LAKE ELSINORE - "Dinosaurs are out, the Crayola curriculum is out."

That's Earl Shore putting it bluntly to a room full of teachers in Lake Elsinore recently.

Shore, Lake Elsinore Unified School District's new assistant superintendent of program improvement, was hired recently to help lead its schools out from under the glaring spotlight of the federal government.

The feds have dubbed the district as "underperforming," based on standardized test scores.

Shore is considered somewhat of a guru in the field of helping high-poverty areas achieve high-performing scores on standardized tests. He has brought his expertise and infectious enthusiasm to Lake Elsinore to help its teachers help their students.

One of the ways he is doing that is by encouraging educators to get behind the notion that nothing should be going on in the classroom that doesn't directly relate to what the California Department of Education expects students to know and master.

That is what's on the tests, he emphasized.

In education circles, some call that "teaching to the test," but Shore calls it "teaching for the test."

"Dinosaurs and sharing are out," Shore said in an interview. "They have to teach the right stuff; that's non-negotiable. They can't just teach whatever the heck they want. That's not fair to the kids."

What's more, teaching for the test benefits teachers because it ultimately gives them credit for all their hard work, and it also gives students a "fighting chance" to do well on standardized tests, he said.

With that, Shore said another thing he plans to tackle and eliminate in the district is what he refers to as "hate speech" -- comments such as "kids can't do it."

"There is still too much of that floating around Lake Elsinore," he said.

More than two decades ago, when problems were evident with public education, comments such as, "Well, they're poor black kids, or they're poor white trash or they're dumb Mexicans," were common, he said.

"Now it's more cleverly disguised," Shore said. "They'll say 'These kids are poverty-stricken, they can't do it'; 'we don't get support from parents'; 'they don't speak English.' It's all hate speech -- it's not the kids. How many examples of schools beating the odds do you need to hear about before you believe it can happen?"

In fact, Shore himself led a school dismissed by many as a hopeless academic situation into a success story.

As principal of Mead Valley Elementary School in Perris for the last eight years before accepting the Lake Elsinore post, he led the campus with mostly poor and non-English speaking students into achieving dramatic gains on standardized tests.

Megan Schuck, a teacher who worked with Shore at Mead Valley Elementary, said he was passionate about helping teachers help their students through a variety of methods, including offering his steadfast support in any situation and providing staff development.

Schuck said she doesn't consider Shore's techniques to be "teaching to the test."

"I didn't feel like that was what we did at all," she said. "We were just developing a lot of critical strategies to meet the needs of our diverse population. He is very successful at raising test scores and improving student achievement."

Shore, 55, has 33 years as an educator, and continues to work as a consultant along with his job at Lake Elsinore. In his consultant work, something he took up several years ago, he often gives speeches about the turnaround at Mead Valley, and also helps other districts across the nation implement some of his methods and philosophies.

It was at a few National School Boards Association conferences that Lake Elsinore trustees first heard of Shore, and when they realized that he was living in Riverside, they sought to hire him. Shore began at the district July 1.

"Earl is a strong student advocate and believes all kids can learn," said Superintendent Frank Passarella. "He also has a proven track record of helping kids achieve high levels of academic proficiency. We're excited to have him on board."

Shore said he isn't about taking the fun out of learning, and wants teachers to be as creative and fun as they can be while teaching the state's academic standards.

"They can teach the standards any way they want, they just have to make sure they have a goal and the kids understand what they're doing," Shore said.

Over the last few weeks, Shore has been visiting Lake Elsinore campuses, observing classrooms and then sharing with teachers what he saw as strengths and weaknesses. He then teaches the educators about his strategies, which he dubs "strategic schooling."

He encourages them to stay on top of classroom management and to make sure the standards are being addressed in one way or another. He asks them to "check for understanding" by asking students, "Show me how you did that."

He wants teachers to post a big "800" in their classrooms. It represents the numeric grade state education officials have asked schools to achieve on standardized tests. Teachers also have been asked to post color-coded curriculum blueprints of the state's academic standards to help keep them on track.

Shore also gives teachers handouts outlining his strategies. The outlines ask teachers to undertake many efforts, including: knowing the state's standards and making sure their classroom curriculum matches; keeping track of student learning and knowing each pupil's strength and weaknesses; asking a "why" question every 20 minutes; and meeting at least twice a month to discuss students, test data and best practices.

For the last two years, the Lake Elsinore district has posted gains on standardized tests. The district still must continue that trend this year to reverse the underperformance label stuck on them by federal education officials, a label that comes with various sanctions if not resolved.

Many of the district's campuses have already faced some of those sanctions, such as allowing students to transfer to better performing schools, and replacing administrators at the helm of failing schools.

Some Lake Elsinore schools still face those potential fates. But Shore said he's confident the district is on the right track and is turning things around.

"It's old-fashioned hard work that gets the job done," Shore said. "We call it a laser-light focus on student achievement."