ERIC ED425225: Safe Passage: Making It through Adolescence in a Risky Society.

26 Pages·1998·0.69 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
UD 032 637
ED 425 225
Dryfoos, Joy G.
AUTHOR
Safe Passage: Making It through Adolescence in a Risky
TITLE
Society.
North Central Regional Educational Lab., Oak Brook, IL.
INSTITUTION
Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED),
SPONS AGENCY
Washington, DC.
PUB DATE 1998-00-00
25p.; Adapted from "Safe Passage: Making It through
NOTE
What Parents, Schools and
Adolescence in a Risky Society
Communities Can Do" by Joy G. Dryfoos, Oxford University
Press, 1998.
RJ6003601; S184D60171
CONTRACT
Descriptive (141)
Reports
PUB TYPE Information Analyses (070)
EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.
*Adolescents; Educational Research; *High Risk Students;
DESCRIPTORS
Intermediate Grades; Middle Schools; *Models; Parent
Participation; Program Effectiveness; Research Utilization;
School Safety; Secondary Education; Urban Schools; *Urban
Youth
ABSTRACT
The primary job of parents is to ensure safe passage for
their children from infancy through adolescence to adulthood. Research has
indicated many things schools can do to turn the privilege of safe passage
into a right. Three research-based programs that work to achieve safe passage
are described. The first is Caring Connection, a "one-stop-shop" for youth
The second is the Quantum
services at a high school in Marshalltown (Iowa) .
Opportunities Program, an innovative 4-year, year-round program in
Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) that provides learning, youth development, and
community service opportunities, along with summer jobs, for youth from
disadvantaged families. The third program, The Academy for Peace and Justice,
operated by El Puente, a community organization in Brooklyn (New York), is an
academically and developmentally focused school with strong connections with
the community. The experiences of these programs and other successful
initiatives are used to model the "safe passage school," an imaginary
prototype urban middle school. The 1,000 students of the school are divided
into five separate "houses," in which students stay together for 3 years.
Basic core courses are shaped to fit with the specialized house themes. The
school is characterized by a support system with needed services provided on
site. The active promotion of parent participation and after-school
activities are additional features of the model. The vision of the safe
passage school encompasses almost all aspects of successful programs,
integrated into a student-teacher-family-centered institution. Some
suggestions are given for turning the vision of the safe passage school into
a reality. Seventeen publications and 16 organizations are listed for
additional information.
(SLD)
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
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from the original document.
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U S DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION
Office of Educational Research
and Improvement
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
This document has been
reproduced as
received from the person
or organization
originating it
0 Minor changes have
been made to
improve reproduction quality
Points of view or opinions
stated in this
document do not
necessarily represent
official OERI position
or policy
sr
1
a
01.
11.
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory
1900 Spring Road, Suite 300
Oak Brook, Illinois 60523-1480
[phone]
[phone]
Jeri Nowakowski, Executive Director
Lynn J. Stinnette, Director, Center for School and Community Development
Judy Caplan, Director, Illinois Project Success
Yvonne Butchee, Director, Comprehensive School-Community Safety Initiative
Stephanie Blaser, Coordinator of Communications
Design by Katapa Art and Design
Copyright C 1998 by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.
This work was produced in whole or in part with funds from the Office of Educational Research
and Improvement (0ER1), U.S. Department of Education, under contract numbers RJ6003601 and
S184D60171. The content does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of OERI or the
Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations
imply endorsement by the federal government.
Dear Colleague:
especially those in distressed environments
face
Children today
adulthood.
enormous obstacles in their journey through adolescence to
The statistics on gang violence, drug abuse, failing schools, and teen
youth do
pregnancy are powerful reminders that too many of our nation's
not succeed in this-oftentimes hazardous transition. Yet, there is good
programs and strategies that schools and
Share-)-7 new\ about
[ nem4-t\ o
,
communities cap adopt to ensure that more and more of our children pass
'
i'safely through adolescence and become healthy, productive adults.
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In order to spread the promising news of programscand-strategies that
,
1 ' k
wor in the real worldthe North
Central/IregiOrial Educional
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/
r
version of a new
I
Present(an abridged\
LaboratOry (NCREL) is (pr4ud
to
\
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\
,
book by Jiziy G. Dryfoos, \Safe Passage: Making it Through*oliscence in
1
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a
RiSky SOciety IThat Parents, SCho\ols, ind CoMmuriities Can/Do.
