April 2010 Focus on Dropouts, Disconnected Youth, & Diplomas
Vol. 17. No. 5
Connecting the disconnected
The Re-engagement Center sees a steady stream of youth wanting to resume their education.
by Bill Hangley Jr.
Photo: Harvey Finkle
Students Marlene Williams (left) and Sharidah Harper work on computers at the Re-engagement Center at 440 North Broad Street. Since opening in 2008, the center has placed about 2,800 former students in various educational and diploma-granting programs.
Demetrius Newton is sitting up straight in a chair at the District’s Re-engagement Center. He’s making eye contact with Bill Simon, one of the center’s three caseworkers, and answering every question clearly and thoughtfully.
Newton is 20 years old, and for the last 18 months, “all day, every day” his friends and family have been bugging him to go back to school. So, now he’s making the effort.
“But it’s been a struggle,” he says, ticking off a list of obstacles that he thinks stand between him and a diploma.
He cites the age limit imposed by traditional public schools that makes him too old to enroll and the credit requirements of alternative schools, which Newton says for some out-of-school youth mean having to “find a school on your own and pay for it.”
Newton was dismissed from Shallcross, one of the District’s disciplinary schools, as a result of verbal confrontations with staff. A counselor there told him about the Re-engagement Center, located on the first floor of District headquarters.
In collaboration with city government and local nonprofits, the District opened the Re-engagement Center in May 2008, the first of its kind in the country. That year, according to state data, 6,000 students dropped out of Philadelphia’s public schools, and the center was hailed locally and nationally as a valuable tool in helping to get these youth reconnected to their education. It is a key component in Mayor Michael Nutter’s plan to boost Philadelphia’s graduation rate from 60 percent to 80 percent by 2014.
Since its opening, about 4,000 former students have visited the center and nearly 2,800 have been placed in a variety of schools and programs, including