At Risk Students Receive Second Chance Through New Academy
February 25, 2009
by Norma Porter
Earlier this school year, 15-year-old Quintin Pimple transferred from Ballou Senior High School to the Youth Engagement Academy because the learning environment at Ballou was too noisy and the class sizes were too big. Now, Pimple is in a classroom where the student to teacher ratio is 15-to- 1. In addition to the small class sizes, Pimple also has an internship at Shooters Sports clothing store on Tuesdays and Thursdays, where he is learning more about male urban fashion and sales.
Likewise, Dominique Dangling attends her academic classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Academy and travels to the Everlasting Life restaurant in Prince George’s County, Md. to learn about culinary arts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Youth Engagement Academy is a public school housed in the lower half of Eliot-Hine Middle School in Northeast. Created by a partnership with D.C. Public Schools and Big Picture Learning, a non-profit organization that believes in educating “one student at a time,” the Academy has a small learning environment and flexible schedule that allows students to take part in professional internships.
“Big Picture [Learning] believes in educating one child, one at a time and we do that by tailoring the education to the students’ individual passion or interest through internship,” Eric A. Counts, principal of the Academy, said. Counts is the former assistant principal of Dunbar Senior High School. Prior to coming to work in the District, Counts worked as a case manager and special education teacher for Montgomery County.
DCPS and Big Picture Learning created the academy to motivate and engage students that teachers and principals at their former schools felt may be at risk of dropping out of school. “The internships provide the students with the opportunity to have a variety of different experiences,” said Dawn Dinkins, internship coordinator at the Academy. “It provides students with a sense of worth and value and the mentors get the opportunity to ‘pay it forward’ and give back.”
According to Counts, teachers and principals of middle and junior high schools across the city recommended 45 out of the 60 ninth graders at the academy to be enrolled in the academy in order to retain the students and prevent them from being high school dropouts. At least 15 students of the incoming freshman class have repeated at least one grade, according to Counts.