Charter Schools Providing Academically Based Workforce Development for Out-of-School Youth

A Forum — January 13, 2006

Charter schools are becoming increasingly prominent as an effective model of dropout recovery programs that provide career preparation and workforce development as well as a high school diploma for youths and young adults who had previously dropped out of traditional high schools.

This forum, fourth in a series sponsored by the GE Foundation, highlighted the role of charter schools that have combined their diploma-granting, academic program with workforce development.

Phil Matero, Deputy Director of the Los Angeles Conservation Corps (LACC), described their program, which serves both in-school youth through activities during out-of-school time and out-of-school youth through its charter schools. LACC serves approximately 2,000 in-school youth aged 14-18, 150 out-of-school youth aged 14-18, and 500 aged 18-23. Of the out-of-school youth, about 80% dropped out and 20% were expelled from conventional K-12 schools. Despite their lack of previous success, two-thirds of the younger group and one-third of the older contingent earn high school diplomas while enrolled in the LACC, Matero said. The corps operates three school sites – LACC High School, EcoAcademy, and Youth Opportunities High School – in low-income neighborhoods in partnership with the John Muir Charter School, an organization that was created to serve as a chartering agency for conservation and youth corps programs.

The LACC is one of more than 100 local, private, nonprofit service and conservations corps in 37 states and the District of Columbia. Unlike the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps upon which they are modeled, current corps programs, such as LACC, do not have an all-encompassing stream of guaranteed federal funding. As a charter school, LACC is eligible for per-student funds under California’s charter school legislation, which provides about $5,000 of the total cost per student, approximately $12,500. The remaining dollars  must be pieced together through resources from private and public sources, including, most strikingly, income from projects paid through contracts by public or private clients.

At LACC, young people are engaged  in full-time community service along with training and educational activities, ranging from graffiti erasing and park creation to tree planting and math classes. When combined with personal, career and job-acquisition counseling and such support activities as a day care center for members’ children, LACC’s intent is to launch their graduates into the world of adult work and citizenship.

Matero began working in its education and fieldwork departments in 1991, when LACC was five years old. “We had a really good work program established,” Matero said, but were searching for a better way “to connect the academics the corps members needed with the work that was going on.” He said the first lessons, mostly conducted at the end of the workday, involved reading about and discussing the environmental, scientific, cultural, and political elements of the projects that the students were working on or the day’s events. “Then we tried to bring in the academics as well. We tried to convince young people that being a better writer, a better reader, better at math, really helped them in the workplace.”

Funding from the Job Training Partnership Act (predecessor to today’s Workforce Investment Act) allowed LACC to hire its first full-time teachers and develop a work-study program for some of its corps members that alternated a week of work or community service with one week of school. The curriculum, which is still used in the current program, mixes traditional high school courses with workplace-connected programs like resume preparation and job searches, and exploration of issues raised by the work projects.

In 1996, four years after the passage of California’s charter school legislation, LACC was able to expand that work-study program to include all its students by forging a partnership with a charter school, the Excelsior Education Center. This partnership ended due to concerns on behalf of Excelsior Education Center that LACC students were pulling down the center’s ranking on the state’s academic performance index, which measures achievement rather than progress. LACC students had lower graduation rates and test scores because they often re-entered school with math and reading skills 4 to 8 grades below age level, said Matero. LACC now operates its three sites through a partnership with the John Muir Charter School.

The benefits that students derive from earning diplomas outweigh the disadvantages of complying with the rigidity of a state-imposed, test-audited curriculum, Matero said. “We have found that the opportunity to offer a high school diploma opens many more doors for our young people for training, programs, and jobs,” he explained. He said the diplomas help the graduates qualify for union apprenticeships and industry-run training.

Ann Higdon, President of Improved Solutions for Urban Systems, founded the Dayton-based corporation in 1992 to offer a second chance at high school, job skills, and higher education to dropout youth. Some of whom had, in their own words, “messed up big time.” Higdon noted that 80% of ISUS’ current participants have been court-involved, more than 90% had dropped out, and the rest were on the verge of dropping out. ISUS’s reputation, spread primarily by word of mouth among young people, ensures a long waiting list of applicants who would like to join its 428 participants. The safe zone created by the school’s culture of no violence, weapons or drugs attracts both young people wanting to learn marketable skills and those wanting a new start, Higdon said.

The first career certification that ISUS offered was an industry-recognized construction training program where students practiced their skills by rebuilding boarded up homes that were then sold to low income families. ISUS now builds communities with the goals of creating economically and ethnically blended neighborhoods along with raising the property values of entire inner-city neighborhoods.

