![]() "In regular high school you have teachers who just do what they get paid to do," he says. But a few months later, he was back at Urban Prep. At first, he couldn't cope with the strict, disciplined regime and the high expectations. Krushaun, one of the students, was – in his words – a "bad boy" when he came to Urban Prep. "These things can often be hindrances to their own development, and stumbling blocks, and we want to be very deliberate about meeting those needs and addressing those issues so that they can be successful in college," says pride tutor Tre Childress. Each student has the mobile number of his tutor and can call 24/7 with any problem they are having – at school or in their families or in their neighbourhoods. Many of the teachers have shared the same life experiences as the students and can share their ways of coping with them. "The pride is there to act like a family when times get tough," he says. The school has created teacher-led peer mentoring groups called prides, which meet three times a day. As teachers, we need to alleviate that so they can do well academically," says Lewis. "One of the reasons black students fail is because they have a lot of personal baggage. The barriers to completing high school, let alone college, are more than academic. "They need to learn compassion and humanity, and this helps them to do so." Not for nothing were Urban Prep's students dubbed the "little Obamas" by CNN. "We want to prepare our boys to be the leaders in the communities, to take over the world tomorrow," says the school's vice-president, Evan Lewis. In literature week, teachers pitched their book choices to the students, reading excerpts from young urban writers such as Junot Diaz, whose work reflects the students' own lives.Įach year, students design and implement their own community service projects. The curriculum is designed to be culturally relevant to young urban males. It has a longer school day than most US schools, and tests students every six weeks. Urban Prep emphasises academic rigour, extracurricular involvement and community service. Daily attendance is 93%, compared with 75% locally. When they joined the school, just 7% of students were able to read at the expected grade, yet a within a year 79% were able to pass the necessary courses to graduate, compared with 34% for the neighbourhood. The school has been running for just over three years, but in this time it's had significant successes. We have to provide students with other options of what can be a successful life." "If you grow up in a household where your father is not around, the only role models you have are the guy on the corner selling drugs or the hip-hop artist on the video or the basketball star. "It's really hard to be something that you've never seen," he explains. Urban Prep's founder, the charismatic Tim King, was willing to look beyond traditional recruitment pipelines and take risks. ![]() Many, including the principal, didn't have formal qualifications for their jobs when they were appointed. The majority of them are young, dedicated, ambitious and inspirational – deliberate role models. About 90% of the teachers and all the school leaders are African-American men. But here, all of the 450 male students are African-American, and 85% come from single-parent households. Urban Prep is a single-sex charter school, a part state-funded school – a bit like Britain's academies. So what's so different about the school, and could we in the UK learn anything from its methods? "When you have the majority of people around you who don't care about their lives and their futures, then it's kind of hard to surpass them because they're always pulling you down."Īt Israel's previous high school, his most optimistic goal was to get a job at McDonald's. "As of last night, we had four more murders around the school area," he says. Against this backdrop, Urban Prep's target – to get all their students through higher education – seems ambitious, to say the least.įor 16-year-old Israel Durley, even making it to school each morning is a challenge. ![]() In the US as a whole, just one in 40 African-American boys will complete college, and there are 30% more black males in prison than in college. Over half of all black male students drop out of high school. Among young black men in Chicago, 45% are unemployed and the leading cause of death is murder. We are in Englewood on Chicago's South Side, a predominantly black, economically disadvantaged area. ![]() It's a powerful statement, and all the more so in this school, in this neighbourhood. ![]()
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