Urban Boarding Schools

by KYW's Dr. Marciene Mattleman

Looking for ways to help kids from low income families and those who are troubled, the Chicago public schools are planning urban boarding schools.

The city, reports the Chicago Tribune, has been at the forefront of school reform, seeking solutions such as small schools and single sex schools. Boarding schools are bolder and certainly more expensive.
A successful model, SEED, in which kids live and attend school in the same building, is in Washington, DC.  Josh Edelman, son of Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, was its principal for four years.

The school is the nation’s oldest and most successful urban boarding school and serves 300 kids, 7-12th grade. Its students come from low income households and sometimes troubled backgrounds. Nearly 72% graduate and go on to four year colleges.

Edelman stresses the importance of parents and community in making schools work, giving kids the option of living at the school and going home on weekends.
 
The Chicago school system is looking at those options, and a formal request for proposals will go out in 2010.