"Cheese" isn't only a dairy product, it's also a smile; when you "schmab," you're burning rubber; and when you're "ghost," you're gone. These are just a couple of the coined phrases clever enough to earn their creators - students in Berkeley High's Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS) program - spots on the national news and Webster's approved list. The Berkeley High School Slang Dictionarycontains a striking array of words the students of Berkeley High have identified as part of the cultural and linguistic fabric of spoken English. The words come from both the margins and the mainstream - African American, Chicano, Jewish, and sports culture, along with hip-hop, the church, the drug scene, and even movies. This book is more than a list of new slang terms; it's also an exciting look at how different cultures and communities reclaim their language in creative ways.

Communication Arts & Sciences is a project at Berkeley High whose fundamental enterprise is to bring together teachers, students, and parents to create a learning community that nourishes and develops the whole student, with an emphasis on social justice, media literacy, communications skills, and communication technologies. CAS is built around thematic core curriculum focused on social justice and an experiential pedagogy. CAS is committed to creating a heterogeneous grouping of ethnicities and skill levels, and its goal is to make school more successful, especially for those who have not traditionally done well at Berkeley High.