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Child 'advocate Joy Dryfoos presents an\ illustrative vision of a Safe
\
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your own
I
Passage School, which may serve as a
gtiid_e_,s--you/deel---op
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ensure the safe passage of children and
priograms, and strategies/to
vision,
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presents descriptions of three
yoUth iiv'your Community. She also
-------)
successful Safe Passage programs in the United States:
Caring Connection in the Marshalltown, Iowa, School District
The Quantum Opportunities Program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
El Puente in Brooklyn, New York
At NCREL, we are committed to bringing the best in educational
research and development to schools and communities in the Midwest.
print and electronic
This publication is but one of many resources
available from your regional laboratory to help you make informed
decisions and implement changes so that all children achieve success in
school and in life.
We wish you success in your school and community development efforts.
Let us know in the enclosed evaluation card about other ways we can
support your efforts. We look forward to hearing from you.
cerely,
owakowski
Lynn J. Stinnette
utive Director
Director,
Center for School
and Community Development
parents the world over
turmoil in the rest of the world
want assurance that their
bloody ethnic conflicts; starvation,
children will be able to
mass migrations, weapons prolif-
grow into responsible adults who
eration, the AI IS epidemic, and
can enter the labor force, become
faltering economies. Even the
effective parents, and participate
worldwide environment appears
in the social and political life of
to be entering a period of agita-
the society. That is, after all, the
tion, where harmful air, warming
parents' primary job: to ensure
seas, and destructive hurricanes
safe passage to their offspring,
presage things to come.
from infancy through adolescence
Even at best, safe passage is
to adulthood.
not a guaranteed right. It is a
The barriers to safe passage are
privilege. Suburban children
profound. The twenty-first
growing up in Hastings-on-
century will be launched in the
Hudson, where I live, have higher
United States under precarious
odds for future success than the
social conditions
growing
disadvantaged children growing
poverty, crime, urban disarray,
up in the contiguous city of
family separations, rural isolation,
Yonkers. Yet not every child in
limits on employment opportunity,
Hastings will make it, nor is
and racial enmity. Nor is our
every disadvantaged child in
country isolated from the effects of
Yonkers a potential failure.
5
The strongest
skills; we have experience with
WHAT'S REQUIRED
argument for
connecting young people to the
FOR SAFE
labor force. We don't need rocket
PASSAGE?
scientists to show us how to put
intervention is
the pieces together to create
I believe that it is possible to spell
schools and form comprehensive
out in great de_tail-allAthe work that
that the country
programs that work.
Itas
orito ttrti-1 the
1\1
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privile
6:fe 'pa1 ssage into a
cpf.
11
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ight.
e gequ rements and
as a whole will
THREE
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'rii4porary
youth
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ertences--\Q of c
SUCCESSFUL
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n well d curnerited. One
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SAFELPASSAGE
benefit if all
renowne0 researchers
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oWn tcC "
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ily
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children are
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prgram
To single outTa
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is sa \placies, cha engi g
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and\designate i
as exemrilary is
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not a simple dssignment. \So many
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Paren_its are of course central to\,
assured safe
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excellent efforts-are going on
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the process of providing safe
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country. Here are
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li--C:i13ind the
,
iut many cannot
pa\4\sage, b1
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three that provide evidence that
passage. Your
overcome-the Areacles in the way
they can assure safe passage by
of cheir children's development
promoting educational outcomes,
without substantial help. Schools
children will
preventing problem behaviors, and
and the people who work in them
demonstrating high expectations
are key elements in this safe
for youth.
have a much
passage movement, but they
cannot assume the entire
responsibility for raising children in
Caring Connection
better chance o
today's society. All the major
Go 60 miles out of Des Moines,
institutions of our society have to
Iowa, past vast rolling acres of
living in a viabl
be working toward the same goal,
cornfields and fertile farmland, and
starting with the schools and
you come to Marshalltown
what
involving a whole array of
must be "middle America." A
society if other
community agencies. We need
glimpse of the Marshalltown
to focus on practices and
Community High School, set
programs that foster the healthy
people's childre
in a huge campus with new
development of youth, on inter-
buildings, furthers the impression
ventions that make a difference in
of well-being. But a visit with folks
are able to
the lives of young people.
at the Caring Connection quickly
We have access to successful
changes these first impressions as
models of parenting, schools, and
one listens to the staff describe
participate as
communities; we know how to
the range of interventions they
teach, counsel, and promote social
feel they must provide for
workers, parents
BEST COPY AVADLABLE
and citizens.
Marshalltown youth. The
community is changing rapidly
with declining industry and an
influx of disadvantaged Hispanic
and Southeast Asians families.
a
In at least one school in
Marshalltown, 82 percent of the
students are eligible for free or
reduced-price lunches.
