West Sacramento Early College Prep launched its school year last week with its first high school class, a new campus and a greater emphasis on student-driven learning.

The charter school is a groundbreaking joint venture between UC Davis and West Sacramento's Washington Unified School District.

It opened in 2007 with a mission to prepare low-income kids for college. Almost all pupils come from homes where English is not the primary language and where parents don't have college degrees.

Many students have struggled with reading, writing and math in traditional schools, said Yolanda Falkenberg, the school's principal.

The city has some of the lowest-performing schools in the region and a high dropout rate, records show.

Many schools, including West Sac Prep, struggle with lower than average test scores.

But the charter school was designed by education experts at UC Davis in hopes of reversing those trends.

West Sac Prep started with sixth- and seventh-graders and has been adding grades year by year. Its first class of ninth-graders started Monday. There are now about 200 students. Class sizes are small, with about 20 students each.

Alejandra Montelongo, a new ninth-grader, has only been at the school for a few days. She said she heard about it from friends.

The soft-spoken 14-year-old said she wants to be the first in her family to go to college and might like to be a lawyer some day.

"I want to have a good future," she said.

Over the summer, the school moved to a new home at a former elementary school in a leafy neighborhood.

On Thursday, students prepared the classrooms in the older blue and white buildings. They taped up artwork, readied cubbies and suggested ways to improve the school.

Students do many tasks themselves. There are no janitors, so students must clean up – straightening classrooms and wiping down lunch tables each day. They say it gives them a sense of ownership.

So do the individual work spaces equipped with computers that they call their offices.

The do-it-yourself ethos extends to the classrooms, where students' curiosity shapes their learning experiences.

This year the school will focus on learning centered on student projects.

Students decide what interests them, and teachers must craft lessons in English, math, science and history that relate to the project's central theme.

For instance, a group of girls this year is interested in doing work that aids the Shriners hospital for children in Sacramento, which treats burns, orthopedic conditions and spinal cord injuries.

Teacher Liz Altschule said she hopes to guide the students into learning history, science and literature through the project.

It's a challenge for students to take responsibility for their educations, she said. But in the long run, educators hope it will lead to the kind of critical thinking and inquiry that happens at the university level. It also gives teachers greater flexibility than just teaching to a lesson plan, Altschule said.

Faculty and graduate students from the UC Davis School of Education are often on campus working with teachers and students.

UC Davis professor Tobin White was awarded a $650,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop new ways of teaching algebra.

He and his graduate students are using West Sac Prep as a laboratory.

Call The Bee's Hudson Sangree, (916) 321-1191.