers working and hanging out at the beach with friends.
Today's teens are different, she said.
"They're very ambitious; they seem to have a much clearer vision of what they are going to do with their lives than my peers did when I was in high school. They know where they want to go, they know where they want to be and they know what they're going to do to reach those goals. It's really impressive."
Tania Khodayar, 15, who will start her sophomore year at Mission Viejo High School next week, is among those students. Over the summer, she took an introduction to fine arts class to fulfill her arts elective requirement, which means the Laguna Hills teen will be able to take additional Spanish classes in high school or possibly intern at a doctor's office during her senior year. She also took an SAT prep class at Saddleback.
Tania, who hopes to attend USC or a University of California campus and become a surgeon one day, says she plans to take more courses next summer.
"I'll get another subject at school over with," she said.
Tania said she had been concerned that her busy schedule would cause her to miss out on time with her friends, playing tennis, visiting museums and having sleepovers.
"I was worried I wouldn't have time to enjoy summer -- I worked so hard over the school year," she said. "It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My best friend was in the SAT prep class with me." seema.mehta@latimes.com
Education Week Article Profiling Elite
In L.A.'s Koreatown, a Relentless Focus on Schooling
By Robert C. Johnson
Los Angeles
The sidewalks in Koreatown are teeming with students leaving school on a Tuesday afternoon. Rather than heading home, though, many of the children are hauling their backpacks to private after-school programs for several more hours of schooling.
Those programs, run out of homes, storefronts, and churches, are so popular in the Korean-American community here that the Korean-language phone book lists about 300 of them. Many others are said to operate on a less formal basis.
J. Grace Yoon, the principal of Wilton Place Elementary School, estimates that 80 percent of the Korean-American children in her school attend after-school programs or have tutors.
Kevin K. Sung, left, is the Executive Director of Elite Education Inc., which offers test- preparation programs and other services to Los Angeles area students. Jung Hwa Ree, right, operates the Wilshire Smiling Tree School, and after-school facility that serves about 150 preschool and elementary pupils.
"Most parents want their children to get an education," said Ms. Yoon, who was born in South Korea and immigrated here in the 1974. "But it's not enough to get it in the school." (Read more)
People here say the practice is imported from Korea, where students rely on tutors and other supplemental education to win highly competitive spots in college. In the United States, the programs meet parental demands for a flexible, academically centered day care. "It's part of the cultural identity of this town," said Lloyd J. Houske, the principal of Cahuenga Elementary School in this tightly knit community near the center of the city. "There's shopping and tutoring."
While the population of this four-square-mile neighborhood is about 50 percent Hispanic, there is no comparable educational network run by and for Hispanics. And with Korean children typically outperforming their Hispanic classmates here, some say the after-school modelโ€”and the relentless focus on education that pervades the Korean-American communityโ€”offer strong lessons for those seeking to raise the academic performance of other minority groups.
"It's like an ambience of learning that says education is important," said Eugene H. Cota-Robles, a professor emeritus of biology at University of California, Santa Cruz, and a co-chairman of the College Board's National Task Force on Minority High Achievement, which sponsored a research project on the after-school programs. "The Latino community could learn a lot about that ambience."
'The Only Variable'
People of Korean ancestry make up about 10 percent of California's roughly 4-million-strong Asian community, which in turn accounts for some 11 percent of the state's population. Koreatown has been the largest Korean community in the United State since its distinct ethnic flavor began taking hold in the early 1900s. Today, following a four-decade influx of Korean immigrants that began with changes in federal immigration laws in 1965, Koreatown covers several city blocks and is home to thousands of Korean-Americans. Many more come here daily to work, shop, and socialize.
The 1990 U.S. Census found that among Koreans age 25 or older, 55 percent had some college education, slightly ahead of the Asian-American and the U.S. populations as a whole, and most had held white-collar jobs in Korea before emigrating.
Such backgrounds would seem to preordain their children to academic success. On the other hand, Korean immigrants struggle with language differences and rarely hold the same white-collar jobs here. Still, Korean parents here maintain their deep reverence for education. In addition to being a cornerstone of centuries-old Confucian values, strong schooling historically has helped Koreans rise from the lower classes in their native country by preparing them for the exams needed to quality for respected government jobs.
"Education is the only variable for success," Ms. Yoon said "If you are not educated, you are nobody."
Kyeyoung Park, an anthropology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, agreed. She noted that many Korean-American parents are especially fond of Ivy League schools. "I've even had a student named Princeton Kim," she said.
'Strong Trees'
Ms. Yoon says the popular after-school programs almost certainly contribute to the differences in performance between her Asian students, most of whom are Korean-American, and her Hispanic students.
For example, 22 percent of the school's Hispanic students scored above the national mean in 1998-99 on the Stanford Achievement Test-9th Edition, while 73 percent of Asians scored above the mean.
Though Ms. Yoon is often asked by Korean parents to recommend the best after-school programs, she refuses to do so in order to avoid conflicts of interest. There are plenty of candidates, however.
