Students say alternative approach at school works
Multi-colored notes stuck to a bulletin board in the hallway reveal a slice of the Boston Day & Evening Academy, a three-story alternative school perched on a hill overlooking Dudley Square in Roxbury, where one student has written: ''This is our school. We never fall. We stick together through all troubles and triumphs."
Students ranging in age from 16 to 23 come to this unusual school seeking to get a high school diploma that seemed out of reach before. They work in classes of 15, learning traditional academic subjects in atypical ways. They study geometry through basketball shooting drills and become crime scene investigators in science class.
The students, their parents, and teachers said the school is a tight-knit community where everyone knows each other's name. It is not plagued by violence, despite an incident in which a student fired a shot in a bathroom at the school last week, they said. The incident, which resulted in no injuries, was the first time a shot had been fired at the school in its 10-year history, school officials said.
Most of the public charter school's 325 students come from poor families. Many have experienced personal crises. Some have come to the school by choice, while others were referred by the school system.
''They're the underdogs," said Margaret Maccini, the headmaster. ''They're the ones that are fighting the odds and they're making it. This place is an opportunity for kids to remake themselves."
Action for Boston Community Development, a local human-services agency, created the school in 1995 as the Downtown Evening Academy for students who were over the age for their grade levels because they were held back or dropped out of other high schools. It became a Horace Mann Charter School in 1998, making it part of the Boston Public Schools but run by an independent board. The day program, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., serves overage ninth-graders and opened last year. The evening program runs from 2 to 9 p.m. and serves older students who were held back or dropped out of high school.
Dorothy Boston, 18, who is in the day program, was held back twice in a Bronx middle school where her class had more than 30 students. Her family moved to Boston, but she had problems fitting in because she was much older than her classmates. She enrolled at the alternative school last year, and when her family decided to return to New York a few months ago, she stayed behind.
''This is a safe haven for me," Boston said of the school.
She has been in and out of shelters since her family left, but she said she wanted to realize her dream -- to be the first in her family to graduate from high school.
''My family always put me down, telling me what I can't accomplish," said Boston, who lives with a friend. ''I told them I wasn't leaving until I get my high school diploma."
The school's atmosphere is warm, but focused on learning. Teachers call the students ''undergraduates" unless they're seniors, to avoid embarrassing older students who are freshmen. There are no As or Fs. At the end of each trimester, students show what they've learned through written exams, projects, and presentations, and they field questions to prove they have mastered skills in math, humanities, science, and technology. Students are rewarded with a high school diploma when they graduate.
''There was a need to help kids and even grown-ups who said they were no longer school material," said Robert Coard, director of Action for Boston Community Development, a human-services agency.
Kathleen Brown said her 17-year-old daughter struggled through a previous school with more than 1,100 students. Now Ebony completes her assignments, and even takes on extra work, her mother said.
The school's 22 teachers are more involved than other teachers in public schools, students say.
Steadman Blake, 16, said he stole money in elementary school, fought with classmates, and got suspended. At his old school, no one cared when he was dealing with family issues, he said.
But at the alternative school, teachers keep their doors and ears open, he said.
Russell Nichols can be reached at rnichols@globe.com.