News and Events

For Immediate Release

Contact:               Edward J. Emmett, Jr., Director

                                Positive Outcomes Charter School

                                302-472-0794

SHARED DECISION MAKING LEADS TO REMARKABLE SUCCESS AT POSITIVE OUTCOMES CHARTER SCHOOL

Wilmington, DE -- Can a school change a life?

At Positive Outcomes Charter School the answer is a resounding yes.

“A student had joined me on a school tour,” said Positive Outcomes director Edward J. Emmett, Jr., continuing  “At the end of the tour, a parent asked this student where she would be if she had chosen not to attend Positive Outcomes.  The student answered frankly: ‘I’d probably be dead.’   It made me stop and acknowledge that we do make a difference in our students’ lives.”

Positive Outcomes Charter School, located in Camden, DE, was established in 1996.  It currently serves 115 seventh through 12^th grade students with a mission of working with children who have fallen behind in school and are considered academically at risk.   Students entering the school this year were on average 3.2 grade levels behind in math and 2.9 grade levels behind in reading.

“When student arrive here, they are bleeding grade levels, and every year they keep falling further and further behind,” Mr. Emmett commented.  “Nearly 90% of our students enter the school with a significant grade level deficit in either reading or math or both.”  

Many students also arrive at the school with other issues that challenge their learning.  Nearly 2/3 of the students enrolled at Positive Outcomes receive special education services.   “There is no typical student here,” Mr. Emmett said.  “We have kids with social phobias, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, emotional issues, and learning disabilities.   We must be ready to support any student that comes to our doors.”

Providing a diverse base of support has resulted in phenomenal improvement for students overall.   The current projections for the school year indicate that Positive Outcomes Charter School students will gain an average of 1.8 grade levels in math and 1.4 grade levels in reading.  According to a recently released study by Mid-Atlantic Regional Education Laboratory focusing on Delaware’s drop out rate, charter schools students are 63% less likely to drop out than their district counterparts. 

The source of success, according to Mr. Emmett, is the community-wide commitment to shared decision making.  In recognition of its exemplary model, Positive Outcomes was chosen to launch Charter First Fridays in Delaware, a nation-wide effort to increase awareness of best practice taking place in charter schools.

“Our culture of shared decision making is effective because it equally includes shared responsibility and accountability,” Mr. Emmett said, adding “Teachers, parents, and students all recognize that success does not sit with one person.  Students arrive at our doorstep too far behind to allow for any finger pointing.”

Shared decision making at Positive Outcomes is a process that provides all members of the community the opportunity to solve problems and shape the direction of the school.  It also involves a level of trust among parents and staff.

“Families often arrive at our school frustrated with education and broken down,” Mr. Emmett said.  “Our culture of shared decision making is not only inclusive of our staff, but is particularly inclusive of our parents. “

The school’s by-laws require three parents to sit on its board, and at-large seats on the board are often filled by former parents.  Parents host an opening day picnic to engage new families and develop lines of communication.  A parent liaison is a contact for new families, serving as a compassionate peer and a knowledgeable advocate to support their children’s success at the school.

“As a parent, I have watched my child struggle academically – and many times felt we were alone in trying to solve the problem,” said Therese Benjamin, a Positive Outcomes board member, parent liaison, and school improvement team member.  “Being given an active role in decision making at Positive Outcomes has helped our family feel that we are truly important in our child’s education and that we are an equally valuable and responsible member of the team that will change the outcomes of the past.”

Another avenue for parent involvement at the school is its Parent Action Committee, which goes beyond the typical parent teacher organization.  While the committee does host fundraisers, six times a year the Parent Action Committee meets for dinner and discussion.  Nearly 60% of the staff attends these dinner meetings.  At these meetings, school-wide data is discussed and new school initiatives are presented to the parents prior to implementation.  Also, at these meeting the parents, themselves, bring forward ideas for new initiatives.

The school’s new testing program is in response to one of those parent-driven initiatives.  Because students arrive at Positive Outcomes so far behind academically, the current state test (DSTP) does not effectively track their academic growth.  Parents asked for a different testing that would provide more appropriate data on student improvement that would help parents better understand their children’s academic challenges and accomplishments.  The response was a new testing program that tracks academic gains more effectively for the school’s student population. 

“Once parents suggested the idea, everyone joined on board,” Mr. Emmett said.  “The value of a school-wide commitment to shared-decision making is that a good idea is a good idea, and if it benefits the students, everyone is supportive of the idea.” 

Sometimes the ideas are ordinary, like allowing students to operate a lunchtime concession to fund the school’s student reward programs.  Other ideas, like extended staff development time, are extraordinary and define the school community’s commitment to shared-decision making.

The school day at Positive Outcomes begins at 7:15 for its teachers, a half hour before students begin arriving for the 7:55 homeroom bell.  The decision to add staff development time before students arrived was made by the teachers. 

“We realized that we needed more staff development time in the day to be more effective,” noted Steve Norman, a teacher at Positive Outcomes and a teacher representative on the public charter schools board of directors.  “The 21 staff members agreed that this additional time was necessary, and we brought the suggestion to the board.”

 The additional time was approved and teachers added more than 2.5 hours to their workweek – without additional pay.  “We (teachers) were fully aware that the school could not afford to add extra pay because of the very open nature that is fostered in the school’s culture of shared decision making,” Mr. Norman added.  “We also recognized that we needed that extra time if we were to expect our students to make the gains necessary to move back to their district setting or to graduate.”

This culture has brought impressive results.   For students that arrive 2 years behind grade level, they are back on grade level on average in three to four years.

“Everyone’s goal is to give students a sense of hope for the future, and the confidence that they are able to learn and that they will be able to be successful as adults,” Mr. Emmett said.