E. Harlem Students Earn Seats at Harvard Graduation

The sixth- and seventh-graders at Democracy Prep Charter School in East Harlem have not yet graduated middle school. Yet about 70 of them were among the crowd at Harvard University's commencement exercises over the weekend.

Their school leaders said the experience was an appropriate reward for the 12- and 13-year-olds' hard work this year. Students at Democracy Prep attend school from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. They also go to school on Saturdays and during the summer.

"Our scholars started Democracy Prep dramatically behind their more affluent peers just two years ago and today they earned seats at the Harvard Commencement," Democracy Prep's founder and head of school, Seth Andrew, said in a statement.

School officials said the dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Education, Kathleen McCartney, invited the students to attend the ceremony after visiting the school in the spring.

Mr. Andrew is a graduate of the school.

The trip was part of a four-day tour whose stops also included visits to the University of Massachusetts and Tufts University, where students stayed in dormitories, and a stop at Albany to lobby for school funding.