Wake dumps for-profit dropout recovery company – and some parents are worried

A for-profit company that’s gotten millions in taxpayer dollars to help high school dropouts earn their diploma is getting the boot from Wake County school officials, who now want to run the program in-house.

The Wake school system is ending its relationship with Chicago-based Acceleration Academies, which has graduated 69 students and helped hundreds of other students get closer to receiving their diploma over the past two years. Wake school officials say that they’re in a better position than they were in 2015 to help former students get a second chance at earning their diploma.

“We wouldn’t be making the change or taking the path unless we felt district staff, district teachers and district resources would be more efficient delivering the resources than the contracted model,” said Drew Cook, Wake’s senior director for high school programs.

But some parents and students are worried about whether Wake can successfully operate its own program. Wake hasn’t yet hired the teachers or found sites for where its new replacement program is to begin on Aug. 28.

“A lot of kids will fall through the cracks,” said Elizabeth Van der Veen, a Raleigh mother whose son Dylan attends the program. “It’s a very risky thing.”

Wake’s dropout rate has improved in recent years, but 819 students dropped out during the 2015-16 school year.

But before 2015, bringing back high school dropouts was uncharted territory for North Carolina’s largest school system. Wake turned to Acceleration Academies, which provides dropout recovery programs to school districts in Florida and Washington state.

Wake paid Acceleration Academies $5,600 for each student, roughly the amount that the district gets per student in state and federal dollars. Through May, Cook said Acceleration Academies has received $3.3 million from the district over the past two years.

Wake keeps the roughly $2,300 per student in local dollars for every student enrolled.

“We’re delighted too that we were able to accomplish what we did without costing the district a dime — in fact, our work enabled the district to receive funds it would not otherwise have received,” said Mark Graves, chief operating officer for Acceleration Academies.

Using lists provided by the school system, Acceleration Academies had recruiters go door to door visiting dropouts who were between the ages of 16 to 21. Recruiters hung up signs around the community.

In addition to dropouts, the program also attracted current high school students such as Anna Robbins, who graduated in June. Her mother, Tammy, made an impassioned pitch to school leaders to save the program during this month’s graduation ceremony.

“All of us in this room, we are advocates for our children and we are begging you to keep that in mind when you are thinking about programs for children who are not ‘traditional,’ because traditional stinks and we know that firsthand,” Tammy Robbins said.

The Wake Acceleration Academies operated three sites in Raleigh and Garner and at any given time served a combined 450 to 550 students. The sites offered flexible hours, a smaller school environment and online courses with staff on site to provide help.

The majority of the program’s students came from impoverished and minority households and often had needs far more substantial than those of their peers, according to Graves. He said they bore psychological scars and impediments to learning that are unmatched in the traditional education population.

“We are deeply moved by the impact our teaming with WCPSS had on so many lives, and we are grateful for the opportunity we were given,” Graves said.

The significance of their accomplishments was recognized at the graduation ceremony.

“We never gave up,” Alexis Jones-Jefferson told her fellow graduates. “We fought with every last fight we had in our body until we made it to the finish line.”

In addition to the 69 graduates in 22 months, Graves said dozens more are poised to graduate over the next year. He said 56 students are less than five credits away from graduation and 124 students are between five and 10 credits away from graduation.

But Cook, the Wake school official, said district leaders think they can get better results now that they’re more familiar with the “blended learning” model that mixes online courses with in-person instruction. He points to a similar approach at Crossroad Flex High School, a new program that opened in August serving students whose outside pursuits conflict with the standard high school schedule.

“For those [69] graduates, I can’t understate how life-changing it was for them to get their diploma,” Cook said. “But as a district we’d like to see that number be higher.

“That’s not a negative reflection on the work of Acceleration Academies. It’s a reflection of the complexities of the work.”

The district plans to replace the program by having students enroll in its SCORE (Second Chance Online Resources for Education) program.

SCORE is an online-based program initially developed to provide an education for Wake students who were suspended and not allowed to return to their assigned school for an extended period of time.

“We feel like it’s going to be a really robust school,” said Brenda Elliott, Wake’s assistant superintendent for student support services. “It’s going to be focused on removing barriers to success like they did at Wake Acceleration Academy.”

Elliott said Wake plans to serve the suspended students and dropout recovery students at different sites. She said they’re hoping to find sites near the ones that were rented by Acceleration Academies.

SCORE uses a different online program for courses than Acceleration Academies. This means students who didn’t complete the courses they were taking won’t have their work carried over to SCORE.

The district sent families a letter explaining that a change was being made and held meetings with parents and students.

“We recognize that any change we make is going to have some bumps on the road,” Cook said. “We know there is going to be some uneasiness with parents and kids.”

Chamonta Artis was among the students who came in Tuesday to complete their courses. Artis, 19, who transferred from Southeast Raleigh High School, said she’d miss the program but won’t let the change deter her from reaching her dream of becoming a nurse.

“I’m determined,” Artis said. “Whether the program is changing or not. I’m still going to be getting my diploma.”

This story was originally published June 27, 2017 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Wake dumps for-profit dropout recovery company – and some parents are worried."