For about a year now, Academy Prep co-founder Jeff Fortune has been telling stories to business leaders, educators and parents about all the little signs of progress he was seeing at the school for disadvantaged boys.

Now Fortune has more than heartwarming anecdotes to talk about.

Test scores from last school year - Academy Prep's first year - show impressive gains, especially in language arts. Students were tested in November and again at the end of the school year, and in many areas the boys improved more than a grade level in a period of six months. In some areas, fifth-graders jumped the equivalent of two grade levels.

"We don't wave any magic wands here," said John Effinger, director of Academy Prep. "We have high expectations and spend a great amount of time working with the kids to meet those expectations."

Fortune explained it even more simply: "The thing we attribute it to is a lot of hours - a lot of hours."

The school at 2301 22nd Ave. S is in the heart of a disadvantaged area not far from the center of the racial violence that rocked the city in 1996. Fifth-, sixth- and seventh-grade boys are taught ethics and leadership along with a demanding academic curriculum, which includes instruction in Latin. It features an extended school day (typically from 7:45 a.m. to about 9 p.m.), a six-day week and an extended school year.

The boys at the school all are disadvantaged, and many were having trouble academically or behaviorally in public schools. But all showed signs of academic promise. They attend the school free of charge; tuition is paid by community donations.

Fortune discussed the test scores at a ceremony Wednesday to thank Beall's department stores for contributing money for the original classroom building, and to name that building after James Weldon Johnson. Johnson was an author, teacher, civil rights activist and poet who is credited with writing the song known as the black national anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, in 1900.

The test scores are the first concrete evidence that the school is delivering on its promise of higher academic achievement. The boys took the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills - the same test used by the Pinellas County public schools.

Judging by the results from November, many of the fifth-graders entered Academy Prep near or above their grade level in math, but well behind in language arts. When the test was given in May, the overall gain was nearly 1 1/2 grade levels in a period of six months, Fortune said.

The biggest gains, more than two full grade levels, were in language arts, where the fifth-graders had the most room for improvement. Gains in math were not as high, though there was not as much room for dramatic improvement.

The gains in scores for the sixth-graders were not as dramatic - on average, improvement of one full grade level in less than one school year. The sixth-graders showed themselves to be at or above grade level in most areas during the November testing.

"The scores are very impressive over a very short period of time," said Bill Heller, dean of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus, who attended the ceremony Wednesday. "What they're doing has been working. The challenge is going to be to sustain it."