CHESTER, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Camelot Education’s Achieve Academy was recently commended by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as exceeding all requirements during a periodic audit of Pennsylvania’s Alternative Education for Disruptive Youth (AEDY) program. Of the ten categories, the school received an exemplary report on all of them, notably, with no areas for improvement identified.
“We are deeply committed to the academic and social-emotional success of our students. Thanks to our strong partnership with Chester-Upland School District, we can focus on the holistic needs of our students, successfully re-engage them in their education, get them back to their conventional school environment, and prepare them for long-term success,” said Kenny Tate, Director of Operations for Camelot’s Achieve Academy. “We are thrilled, but not surprised by the results of the most recent audit, because we see first-hand the impact that the relationship between the staff and students can have and how much strength the students derive from having the room to make better choices in a supportive culture designed specifically for their needs.”
The audit which took place in Q4 of 2018 cited high commendations that include:
- The comradery among staff, indicating strong teams that have an emphasis on building positive and highly involved relationships between teachers and student;
- A high level of communications with parents;
- The regularity of group counseling and administration of the Behavior Intervention Monitoring Assessment System (BIMAS) with results incorporated into group counseling sessions;
- Formal quarterly reviews offered more frequently than the required once per semester;
- A wide range of supplemental, wrap-around services provided for the students, including mentoring, community engagement, tutoring, internship program, post-graduation transition plan assistance, family support services, and mental health counseling;
- Praise for the program referrals and the collaboration among the district and program staff to take a restorative approach to student behavior;
- Recognition for the comprehensive transition plans back into the larger student body to ensure the success of the transitioning student; and
- Acknowledgment for the program being held in the same building as the conventional education classes, providing a feeling of continuity for educational programming.
Students who were interviewed as part of the state’s review offered overwhelmingly positive feedback about the school, including:
- “It builds trust and allows me to mature and be my own person.”
- “Camelot is bettering me in a lot of ways.”
- “If I had a choice to stay here, I would.”
Camelot’s Achieve Academy serves Chester-Upland School District students who have been removed from a traditional classroom setting for severe behavioral violations. The primary goals of the program are to provide students with the academic supports to help them get back on track for promotion and graduation, and to give students the behavioral tools and strategies to help them make decisions different from the ones that led them to their suspension or expulsion.
About Camelot Education:
Camelot Education is an elite provider of alternative education solutions for public school districts in the United States. Most of our programs serve students disengaged from the educational process, and who are often grappling with issues of extreme poverty, violence, trauma, and insecurity. In partnership with school districts across the country, Camelot excels in re-engaging students and helping them overcome social, emotional and academic challenges, resulting in improved life skills and educational outcomes. For school year 2017-18, Camelot managed 44 separate programs with an enrollment of approximately 4,500 students, achieving an average single-year academic growth (as measured by third-party standardized tests) of 2.4 years in reading and 2.6 years in math, and a national graduation rate of 93 percent.
