Five Questions With: Rob DeBlois

"More than any school I know, UCAP is mission-driven and the mission itself is clear, direct, and distinctive."

Rob DeBlois of Seekonk is founder and director of the Providence’s nonprofit Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program, which first launched in 1989. UCAP serves students who have repeated at least one year of school and are considered by school personnel to be at risk of dropping out. These students are encouraged to complete their work at an accelerated pace through UCAP and thereby “make up” for the year they repeated. Here, DeBlois discusses how UCAP fulfills its mission.

PBN: How does the nonprofit Urban Collaborative’s operation of the alternative school, the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program, work in conjunction with the nonprofit Fund for UCAP to deliver programming?
DEBLOIS:
More than any school I know, UCAP is mission-driven and the mission itself is clear, direct, and distinctive. The Fund for UCAP also has a clear and simple mission – to raise, invest, and spend private funds for the benefit of the students at UCAP.
The school itself is funded primarily through public sources – the participating cities, the state of Rhode Island, and the U.S. Department of Education. The Fund for UCAP allows us to raise private funds and keep them separated from public funds. This allows us to ensure donors that their gifts to the fund will be used as intended, and never accessed by any public education authority for a purpose other than the benefit of the Urban Collaborative.
Taken together, these things make UCAP attractive to potential donors who are seeking more bang for their buck.

PBN: How does the school innovate?
DEBLOIS:
First of all, it is important to understand that the school itself was based on an experiment, both in terms of its structure, and its curriculum.
UCAP essentially operates as an independent public school. In 1989, the General Assembly gave the participating school districts permission to create UCAP. This kind of independence for a public school was very rare. Charters did not come down the pike for another several years.
Educationally, UCAP was designed specifically for students who were not succeeding in school and who had repeated at least one year prior to entering UCAP. At that time, we bet that these students would work very hard when presented with the opportunity of completing more than one grade per year, so that they could return to their regular high schools and graduate with their age-appropriate peers.
These two characteristics of this school – its structure and its accelerated curriculum – make it almost impossible for the school not to innovate and search for new ways of doing business.

PBN: How many students do you have from each city, and how different are their needs?
DEBLOIS:
Enrollment at UCAP is approximately 140 students: 10 from Central Falls, 10 from Cranston, and 120 from Providence.
The needs of the students and the districts vary to some extent, but are essentially the same as children in any school. Our students need and deserve an excellent school that engages them in their own learning. For a number of our students this may be especially important because their schooling has gone off track at some point.
The consequences of this become magnified by the fact that they lack the resources and support that all kids deserve when they need a second chance. We are intentional about providing these supports in a school culture where students feel welcome. Time and time again, the students say that the teachers care about them. This is something all kids need, regardless of background or history.

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PBN: Who are some of the UCAP’s business partners and how do they help the school function?
DEBLOIS
: Since its earliest days, the Urban Collaborative has had a close relationship with the business community. During the first five years of its existence, UCAP was often slated for elimination from public school budgets, due to an overall lack of resources and the fact that the school, as a small independent entity, did not have a strong natural constituency that could lobby for continued funding.
However, the school did have the solid backing of many Providence businesses who believed in the school and who had invested in its success. Without doubt, they have been our most effective advocates.
The list of businesses and how they have helped is too exhaustive to recount here. However, they include such involvement as: serving on the UCAP Advisory Board and the board of the Fund For UCAP; pro-bono legal help with incorporation of the fund and numerous other issues related to the purchase and construction of our new building; sponsoring events or specific after school programs; speaking to students on career day; hosting events at their homes or businesses; organizing a marketing initiative; donating furniture and supplies; and reaching out to other business people to include them in the success of the students at the school.

PBN: How do you measure success, and what are your goals for improving?
DEBLOIS
: There are two answers to this question. The first is that we measure the success of each individual based on his or her needs and accomplishments. The second is that we compile broad quantitative data relevant to the progress of our school as a learning community.
Over the past several years a great deal of attention has gone to student assessments and the collection of other data that may shed light on how a school is doing. I think the jury is still out about whether the time we are spending on this will result in increased learning for our students. Obviously this is a topic that can just be touched on here.
As for helping students – one kid at a time – a small personalized school can have tremendous impacts on students. We have in-house measures of academic growth, and we also work intensely with students on their social and emotional learning. Kids love the school because, as they say, the teachers care about them. Parents tell us the school has changed their child’s life. Almost every day, after school, alumni come visit us after school.
These other outcomes do not constitute hard data but they are the building blocks of a school that sets high expectations and provides students the support they need to meet them. Without doubt, our ongoing challenge is to find and use reliable and valid information that can tell us how we’re doing and how we can improve this school every day, week, month and year.

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