BPS OFFERS NEW PATH FOR PUPILS
Alternative program thrives
Students who have long struggled in traditional Boston high schools are getting extra support to earn a high school diploma in a new unorthodox Boston Public Schools program.
Diploma Plus-Dorchester opened in an apartment on East Cottage Street in October in partnership with College Bound Dorchester to serve students age 17 to 20 years old who have been in at least two traditional BPS schools and struggled to reach graduation. The program, with 14 students, runs out of a small threebedroom apartment, where lunch is served at the kitchen.
“Regular school never worked for me. Ever since the second grade I thought this,” said Lyric Martins, 19, a senior formerly at Charlestown High. “I thought school wasn’t for me. Once I got to high school, I knew I either had to take action or let the cycle keep repeating. I actually like school now. I’ve never said that before. It changed me for the better.”
The program is the brainchild of Sung-Joon “Sunny” Pai, an administrator and teacher at Charlestown High School who leads a similar program there.
“I think the biggest thing in alternative education right now is there are a lot more students out there than we have types of schools,” Pai said. “I’ve been in BPS for 18 years. I’ve been in alternative ed for eight to nine years. The reasons why students fall off track is so varied.”
Janine Quarles, a teacher who runs Diploma PlusDorchester, said, “I feel like these are our young people from the community who are the most marginalized, disenfranchised and get left behind. This is who I was as a young person who could have fallen through the cracks without the resources I had. It’s the black and brown youth who don’t get those opportunities.”
The Dorchester program is an expansion of the existing one at Charlestown High School, which serves kids ages 16 to 18 and takes roughly two to three years to complete. Quarles hopes to grow the current 14student enrollment to 25.
The program includes coursework to get kids ready to pass college level English and math, and a research project that takes the place of traditional science and history and requires students to delve deep into issues and community service work. It also gets students prepared to apply to college with an College Bound Dorchester adviser working with kids. It is expected to take students 12 to 18 months to finish and aims to help them transition to community college.
“I wanted a school that has a nice structure with kids wanting to learn,” said Tyler Clemenceau, 19, who used to attend Dorchester Academy. “I’m used to kids wreaking havoc throughout the school. This school is great. People here are warm and welcoming. They are like another parent. They help you reach your goal.”