The star student

At Prescott, the LEAP test has been personified like a giant to be vanquished with a rock and a sling. Call-to-arms posters hang in the hallways, crying out “Beat the LEAP!” The school even held a “LEAPing to Success” pep rally in the gymnasium on the Friday before the standardized test. Guests like state Rep. Michael Jackson shared test-taking skills, and the grade levels battled each other with blood-pumping, bleacher-pounding cheers.

Speaking to 225 a week later, Jericho Price, 14, called the exam easy. He’s an honor roll student who’s taking advanced classes at Prescott.

And he has a few ideas about some steps that could improve things at Prescott.

Like what time school starts. Though Metro Council and School Board officials sometimes debate early start times as a negative, Price doesn’t believe 7:10 a.m. is too soon for homeroom.

Another improvement? A science lab similar to Glen Oaks Middle, the school he used to attend. And the return of electives.

“They took our electives and just turned them into math and English and stuff,” says the young trombone player. “But we also need things like music and art. The students miss that.”

In order to stay, Price had to convince his mother that Prescott would challenge him. He did that by showing her how many of his teachers go out of their way to tutor and mentor students, many of whom come from fatherless homes. Math teacher Frank Sparks even offered to buy Price’s basketball shoes he needed last season.

“He pays attention to detail,” says Sparks, now in his third year at the school. “He understands that education is a means to an end, and he helps other students rise to the challenge.”

Science teacher Almenia Freeman Warren challenged Price to take the ACT last fall. He scored a 16, a strong score for any 8th grader, but exceptional at Prescott. But Price, who plays a handful of sports and participates in community service projects through the Boy Scouts, is not the typical student at Prescott. And the students are well aware of their school’s negative image. “When somebody writes something bad about Prescott our teachers usually read it to us so we can better ourselves and try to get them to write something good,” he says. However, he concedes that not all his peers seem as motivated to succeed as those in his advanced classes.

“I don’t really expect any changes when the state takes over,” Price says. “I think by us eighth-graders doing what we should—and I will restate that we did good (on the LEAP test)—I think we set the bar for the seventh-graders, and I hope they try to beat us.”