At Coppin State University, a historically Black university, nearly 120 ninth-graders are enrolled in the Coppin Academy. The academy is one of nearly a dozen such innovative school partnerships nationwide, aiming to apply study results that suggest that African-American students may perform better in smaller, more personalized learning communities. The concept offers local minority and disadvantaged high school students small classes, rigorous course work, committed teachers and attentive counseling--an academic environment that had previously belonged exclusively to those who could afford it. Venturing into the national education reform arena was a leap of faith for some of the colleges involved, but they view this step as a way to help rescue children and communities, and are seeing early progress.