CAMDEN -- History class is "social reasoning." Teachers are "advisers." And the 29-year-old principal is sometimes called "big head" or "little ears." By his students. To his face. And it's OK.

This is a school where there are no classes on Tuesdays or Thursdays, where tests and textbooks have gone the way of the mimeograph, where only one teacher is older than 30.

Welcome to MetEast High School -- an experiment in independent study backed by Microsoft's Bill Gates that finished its second year last week and is so far drawing positive reviews from Camden district officials, school staff and students.

"If other schools were like ours, the dropout rate would decline by a whole bunch," said Jose Tavarez, a freshman.

Even though the school has been an oasis amid the problems facing other Camden schools, the 93 students in grades nine through 11 set to attend next year will confront a major issue: Space. Met-East is growing, and the dilapidated Kaighn Avenue building where it is housed is not.

"Our kids are doing some great things in poor facilities," said school board President Sara Davis.

The school has 8,200 square feet of usable space even though the optimal size is closer to 15,000 square feet, the district said. The school will remain in the current quarters for one more school year -- after that, no one is quite sure where it will go.

"Our biggest issue is money, and finding a location that is appropriate for the context in which the school is designed," said Assistant Superintendent Luis Pagan.

MetEast is one of 40 "Big Picture Schools" that have sprouted nationwide since 1996 with backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The schools are connected by a common approach to education: research projects, small learning environments, group assignments, internships and the use of computers instead of textbooks.

"This place is almost like a college," said Angiana Thomspon, a Woodrow Wilson High graduate who teaches empirical reasoning, or science. "We're actually reaching the students, and they're actually absorbing it."

With a 2007-08 operating budget of $801,000, Met-East is funded as a public school by Camden and students compete for entrance through a lottery system. The Rhode Island-based Big Picture Schools provides training to the Met-East staff and offers continual guidance via videoconference to the principal, Timothy Jenkins, a 1995 Camden High graduate.

Students work with their parents to create parts of their daily schedule and curriculum, and they say they get along with each other so well that there's never been a fight in school.

The 11-person staff is responding to the unique environment, too. One teacher who left at 3:15 p.m. while working at another Camden school, now stays for hours after the bell rings. Another hosted a Christmas party for students at his apartment.

And advisers meet with students one-on-one each week and even make home visits to families.

"What made that different for me was teachers never really cared what parents had to say," said freshman Angelo Drummond. "When (the adviser) came to my house I was like, 'He really must care how I'm doing in school.' "

Since there aren't tests, advisers help students with exhibitions that they present four times a year to parents and staff.

And on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they intern in the real world: Helping a clerk in a judge's chambers, participating in experiments at Temple University's engineering department, preparing caskets at a city funeral home and shadowing a cardiac surgeon's operations.

"I stood there, over atop the patient when they cut the chest right open," said sophomore Breanna Pettus, who works for a doctor who took such a liking to her that he bought her a Palm Pilot. "It was amazing."

Next year, 30 new students will join the school and the District Parent Center, which acts as a liaison between parents and the district, will be moved to make room.

The building, which was to be used temporarily when the school opened in 2005, was once a school for pregnant teens. Now, students have to walk through one classroom to get to another.

When the school's fourth and final grade is added in 2008, Pagan wants to find a 25,000-square-foot space near downtown internships and public transportation.

He said depending on cash flow, the district will buy an existing building or find room in a district property. A new building is unlikely as it is not on the state Schools Construction Corp.'s list for construction.

The future site might depend in part how the district views the school's success. Pagan said Met-East is evaluated just like any other school, and next year its innovative approach will be compared to other city schools when Met-East students take their first state exam.

Principal Jenkins, 29, said students are learning the same skills as other students, "we're just delivering the information in a different context."

On a recent morning in adviser Zach Levy's daily morning "pick-me-up" exercise, freshmen were divided into two teams to see who could build a taller tower of 100 pieces of paper.

"We should make a bigger base like a pyramid so it's more stable," said Sam Martinez, 15. "I'm telling y'all, a pyramid. A pyramid, son!"

Martinez, who eventually convinced his classmates on the pyramid idea, said he enjoys the pick-me-ups.

"When you're going to school you are tired," he said. "So it lets you get ready to learn something."

Levy sees his students twice a day for two hours, and he'll be standing in front of the same students when they're seniors, offering the same quirky "pick-me-ups."

"The concept of the school is really built around relationships," Levy said.

Down the hall, adviser Keinan Thompson, who turned down law school to work at Met-East, keeps a couch in his classroom and has signs on the wall with student answers to statements like "maturity is . . ."

On this day, he's showing students statistics on Camden: Eight percent of residents older than 25 have a college degree, compared with 35 percent statewide; advanced proficiency on the state language arts exam was 0 percent at Camden High School, compared to 45.3 percent at Cherry Hill East.

Then, he leaves their jaws on the ground: Despite all of this, Camden spends $4,000 more per pupil than Cherry Hill.

Thompson tells his "agents," as he calls them, to investigate why "educational inequity persists along socioeconomic and racial lines."

"Why does Camden spend more money but apparently does not have the same results?" he asks.

Someone says "corruption." Another says Camden students aren't as committed to education.

"Are you starting to understand your mission?" Thompson asks.

"To prove them wrong," Tavarez answers.

"In 3 1/2 years when you guys leave this place I will make sure you go to a two-year or four-year institution," Thompson promises. "That's what I'm here to do."

And he has his believers.

"I'm here to go further than any kid from Camden ever did," said freshman Angelo Drummond.

At MetEast, the goals extend far beyond reading, writing and arithmetic.

"Their mission is to change the perception of Camden and themselves," Thompson said.

This article appeared in the Courier-Post. Photos by Tina Markoe Kinslow, Courier-Post.