In order to respond to the
problems of a shifting population,
Marshalltown School District
initiated the Caring Connection,
a K-12 program that brings
together the efforts of 13 local and
state agencies to "nurture students
to become intellectually and
adjacent to a large conference
personally empowered for
room. A well-equipped, specially
citizenship in a changing world."
designed classroom for tutoring is
The Caring Connection, under
located on another floor.
the direction of Todd Redalen,
The Caring Connection actually
provides services in the high
offers 20 different services through
school as well as six elementary
contractual arrangements with
and two middle schools and an
local agencies including mental
alternative high school. This
health and substance abuse
program is supported by a state
counseling, family development,
grant for School-Based Youth
juvenile court liaison, runaway and
Services as well as funds made
independent living support, legal
available through Iowa's unique
services, primary health care,
"allowable growth" provisions in
service learning, and job training
the state education law. School
and placement. The staff is made
districts are permitted to use their
up of 27 individuals, almost all of
funds to develop special projects
whom work for a participating
for high-risk youth, and
agency rather than the school
Marshalltown has dedicated
system. Many different kinds of
$600,000 yearly for these purposes.
specialists are available through
In the Marshalltown High School,
the agency contracts. A Family
Caring Connection acts as a "one-
Development worker from
stop shop." One whole corner of
Mid-Iowa Community Action does
the first floor of the school is
crisis intervention, works with
taken up with the program's
families as a case manager, and
facilities. A number of private
facilitates support groups in the
offices ring the reception area
7
school.. The Mental Health
school for shorter hours to
accommodate employment, teen
Center supplies a part-time
therapist and the Substance
parenting, or other reasons. A
"I can
Abuse Treatment Unit does
Self-paced curriculum is available
through the Individual Assistance
assessments, counseling, treatment,
Center to help students make up
and follow-up.
credit deficiencies. Special courses
,p7gra
(The ti:ior
,is
concentrate
entitled Community Living Skills
iintensi
a spe ial room
\la
and Vocational Skills are offered
sitance Center
1 an Indi'Vi uSI\
with flexible schedules. Modified
I equipped with compu,ters and
school:within-sChool courses in
l'on-ite Tors who, can devote
much better in
English7-WorldFultgres, Speech,
Icondera\lfle attention T students
and ComsitiOn are available for
who\,are having piiiblems tin Their
(---
students with
history of low
lc\
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,...
a wiicent
\oshqa,
t::::reld -ssroOms ;
..j
tudents are allowed
achievement.
16-year-Old; kePorted, "I can
-to
srooms to
here and the
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access
1\e\ave cla
c ncentrate
haNize
etter in
uc
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and the' teLher goes tci the trouble !
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providefs=during the school day.
to
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xiL-D-rfaintithirigs tliat
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More than 1,000 students are
gd \iri my regular class:Li
teacher goes t
served in this program every year.
The-Garin-I-Connection staff
Evaluation data show a reduction
works in conjunction with other
in the dropout rate and evidence
professionals both in the school
of attracting former dropouts back
and in the community. One of
the trouble to
into the school system. Among
the social workers said, "You'd be
students who were at high risk of
surprised how much everyone
dropping out, those who made
wants to know more about things
more than 25 contacts during
like mental health problems,
the year with Caring Connection
explain things
substance abuse treatment, parent
had a dropout rate of 3 percent
involvement, literacy programs, and
compared to 8 percent among
the use of case managers. The
those with few contacts. A survey
teachers in this school are always
of students and parents showed
that I just
eager to talk to us." Another
very positive assessments of the
remarked, "Many of the parents in
program and the school, with
this community can't cope with
75 percent or more reporting
their children. We have to spend a
better attendance and performance
lot of time visiting with them and
can't get in my
in school, reduction in use of
acting as liaison between the
substances, going on to college,
school and the home."
not engaging in unprotected sex,
Every student who participates in
and improved relationships with
regular class."
Caring Connection is informed of
peers and family.
options for completing high school.