The first of ISUS’s three charters was granted by the Ohio Board of Education in 1999. Since then, support from business, industry and post-secondary institutions have helped ISUS expand its offerings. Students can now earn high school diplomas and industry certifications or credits towards associate’s degrees. They can choose from several career pathways – all closely aligned to the local labor market – that include construction, manufacturing, technology, and health care. The Ohio Dept. of Education provides about $6,400 of the $15,000 ISUS spends per student. The remaining dollars come from Perkins funds, other federal and state funds, No Child Left Behind Titles I-VI, the Individuals with Disabilities individuals and foundations.

ISUS students can take advantage of a High School Plus program, which delays the award of their high school diploma until they have also earned industry certifications or credits towards their associates degree. By providing continued support during the transition to postsecondary education, ISUS students are less likely to drop out of college in their first year or two. With a diploma, an ISUS graduate can also apply to a union apprenticeship program. Unfortunately, the union programs in Ohio do not yet give credit for training modules completed at ISUS.

ISUS was also the first school in Ohio to reclaim dropouts and award a high school diploma based on competency. Higdon said that, results on nationally normed tests show ISUS students gaining two grade levels in one year, “ still a 19-year-old who dropped out in middle school won’t have time to acquire 22 Carnegie units by the time they turn 22 when state support ends.” ISUS uses a competency-based approach and students take the state exams as do conventional high school students. As a result of ISUS success, four other Ohio schools also offer competency-based diplomas.

In answering questions from practitioners and policymakers at the forum, Matero and Higdon said the similarities between their approaches were far greater than the differences.

Both programs hire teachers  who can be in charge of the classroom. Higdon, in describing her own high school years in New York City, where a caring adult helped her transcend troubled years is convinced that, above all, teachers must be able to show that they care deeply about the youth that they serve.

Both commented on the need for multiple funding sources but lamented the paperwork overload.

Each said that despite the theoretical value of parental involvement, their own program had much less than they would like. Partly because some participants are alienated from their families, neither Matero nor Higdon said they interact with many parents, other than those protesting some disciplinary action against their children.

Participation in these programs is a turning point in these students’ lives, yet employers are often reluctant to hire graduates who have records of criminal behavior or delinquency. Higdon suggested that governments consider offering a one-year bond to cover an employer’s potential liability during the first year on the job by a graduate of a certified dropout recovery program.

Resources

Improved Solutions for Urban Systems: www.isusinc.com
Los Angeles Conservation Corps: www.lacorps.org
National Association of Service and Conservation Corps: www.nascc.org

Bios

Phil Matero, Deputy Director of the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, has been at the LACC since 1991, serving in that position after working in both the Education and Field Work Departments. As Deputy Director, Phil has oversight responsibility for the development and operations of the largest private conservation corps in the country. Utilizing his background in both fieldwork and education, he works to keep the many facets of the LACC program in harmony.

Phil heads up many of the new projects and partnerships that have given the LACC a reputation for innovative, comprehensive programming that puts a priority on responsiveness to the needs of at-risk youth. Some of these projects have included the development of the EcoAcademy, an interactive, project-based environmental curriculum, and a partnership with an accredited charter school that is connected to the LACC work program.

Phil is active in many national and international efforts to build the capacity of youth programs and to help bring effective youth development models to new locations. Phil has 10 years of experience in the landscaping and construction industries, and six years of experience teaching adult learners. He has a B.A. in Comparative Literature and an M.A. in English from California State University, Northridge. Phil is married to poet Dorothy Barresi and has two children, Andrew and Dante.

Ann Higdon is president and founder of Improved Solutions of Urban Systems (ISUS) based in Dayton, Ohio. ISUS began in 1992 to develop more effective approaches to educating and training troubled youth and has created a highly effective program that connects youth development, workforce development and community development to rebuild lives and communities.

In 1999, the organization created the first of three ISUS Trade and Technology Prep Community Schools. The idea is high school plus; plus means certification, college credits, real work experience and a life changing perspective. Programs like ISUS that are designing and redesigning themselves to meet the needs of high-risk youth and high-need communities are hard to find but sorely needed.

Prior to ISUS, Ms Higdon managed large demonstration projects supervising a staff of two thousand in twenty-three cities. Her newspaper column, Color Me Human, was published in US cities and eight South American and African countries. She was the co-host of a popular Dayton radio talk show, The Hidden Face of Reality.

Both Ann and her organization ISUS are recipients of numerous honors, including the Top Ten Women Award, the Woman of Influence Award, the HUD Secretary’s Award for Excellence and the 2002 Dayton Business Journal’s Not for Profit Organization of the Year Award.

 

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