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Bank manager Debbie Burcham remembers taking the call from someone at nearby Stonewall Jackson Middle School one day last spring.

Would Carter Bank and Trust post a message on its marquee to encourage Jackson students taking the upcoming Standards of Learning tests, school employee Jean Thompson asked.

The bank eagerly agreed, joining a car wash, drugstore and other Southeast Roanoke neighborhood businesses to rally the youngsters.

Later this month, Jackson will learn whether students' SOL scores were strong enough to earn the school the state's accreditation. Preliminary data released by Roanoke city schools a few weeks ago showed that Jackson was one of two middle schools to make it, and the only one to meet federal standards

"I was real proud of them," Burcham said.

If Jackson gets the state's thumbs up, a few supportive words of "good luck" on neighborhood billboards alone didn't put the students over the top.

But the words on the signs were a public acknowledgement of a community's enthusiastic commitment to its school.

Southeast Roanoke has Jackson's back. The neighborhood is a microcosm of what can happen when students, parents, educators, school board members and businesses -- indeed the community -- pull together to make education a priority.

"The community knows these are the young people who are going to be here and live in the area," Principal Stephanie Hogan said. "It's a partnership that's beneficial to all of us."

'A Mighty Charger'

More and more, I'm encouraged by the reports of businesses, churches, civic groups and individuals that have adopted Roanoke schools. Some provide tutors. Others send healthy snacks home with disadvantaged children over the weekend. Still others buy school supplies.

As Roanoke struggles to produce high-achieving students, Jackson provides a model of collaboration that emphasizes students' academic and overall well-being.

Jackson, "Home of the Mighty Chargers," is an inviting red-brick building with an entrance that sits in an earthen bowl on a tree-lined, residential street. The school anchors the working-class neighborhood that surrounds it.

The building is open and bright. Brightly colored trash cans painted by students and bearing different themes dot the halls. Inspiring posters scream words such as "CHARACTER" in all caps.

The six-point Jackson doctrine is spelled out in a sign posted throughout the school with the heading, "What it means to be a Mighty Charger." Essentially what it means is to attend class, do your work and show respect to others.

'Big Mama'

Riding herd over this collection of students that range from playful sixth-graders to adolescent, anxiety-filled eighth-graders is Hogan.

The Roanoke native began her career as a teacher at Jackson in 1991. She spent four years there before moving to other jobs around the district, including intervention specialist at Morningside and Forest Park elementaries and assistant principal at Breckenridge Middle School.

Hogan brought her larger-than-life personality back when she returned five years ago as principal. The imposing, expressive redhead occasionally refers to herself in the third person as "Big Mama."

If Hogan is the matriarch behind Jackson's progress, her charges are responding to her tough love.

"She's great," eighth-grader Josh Carter said Friday morning. "She's very hard on us, but it comes out and we improve in our grades."

The 12-year-old said that when he came to the school two years ago as a sixth-grader, he was immature and his grades were C's and D's. Last school year he finished with four A's and three B's and now dreams of a career in medicine.

Josh's academic progress has paralleled with his school's.

Like climbing a mountain

Hogan laid out the school's journey to me last week. For each of her years at Jackson, the school had edged closer to state accreditation. Each fall when the state released the SOL results, Jackson had improved.

But not enough.

Jackson faced sanctions if it didn't make necessary progress this year.

Now, however, the school is braced for celebration.

To make accreditation, at least 70 percent of a school's students have to pass four subjects. Preliminary SOL results show that at Jackson, 76 percent of students passed English, 72 percent math, 83 percent history and 90 percent science.

Hogan likens this year's anticipated accreditation to climbing a mountain.

Over the years, she and her staff have closely monitored and assessed students' classroom performance. Those who fall behind are identified and helped.

Students with a D or F in a course automatically work with a subject specialist.

Teachers play close attention to students' personalities and academic strengths and weaknesses to ensure the right peer mix to help and motivate one another.

The school also has tried to break down perceptions that honors classes are only for the students exceptional in all subjects. A student can be average in English but welcomed into an honors math class.

Hogan and her staff also work hard to inform parents of the standards and expectations of their children. Some of the parents didn't finish high school and feel intimidated by the course work their youngsters bring home.

But there's one pivotal role parents play that has little to do with whether they graduated, Hogan noted.

"I tell them, 'You send them to school every day, just get them here,' " she said.

Willingness to help

Demographically, Jackson's students face the same challenges that many city schools face. Nearly 76 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch.

"If they need pencils, we buy them. We've bought shoes for kids," Hogan said.

Karla Rodriguez, 12, values the family atmosphere at Jackson.

"When you have problems, teachers are willing to help you," said Karla, who got a perfect 600 on her history SOL and was the second-place finisher in the citywide spelling bee.

Teacher Carolyn Hoyt said, "The kids need stability, and we are their stability -- for a lot of them."

During his convocation remarks recently, school board Chairman David Carson said educators can't use the challenges their students face as reasons why the youngsters -- and their schools -- cannot succeed.

"I've heard all the excuses -- poverty, lack of parental involvement, lack of student interest, absenteeism, a negative academic culture for some students, et cetera," Carson said.

"The problem with any excuse is that when a school that has all those challenges and excuses makes it, then the challenges and excuses suddenly become irrelevant."