Viewpoint
Drew Charter School is giant step for city's kids
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by John Sherman
If a book like John F. Kennedy's "Profiles in Courage" were to be written about Atlanta leaders who have faced daunting challenges with confidence and resolution, surely it would include Tom Cousins and Dr. Beverly Hall.
As part of his $120 million East Lake revitalization effort, Tom Cousins had the innovative vision and caring sense of community service to include the redevelopment of Drew Charter School as the first charter school in the city of Atlanta.
Dr. Hall, in her year and a half tenure as superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools, has moved forward aggressively with a much-needed reform agenda and has embraced the Drew Charter School as one of the system's most important initiatives.
Both Cousins and Hall were concerned that the youngsters at the old Drew Elementary School and East Lake Elementary School consistently ranked among the bottom of Georgia's 1,067 elementary schools in reading and math scores.
And both were concerned that more than 90 percent of the youngsters in the East Lake Villages were living in extreme poverty without any father in the household.
Working together, Cousins and Hall forged a partnership between the East Lake Community Foundation, the Atlanta School Board and the community of East Lake. The Drew Charter School opened Aug. 14, 2000, offering kindergarten through fifth grade. It is operated under contract with Edison Schools Inc., the nation's largest private manager of public schools.
Exactly how does the Drew Charter School intend to make a difference? Based on various interviews, visits to Drew and hearing the recent speech before the Atlanta Rotary Club by Dr. Benno C. Schmidt Jr. (the former president of Yale University who is now chairman of Edison Schools), here are six innovative approaches to education that have been instituted at the Drew Charter School:
1. Helping emotionally scarred children cope. In visiting the Drew Charter School, I was impressed with the dynamic leadership of Karen Eldridge, the highly experienced principal of the school. However, I was deeply saddened by the fact that 92 percent of the children in East Lake Villages come from extremely poor, single-parent homes, some abused, others locked out of their homes from time to time. Many of these youngsters -- only 5 years of age in kindergarten to 10 years of age in fifth grade -- are emotionally scarred, with severe bottled-up anger and other emotional problems that only "hugs, kisses and love" could begin to overcome, according to Eldridge. Although Drew has a full-time social worker, Eldridge indicated the desperate need for staff psychologists.
To its credit, the Drew Charter School, in close cooperation with the East Lake Community Foundation, is developing a systemic program to help these emotionally scarred children:
A. The strategic neighborhood program. This is a program of adult volunteers, couples who live in the East Lake Village, who work with the children in the evenings with their homework and on weekends with planned activities. The program is directed by Dr. Robert Lupton of Urban Ministries, a highly dedicated psychologist, who is giving so much of himself to the children of the East Lake Villages.
Lupton informs me that "the program is working, but we need many more volunteers who will actually move to the East Lake Villages and participate with us in helping those less fortunate."
Of the current volunteers, six are Drew teachers living in the East Lake Villages. Lupton is seeking 100 or more volunteers, hopefully graduate interns from the Columbia Seminary, Atlanta University, graduate students, members of churches, and the community at large, who would relocate to the East Lake Villages and work with these disadvantaged youngsters in the evenings and on weekends. Lupton says there is such a desperate need, particularly for surrogate fathers.
B. The child development center. This new facility, located next to the new Drew Charter School, is being built by the East Lake Community Foundation as a pre-school facility for 136 youngsters. To be operated by Sheltering Arms (a private, nonprofit organization), this center will be "family centered," with the parents and other relatives of the students at Drew Charter School encouraged to participate, according to its director, Diane Bellem. In speaking to several mothers of Drew students, there is also a need for a day-care center for working mothers with infants.
C. The Drew after-school program. When Drew Charter School began, teacher Maria Armstrong jumped at the chance to take on as her full-time role the development of a five day per week after-school program (open from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.) to reinforce the education children were receiving in the classrooms. Armstrong has mobilized a fine cadre of committed volunteers and has a great lineup of enrichment programs. Most of Drew's students attend this after-school program, Eldridge said, because "they would rather stay at Drew than return to an empty apartment."
D. Raising expectations. Maria Armstrong is one of those school teachers who is mission-driven. She moved into the East Lake Villages to become a neighbor among those who are struggling to break free from poverty. On her own, she conceived and implemented an evening and weekend program for children in the Villages of East Lake to help them with their homework and enrich their lives with stimulating activities. This she does after a full day of teaching, without compensation. She recruited friends, other neighbors and college students to help her nurture and care for children whose aspirations seldom rise above survival.
2. More time on tasks. The Drew Elementary Charter School begins its daily classes at 8 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m., 1.5 hours longer than the traditional public school. Most of the youngsters come at 7 a.m. for the federally funded hot breakfast, while 78 percent of the students qualify for the hot-lunch program. Since most of the Drew students also attend the after-school program from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., the school becomes, in effect, a safe, caring home away from home.
In addition to longer hours, youngsters attend 200 days of school annually, compared with 180 days at the traditional public school. Beginning in August, the Drew school year will include 1,600 instructional hours as compared with 1,170 hours for the traditional schools.
Schmidt said Drew students will spend 37 percent more time in classroom instruction than their public school counterparts. Scheduled to open in August is the $17.5 million facility being built by the East Lake Community Foundation, a state-of-the-art new school that will accommodate 750 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. The present enrollment is 240 children, kindergarten through fifth grade.
3. Intensive focus on reading and math. At 8 a.m. each morning, reading classes are held for an hour and a half, based on the "Success For All" reading program, while a similar focus on math takes place daily, based on the highly successful University of Chicago math program. These two programs are worthy of a brief description:
A. "Success For All" reading program. By scheduling reading classes at the same time for all students, and through the guidance of a reading curriculum coordinator, the Edison model gives the Drew teachers the opportunity to learn the most effective instructional techniques. Class sizes are small (15 to18 students in each multiage group). It is not uncommon to find a fifth-grade youngster in a third-grade class because, unlike public schools, promotion is based purely on performance. Each child has a reading "partner," with both "partners" reading together and helping each other.
Latest News |
