[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TheGreen_05162014_2-FriereCharter.mp3|titles= Delaware Public Media's Tom Byrne and contributor Larry Nagengast discuss Freire Charter School.]
Like many new ventures, the Freire Charter School stumbled out of the gate.
Opening in 1999 in a retrofitted hotel in Center City Philadelphia, Freire had more than its share of problems, not the least of which was its students’ performance on standardized tests.
“Our scores were in the single digits,” says Bill Porter, the school’s head of academic affairs.
But that changed quickly in year two, after the curriculum was modified to give all ninth grade students a double dose of math and English classes.
“We could see a huge jump [in test scores] right away,” Porter says, and performance improved even more when Freire decided to double up on math and English instruction in 11th grade as well.
The result: a school whose population is 99 percent African American and 88 percent poverty level is now sending 90 percent of its graduates to college, and 90 percent of that group continues their higher education for another year or more. For the 100 openings in each new class, as many as 1,000 prospective students register for selection by lottery.
In the summer of 2015, Freire will bring its no-frills college prep curriculum and its uncompromising nonviolent student behavior policy to Wilmington, where it hopes to replicate the formula for success that it has developed in Philadelphia.
Freire plans to open with classes of up to 112 students in grades 8, 9 and 10, and then add grades 11 and 12 in 2016 and 2017, respectively, with enrollment topping out at 560 students. A site has not been chosen, but ideally it will be on or near Market Street downtown, and as to as many DART bus routes as possible, says Porter, who will serve as head of school in Wilmington,
Delaware Public Media visits Freire Charter School in Philadelphia
Delaware Public Media visits Freire Charter School in Philadelphia
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“There’s something magical going on at that school,” says Wilmington City Councilman Sherry Dorsey Walker, who visited Freire in Philadelphia recently. “I was impressed with the way the young people carry themselves, how the teachers interact with the students, how the students respect their teachers and how the teachers reciprocate that respect.”
“You can’t argue with outcomes. They do have proven results,” says Christian Willauer, director of community and economic development for the Cornerstone West Community Development Corporation, an affiliate of the West End Neighborhood House in Wilmington, who also recently visited the Philadelphia campus.
“They’re focused on all the right things to get children into college — and Wilmington needs that,” adds Don Meginley, head of Preservation Initiatives, a real estate development firm that has been active in the revitalization of Wilmington’s Lower Market Street (LOMA) and the West Ninth Street retail area.
The key to Freire’s success is that “our expectations are very high, but so is our level of support. You cannot expect kids to jump high without the scaffolding, the support, the structure they need to jump to that height,” says Kelly Davenport, Freire’s head of school in Philadelphia and CEO of the group that will manage the program in Wilmington.
The “scaffolding” Davenport refers to includes intensive academics, a safe school environment that includes peer mediation for resolving disputes and an array of counseling services that covers everything from family therapy to assisting with completion of college financial aid forms.
“We want the whole child to be take care of and nurtured,” Davenport says. “We want our students to grow into moral, ethical, critical-thinking human beings.”
The academic intensity starts in eighth grade, when students have an extra daily class period for instruction in skill support, academic exploration or extracurricular activities. For the high school years, all students take the same subjects — English, math, social studies, science and Spanish, with those two extra years of English and math thrown in for good measure.
“Everything we do here is to get kids caught up for college,” Davenport says.
The closest thing to an elective, she jokes, is Spanish, because proficiency in English/language arts determines whether a student will be able to take Spanish for three years or four. Advanced Placement courses are available for the most talented students, she adds.
“Teachers challenge you to do better. They push you harder. You have to push yourself to do better,” says senior Taja Mack, who will be attending Denison University in Ohio in the fall.
A prime reason Freire students succeed academically, Davenport and Porter say, is because they are learning in a safe environment, an environment built around a policy of nonviolence and dismissal from the school for any student who violates it.
“When we interview kids [before they apply], the first words out of their mouths are that they want the school to be safe,” Porter says. And, he adds, with a zero tolerance policy, “students don’t have to worry about the other kid being able to get in one free punch.”
“Knowing I’m going to a safe school every day makes me feel comfortable and has helped me reach my full potential,” Freire senior Tyrone Williams says.
New students get their introduction to the nonviolence policy during a one-week summer clinic. “They learn from day one that we solve all our problems with words, not with fists,” Porter says. When issues develop, the school strives to resolve them through mediation efforts that involve both staff and students.
The policy drew some attention earlier this year, when the state’s Charter School Accountability Committee reviewed Freire’s application for a charter, but it does comply with state laws and regulations, Porter says.
Charter schools may expel students for policy violations, according to John Sadowski, an education associate in the school climate and discipline section of the Department of Education, but the student is entitled to a hearing before a school official who was not involved with the original investigation of the violation. And, Sadowski adds, state law does not permit a student expelled from a charter school to enroll in a district school or another charter school until the time frame for the expulsion has expired.
Freire plans to use the same counseling resources it Wilmington that it employs in Philadelphia — an academic advisor for every grade, college counselors who are familiar with everything from identifying good campus matches for students to completing financial aid forms, and family therapists to assist students in handling problems that might develop at home.
The school’s local board of directors includes community leaders like Henry Smith III, deputy secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, and entrepreneur Hal Real, founder of the World Café Live, housed in the revitalized Queen Theatre on Market Street.
Freire has worked quickly to establish a presence in Wilmington, opening a temporary office in a storefront on West Ninth Street owned by Meginley’s Preservation Initiatives.
Its key staff has Delaware connections as well. Davenport lived in Wilmington for 10 years and Porter is a Wilmington native and graduate of St. Elizabeth High School. The school plans to hire two top administrators who are experienced in Delaware public education, Porter says.
Freire officials hope that establishing a high profile early will help it attract the students needed to reach its enrollment goals. There will be heavy competition from three other charters — Delaware MET, Delaware Design Lab and Great Oaks — that plan to launch high school programs in Wilmington at the same time. Both Delaware MET and Design Lab had planned 2014 openings but requested permission to delay their start for a year after initial enrollments fell far short of projections. Yet another new charter high school, the Delaware STEM Academy, plans to open in 2015 at a location south of Wilmington.
They are confident that their track record will help them succeed.
“We’re exclusively college prep. I don’t know any parent who wouldn’t want that for their kids,” Porter says. “And we have 11 years of experience, and 90 percent of our kids enroll in college … and we know how to keep kids in college…. Those numbers blow away local, state and national statistics.”