Some students are able to attend
BEST COPY
AITAI
"She is just like
Caring Connection is an excellent
and tough. Financial incentives
a second mother
example of a comprehensive
further the chances for success.
program heavily supported both by
As Ben Lattimore puts it, "How
the local school system and by the
do you treat your own kids? You
to me. I will
State Department of Education.
reward them when they behave
The school superintendent and
well, and punish them when they
the school board are strongly
It's a simple idea, and
don't.
never forget this
committed to community schools
certainly not novel. But it works."
and actively seek the involvement
At the national level, QOP
of every resource in town.
was launched as a five-site
lady. She's been
Marshalltown exemplifies the "art
demonstration project in 1989 with
of the possible"
all sectors of the
support from the Ford Foundation.
community coming together to
An evaluation by Andrew Hahn of
such a big part of
strengthen the capacity of the
Brandeis University revealed that
school system to produce strong
QOP members, when compared
and well-educated people.
to sirriilar students who did not
my life. I don't
participate in the project, were
more likely to graduate, go to
Quantum Opportunities Program
think she really
college, not become parents
The Quantum Opportunities
while in school, and were doing
Program (QOP) is located in
much better with their lives than
Philadelphia at the national head-
understands how
would be expected.
quarters of the Opportunities
According to Hahn, "QOP
Industrialization Centers of
debunks the myth that nothing
America (OIC), a major job-
much she means
works for economically disadvan-
training agency. According to its
taged, minority adolescents.
Benjamin Lattimore,
designers
QOP's key finding is that these
Director of Literacy Programs,
to me. This lady
young people will stick with the
OIC, and Robert Taggart, President
program, especially if the adults
of Remediation and Training
stick with them. In one site
24
Institute
QOP is an innovative
.
. .
is God's angel.
of the original 25 youth were still
four-year, year-round program
actively involved at the end of the
that provides learning, youth
four-year cycle."
development, and community
She works and
service opportunities, along with
Based on the pilot results, the U.S.
summer jobs, to small groups of
Department of Labor and the Ford
youth from disadvantaged families.
Foundation are supporting new
works and stays
QOP is based on the theory that
programs at seven sites, one of
intensive and varied interventions
which is Philadelphia. This after-
on my case about
are necessary to make a difference
school effort is coordinated by
in young people's lives, and that
Deborah Scott, Manager of
the adults who deliver these
Literacy Programs for OIC. Fifty
sex, school, and
services must be both nurturing
9th-grade students were selected as
life
period.
She's been such
participants from Benjamin
numbers so the participants can
a blessing to me
Franklin High School and another
contact them at 'any time.
.
50 as a control group. The
Deborah Scott describes QOP as a
expectations are that over the four-
"tough love" program. Students
and she
year period, each participant will
'and parents must sign a four-year
.
receive 250 hours of...education by
"contract" with QOP committing
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co
participanng irj
themselves to the program.
rn
ter-assisted
believes in me,
ee tuto ing, and
instru titin,
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One of the hallmarks of the QOP
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250 hours of
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program is that the participants
cavities
servi
ticipating
y\-p
earn stipend money_ up to $5,000
although she may
.ce projects,
in comrnunit se
by the-end fithe-foz-year
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het ing on public eVentk or
progrwht h se
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es not only as
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an
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vra fo Pariacip ^tiOn, but
get upset with
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means of_t aching money
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clife5W\farnily,skills,tratni g,
rnanagemt sk1s. The s/tudents
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planning for con&
and\jo 4, and
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,
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lo-c`7e corning to the center As
me, because she
joining in family\and"c m.munity
ill\,L
put
\ `ovelize(l_t_514ear-8/1d,
,
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a ic
recreatio -1-1 \b
to
e
1 used is
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x\\\,
iJ::uiia1l y cut my last class at
)1\v-
th CorriPreherisive Co, petencres
school so I can get here early.
loves me and
I
)
Propam encompassing several
wish I could come to QOP all day
hundire'd units of computerized
long since I don't really learn
courses, covering K-12 basic
nothing in school. We hardly get
wants the best for
subjects as well as career and
any homework. I learn a lot in
personal skills. The facility is open
this place.
I love working with
from 2 to 7 p.m. weekdays, and
me."
the computers."
generally from 10 to mid-afternoon
QOP is an exciting and common-
on Saturdays for special events.
sense (albeit expensive) program
The site is organized with at least
where technology, education,
one computer for every three
counseling, caring, and evaluation
students and individual records for
are brought together to achieve the
each participant.
best results for targeted at-risk
One student, Andre, reported on his
students. The careful design and
experience: "Every day when I come
controlled evaluation have
here, I can check in and see how far
produced an invaluable tool for
I've come. I had to start with
practitioners who want to
fourth-grade arithmetic but I've
dramatically influence the lives of
- Participant,
already moved up to eighth grade."
very disadvantaged young people.
The expectation is that each
It proves these young people will
student will receive a lot of tender
take up the offer to enter into a
Quantum
loving care from the staff of three
structured contract that requires
full-time counselors, all of whom
work, concentration, consistency,
wear beepers and have 800
and long hours.
Opportunities
AV IIA LE
Program
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