District Finds Promise In Disciplinary School Run By Firm: Students' effort and attendance have been looking up during its six months of operation. The institution is a first for Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia School District's first privately run disciplinary school has been open only six months but educators there are already encouraged by an increase in attendance, low student turnover, and improved academic effort.

"I have kids who are on the honor roll who have never been on the honor roll before," principal Ronald J. Cage said. "And it's not because all of a sudden they're academicians. Now, they're coming to school and applying themselves."

Students say that's the only thing they can do.

"You don't get a choice but to be good, or else they get in touch with your PO [probation officer] and your family," said a 15-year-old Germantown High student, sent there after getting caught selling drugs in school.

Community Education Partners, a private company that is based in Nashville and runs schools in Houston and Dallas, has become the latest weapon in fighting one of Philadelphia School District's major problems - disruptive students.

The Philadelphia school board, impressed with CEP's track record in Texas, hired the national company last year at the urging of state officials.

The Houston Independent School District cited a 30 percent drop in violent crime on district property since CEP opened. What's more, problem students showed significant improvement in test scores, attendance and behavior, Houston school officials said.

And the company put its profits on the line - forfeiting money if it failed to raise scores and keep attendance up. A similar arrangement is in place in Philadelphia.

Under its five-year contract, the company would face financial sanctions if student attendance faltered; it would earn bonuses for improvement.

For low-performing academic students who have been at the school for at least 120 days, reading or math scores must increase by one grade level - or the company will continue to educate them at no additional cost to the district.

The CEP school at 12th Street and Allegheny Avenue appears strikingly different from other schools. Teachers rarely lecture. There are few chalkboards. In classrooms, students work individually on computers and in textbooks while teachers serve as coaches.

Students' academic levels are assessed, and they are prescribed learning plans.

"It's like you teach yourself. But I like it because you can go at your own pace," said a 13-year-old from Jones Middle School, who had been caught carrying a knife in school. "At other schools, if you finish, you have to wait for everybody else."

Classes are single-sex except for those who have earned honors designation because of behavior and academics. Students are ages 12 to 16.

Students must pass through halls in a single line, to the right, with hands in their pockets. Book bags and purses are not allowed. Neither is jewelry or makeup. Uniforms are required.

Students must walk through metal detectors and submit to a pat-down. Infractions spur detentions and calls to parents.

Students are sent to CEP for a variety of infractions, such as dealing drugs; carrying a weapon on school property; truancy; and repeated instances of fighting, disrespecting adults or other problem behavior.

They can be expelled from CEP for serious violations, such as weapons possession.

The school district grapples with serious discipline problems each year. About 1,200 students return from incarceration to the 210,000-student district annually. Last school year, officials confiscated 1,196 weapons, ranging from penknives to guns, on school property.

According to a 1998-99 state report - the most recent year available - the district also reported more than 1,500 arrests and 1,700 assaults.

At CEP, students said it was easier to focus on learning because of the tighter structure. They said they enjoyed what they were learning, had more books, and got more attention in the smaller classes. 
"I'm coming to school. I'm coming here to learn, to get an education. I want to be something in life," said an eighth grader from Bieber Middle School, who said she was sent to CEP for truancy and fighting. 
At Bieber, she said, it "was too free. I could play around."

More than two-thirds of students improved attendance by 10 percentage points or more as of mid-March, said Barbara Braman, CEP's regional vice president. Attendance overall is 80 percent - considerably higher than the district's three in-house disciplinary schools.

Students attend CEP for at least 182 days - a full school year - but they must return to regular school by their senior year.

Officials will formally begin to gauge the academic and behavioral success of the school next school year, when the first set of students is ready for evaluation and possible return to the district.

In December, officials were criticized for failing to refer students to CEP quickly enough. Philip R. Goldsmith, the district's interim chief executive officer, said recently that the process had been streamlined. 
Still, the district's long-running, in-house disciplinary schools remain only about half full. Goldsmith acknowledged that more students needed to be transferred but added: "We're constantly working at it." He said all three schools would probably stay open, although their focuses might shift.

CEP, which recently reached its capacity of 300 students, will expand next year to about 1,000 when it moves to 4224 N. Front St. Ultimately, the contract calls for an enrollment of 1,875.

Forty percent of CEP teachers are certified in Pennsylvania, and the rest have bachelor's degrees in other fields and are working toward certification.

Marc Wilson, who has a bachelor's in psychology, said he wanted to work with urban students and "be on a team that was doing something different, a trailblazer." Wilson is a former assistant dean of students at Lehigh University.

Teachers have had to adjust to the new instructional style and find a way to help students of wide-ranging abilities, said Patricia Moretti, a social-studies teacher.

"It's been trial and error to find a way to get the material across to the children," said the former Catholic-school educator.

Classrooms, limited to 20 students, are staffed by a teacher and an assistant. Counselors and police also are on staff.

Several district principals say the opening of CEP has improved order in their schools.

John Frangipani, principal of Central East Middle School, which has sent eight students, said serious disciplinary infractions had been cut in half this year because of CEP and another alternative program within the Olney cluster.

"These were kids who were constant disruptions," he said. 
Roxborough High Principal Henry Marmer, who has sent 14 students, said some parents had asked for CEP.

"We send them out there to look at the school, and they're very happy," he said.

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