An interesting article from today's Inky:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/n...a/11009458.htm
Posted on Mon, Feb. 28, 2005

City disciplinary schools see a boom

By Susan Snyder

Inquirer Staff Writer

The number of students in disciplinary schools has more than doubled as the Philadelphia School District continues its crackdown on disruptive and violent behavior.

Collectively, the disciplinary network has a capacity of 3,368 students, just under 2 percent of the school system's 185,000 enrollment. As of January, nearly 2,300 spots were filled - up from fewer than 1,000 five years ago - and district officials anticipated more than 3,000 students by June.

The district this year has budgeted $38.2 million for five schools, plus 125 spots in a privately run school and 11 classrooms for disruptive third and fourth graders.

Another school serving 200 students in South Philadelphia is scheduled to open in June.

The expansion comes as the district itself is getting out of managing disciplinary schools.

In the last year, it has turned management of all but one of its disciplinary schools over to for-profit companies. And the remaining district-run school - Shallcross in the Northeast - will be demolished, replaced and contracted out, district chief executive Paul Vallas said.

"I don't think we should be in the business of alternative schools at all," Vallas said in an interview. "There are companies for which it is their profession. Their livelihood depends on the programs, and the extension of their contracts is contingent upon the performance of their students."

Vallas said it was too early to tell whether the new approach was working. Violent incidents persist districtwide, with only a slight decline among secondary students.

"I think it's going to take a couple more years for us to see a measurable gain," he said.

At the disciplinary schools, attendance, behavior and academics have improved, he said. Attendance typically is in the 80 percent range, up from 50 percent to 60 percent when the district ran the schools.

But there are no data yet to show how students fare once they return to regular classrooms for more than a year.

The district is awaiting a Temple University study focused on the district's longest-running for-profit disciplinary school, Community Education Partners (CEP). The Nashville-based firm started managing a 300-student school in Philadelphia in the fall of 2000. Today, it is the district's largest disciplinary school operator, with three campuses and a total capacity of 2,150.

District officials, who have seen preliminary data, were mum on the Temple study results.

But Barbara Braman, CEP's vice president for external relations, said results shared with her look positive.

"The data show that kids who have spent approximately an academic year in CEP - once they go back to a district school - reintegrate well and are successful," Braman said.

The disciplinary programs cost $11,342 per student, about $2,000 more than the average per-pupil costs, Vallas said.

"When you consider these students are basically in need of greater support, that cost is not unreasonable," Vallas said, noting that the state reimburses the district $18 million annually.

The programs share characteristics: They are small schools. They restrict student movement in the building. They pay attention to behavior and counseling as much as to education.

And they all follow the district's curriculum, except for Delaware Valley High School-Bustleton, the school where the district purchases spots. That school issues its own diplomas.

Students are subject to metal detectors and searches. They generally are prohibited from carrying book bags or large sums of money and from wearing jewelry or coats in school. The schools issue few suspensions, preferring to deal with the behavior at school.

CEP's newest school - E.S. Miller in West Philadelphia - had been run by the district. It was turned over to CEP after $12 million in renovations. The new design takes into account that conflicts in regular high schools most often occur in cafeterias, hallways, bathrooms, and other unsupervised spots.

The building is divided into six schools, or communities. Each community enrolls fewer than 100 students, who share four classrooms and a small common area where students eat lunch. There are one-person bathrooms between the classrooms. Students change classes through doors inside the rooms; they rarely walk in the halls.

"We can't walk out of our community," said Keyonna Askew, 16, who came to CEP in November from Benjamin Franklin High School. "There's more supervision."

English teacher Letitia Youngblood uses lots of hands-on lessons to keep students interested and motivated to learn. She recently had them design their own lesson and teach it to the class.

"You just have to think outside the box," she said.

Students must stay a minimum of one year. To return to the district, they must have better than 90 percent attendance, pass all their subjects, and have no major disciplinary infractions.

Sharif Fogg, 17, a senior, doesn't want to go back to Bartram High, where a fight landed him in trouble.

"I'm graduating from here. If I go back, I'm not going to be the same. Here, I come to school every day. My grades are better. I don't have no trouble with nobody," he said.

At first, Earlshawnda Clayton didn't want her son, Dante, 17, (she requested that his last name not be used) to be enrolled at the Daniel Boone School, which is run by Camelot Schools. She didn't think he needed to be there. He hadn't been in trouble before but was kicked out of Martin Luther King High after a knife he used for work was found in his coat.

But now, a few months later, Clayton is considering starting a parent association at Boone.

"For the first time in ages, he brought me a report card with A's, B's and C's," she said.

And he has earned his way into the school's top group, called "the pioneers." "I feel better about it," she said.

English teacher Narberth Rice, who also worked at Boone pre-Camelot, said the school has improved: "There's discipline, a lot more control. The students are actually learning."

Each self-contained classroom for disruptive third and fourth graders, run by Cornell Cos., is staffed by a teacher and two behavior specialists. Students, who spend a minimum of 18 weeks in the class, avoid nearly all contact with the rest of the school.

At Harrison School in North Philadelphia, the class included a 9-year-old boy who started getting into trouble after his father had been shot and killed; an 11-year-old girl who punched a first grader, called her teacher a dog, and brought a broken mirror to school; and another boy who slapped his teacher's face.

Bad behavior is confronted immediately. In the most severe cases, staff members physically restrain the students, a process called a "therapeutic hold."

One recent morning, a boy refused to do his work, kicked a chair and then fiddled with the window. After repeated verbal directions were ignored, behavior specialist Khalida Maqsudi sat him in a chair and pinned his arms against his legs.

"Get out of my face," the boy mumbled.

"I'm not going to get out of your face. I'm going to get in your face," she said, staring at him, as he struggled to turn his head away. "I will get out of your face when you speak to me respectfully. Then I can treat you with a little more respect."

Private Companies Running Disciplinary Schools

Community Education Partners

Headquarters: Nashville.

Nationwide: Serves 6,000 students in 11 schools in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Student capacity in Philadelphia: 2,150 students.

Grades served: Sixth through 12th.

Budget: $28 million.

Three sites: E.S. Miller School at 4300 Westminster Ave.; 12th Street and Allegheny Avenue; 4224 Front St.

Camelot Schools

Headquartersripping Springs, Texas.

Nationwide: Runs alternative schools, residential treatment programs, and a mental-health hospital.

Student capacity: 400.

Grades served: Fifth through 12th.

Budget: $3.8 million.

One site: Daniel Boone School, 1435 N. 26th St.

Cornell Cos.

Headquarters:Houston

Nationwide: Runs juvenile residential treatment programs, alternative schools, and adult prisons, among other services.

Student Capacity: 165

Grades served: Third and fourth.

Budget: $2 million.

Eleven sites: Classrooms are based at Harrison, Harrington, Blankenburg, Childs, L.P. Hill, Birney, Logan, Holme and Decatur elementary schools, Leeds Middle School, and a district building.

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What do people think about the idea of putting troublemaker in separate schools? It's better for the "good" kids, but it seems to me the system only really works if it improves the behavior/performance of the troublemakers too. Some of the kids interviewed here do seem to be happy with the disciplinary schools' setup. Hmmm...

Sorry - double post. This one's locked up.