ROB DEBLOIS, principal of The UCAP School, formerly the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program, recently won the inaugural Murray Family Prize for Enrichment from the Rhode Island Foundation, a $50,000 prize that recognizes the commitment of a Rhode Islander to educate the state’s most vulnerable youth.
When you founded The UCAP School in 1989, what was your goal? Has the school’s performance met your expectations? When I began UCAP in 1989 there were no independent public schools. The UCAP School was created by an act of the General Assembly that gave several school districts the authority to run one or more school organizations, with the operation overseen by the three districts. The school was founded with the specific goal of reducing the dropout rate.
Before designing The UCAP School, we undertook a study of students who had dropped out of school in Providence, and it was very clear that a primary predictor of a student’s dropping out was repeating a grade. It was also very clear that the vast majority of students began to fail when they were in middle school. All of this being the case, we designed an academic program that would allow students to complete more than one grade in one year or to “make up” a year. We called this acceleration.
What does UCAP do differently than a typical school in terms of helping to motivate and educate low-performing students? At The UCAP School, we seek to give students some voice in how they learn, the pace at which they will learn and, to an extent, the content of what they learn. We try to build a sense of community in which all members are respectful of each other and take responsibility for their actions. We place great importance on the value of building positive relationships with students, and we make this intentional rather than just leave it up to chance. Finally, we also have a very robust program that takes place after school, on weekends, during vacation and over the summer.
Why is it important for people to recognize their privilege and use their advantages to help others? I grew up in a family that did not want for anything, especially things of importance to our well-being. I was raised by both of my parents in a nice neighborhood, and went to good Catholic schools with other kids like me. Later, after graduating from college, I was working as a teacher in the Upward Bound program at Rhode Island College, and I was shocked at the low reading and writing skills of high school students who were preparing for college. The comparison between the educations of these students and my own experience as a student in a Jesuit prep school was jarring. An interviewer once said that this experience offended my sense of justice, and this might be true. Nevertheless, this made me want to see if it was possible to create a school that would succeed with students with limited educational backgrounds.
Eventually, this led to the creation of The UCAP School, and it is worth noting that I have never found a shortage of individuals willing to commit to an idea and plan to extend and enhance opportunity for students who have faced limitations as a result of the chance of birth.
