First- and second-graders practiced pronunciation. Third- and fourth-graders learned basic Spanish while learning their classmates' names. Fifth- and sixth-graders discovered their teachers' backgrounds.

Monday was the first day of school for the 230 kindergarten to sixth-graders at Polytechnic Elementary School in Mesa. The nonprofit charter school, managed by University Public Schools Inc., is affiliated with Arizona State University. It's been in the planning stages since ASU President Michael Crow envisioned it in 2002.

The school promises innovative, team teaching, individualized learning for every student and new teaching styles, implemented with the help of mentor teachers and ASU graduate students, said Principal Donna Bullock.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/122837

Michael Crow is overseeing one of the most radical redesigns in higher learning since the modern research university took shape in 19th-century Germany. Since taking over as president of Arizona State University in 2002, he's not only doubled the budget to more than $2 billion a year, hired dozens of world-class researchers and rapidly raised the academic profile of what used to be a mediocre school; he's also transforming the way Phoenix-based ASU sees itself—and helping reinvent the university for the global age.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/151686/page/1

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/08/pdf/highered1.pdf