For example, less than a mile away is the Morning Star Nursery & Preschool, which was started 15 years ago by Yong Cha Ra, a former teacher's aide at Wilton Place Elementary, on the bottom floor of her two-story house. Her enrollment has quintupled, from 10 students the first year to 50 this year. She provides transportation for elementary school students who come after their regular day. The students can stay till 6:30 p.m., receiving help on their homework, in English, as well as the chance to practice on the two pianos and 10 computers. The cost ranges from $250 to $350 a month.
"Parents think there's not enough in the public schoolโ€”that's why they send them to me," Ms. Ra said.
A few blocks away, Jung Hwa Ree, who teaches child development at Los Angeles City College, operates the Wilshire Smiling Tree School, which has about 150 preschool and elementary pupils. The curious name is a metaphor for children, she says: "When tree roots are good, they will grow up to be strong trees."
Her school would not be popular as a day-care alternative with the Korean parents if it did not have an academic focus and assignments were not taught in English. "Korean parents want more than play for their kids," Ms. Ree said. And while she has television sets at the school, the students watch it for just one hour on Friday afternoon as a treat. "Parents like that," she added. "No TV!"
It wouldn't be fair, however, to say that her school is all work and no play. Ms. Ree, a mother of two who came to the United States from South Korea in 1973, goes to great lengths to create a lively and engaging atmosphere. The two story walls around the converted home that houses the school are decorated with colorful murals of astronauts and seascapes.
Classes are small. And she has converted a former fishing boat into a favorite playground toy for the children.
"I don't like to play all day or push too much, so I've tried to figureout what's best for the kids," she said. "Scores are important, but play is also important."
'Scoring Points'
Scores are more important, though, at the six Elite Educational Inc. site around Los Angeles. Serving primarily high school students, Elite charges about $300 for four-week test-preparation, academic enrichment, and college-planning courses.
The company's brochures publish the names and scores of some of its star pupils, several of whom have posted perfect scores of 1600 on the SAT.
"We can make a drastic improvement, and we have the numbers to prove it," said Kevin K. Sung, the executive director of Elite Educational.
The company's site in Koreatown operates from the second story of a small office complex on bustling Wilshire Boulevard. The offices and classrooms are clean and neat, but sparsely decorated. Distractions are minimal.
Mr. Sung said that despite the volume of supplemental education programs in the area, he doubts that the market is saturated. Indeed, he would like to see such opportunities expanded to other groups need more information on tests and college. "We in the Asian community are tapping into that," he said. "If average kids are not exposed to these extra things and higher expectations, there would be no difference for them."
There are also programs for students who cannot afford the fees that the private programs charge. The Korean Youth and Community Center, an independent nonprofit community service agency, provides after-school homework supervision and enrichment programs for several dozen students at its two-story building here, as well as at local schools.
Soojung Young, the program director. said that her tutors, most of whom are local college students, review report cards, test scores, and notes from teachers to tailor one-on one instruction for each student.
'Homework, Please'
The youngsters clearly enjoy their college tutors, who gently prod them to fill in worksheets or calculate a multiplication problem. Taking a break from her work with a young boy, Deborah Shin, a Korean-American sophomore at UCLA who is studying political science and history, said, "I can't imagine not helping the community."
The after-school programs do more than help students get good grades. Korean parents here use them to build their children's credentials so that they can qualify for prized spots in the city's respected magnet school program, or win acceptance to a private school, for those who can afford it.
Asian students make up 4 percent of the Los Angeles school district's nearly 700,000 students, but represent 12 percent of all students who attend its magnet schools, admission to which can be highly competitive. In contrast, Hispanics make up 70 percent of the district's total enrollment, but only 37 percent of the magnet school students.
"Most Korean parents want their child in magnet schools," said Soo Young Nam, the mother of a 1st grader at Wilton Place Elementary. "If they can't move to another city [for better schools], they look for magnet schools."
While all this aggressive parenting is generally seen as a good thing, educators here acknowledge that there is a downside.
Ms. young often feels compelled to tell parents that it is OK if their children don't want to attend Ivy League schools, and that forcing children to live their parents' dreams can cause problems.
"Some Korean immigrant parents are not happy if the teachers don't give their children enough homework," added Ms. Park of UCLA. "They protest."
Still, local families invest a great deal of pride in their children's accomplishments. One of the community's highlights comes in May, when the local Korean-language newspaper begins publishing student names, their test scores, and the colleges they plan to attend.
Mr. Cota-Robles agrees that any parent can overdo it. On the other hand, he said, many Hispanic and African-American children could benefit from a similar community wide focus.
"If it gives kids more confidence in their skills, that's good," said Mr. Cota-Robles, who hopes to get a national Hispanic group to open an academic "outpost" in Koreatown. Besides, he added, maybe it's time to start looking at the time that children spend in groups working on school assignments assimultaneously balancing their academic and social needs. "That can be done," he said.
