"Chasers" make all the difference at Learning Works! Charter School in Pasadena, California. Unlike typical educational institutions, the Learning Works! student body is a mix of high school dropouts, gang members, kids who've served jail time, and teen mothers.
Sometimes, a student fails to turn up for class. That's when a chaser is dispatched to the kid's home, job, friends' houses, wherever the chaser needs to go to track down the recalcitrant student.
The chaser's task is to locate, push and cajole his students to return to class and earn a diploma.
Dominick Correy, one of the Learning Works! chasers says, “A chaser literally keeps the kids engaged in school.”
Learning Works! has a curriculum of independent study, class time and field trips serving 300 students up to the age of 21. When the students don't show up for school or fail to do the required work, chasers show up like gangbusters and encourage them to come to school.
Chasers also guide the 100 Learning Works!
students who are on probation through the court system, take students to medical appointments and, if a student goes to jail, chasers stay in contact and re-enroll the kid upon release.
Learning Works! Charter School founder Mikala Rahn describes her campus as "a mix between a school and a safe zone." She and the chasers “lead with relationship… One of the reasons people drop out in high school is there is no relationship. If I have a relationship with a kid, I can make him do algebra. If I don’t, I can’t make him do a damn thing."
Without the chasers, Rahn says, “the school would not work." The chasers are "from the condition of the youth. They had to live the conditions of these kids to connect with them.”
Chaser Dominick Correy says, “I lived this life. I’ve been in and out of jail. I was a dropout, grew up in a single parent home, am a young father, gang banged, drugs—did the whole thing. I know these kids. I changed my life and, as they’re going through the transition stage, I’m showing them there is a way, there is hope.”
Chaser Carlos Cruz grew up in a single parent home with six siblings; two brothers were in gangs. At 16 he was thrown out of high school.
TakePart followed on a chase with Correy and Cruz as the pair went to a student's home to get her attendance signature and to see how she was doing.
Iyasmine had been jumped and lacerated with razor blades the night before. She has a history as a very active gang member and was in and out of jail. Currently, she does well in school and is trying to turn her life around, but her past follows her and jeopardizes her efforts.
Another student Correy and Cruz chased was Reggie. He signed up for Learning Works! three weeks earlier and had yet to show up for class. Reggie was recently released from jail; he's an active gang member; his mom was just released from the penitentiary; his little brother is in jail. Correy hoped Reggie would be home so he could be taken to school. Correy knocked on the door once more; still no one answered.
Estefania is the student who gives Correy the most trouble. Correy visits her home three or more times a week, trying to convince her to do her work and come to class. The chasers also stopped at the home of Raheem—an 18-year-old father of three who hopes to return to a regular high school to play football. Cruz worked with Raheem on his senior quote and talked with him about his next steps.
Raheem isn’t the only young father at Learning Works!. And 58 of the girls have babies.
One 16-year-old mother said something that Mikala Rahn will never forget.
The girl came to Rahn to ask about the release date for a male student who was in jail. “As soon as he gets out," said the girl, "we’re going to get pregnant.”
Rahn, taken aback, said to her: “'Let’s just review the facts; you [already] have a baby.' It was an interesting response. The girl said, 'I know how to do that.' This is the thinking: 'I know how to do that; I know how to give him a baby.'"
Rahn feels it is essential to provide services to make sure the young mothers stay in school and graduate. She says, “If you don’t get a girl who’s pregnant in right away, only one-third will graduate. If they graduate, then they have a chance.”
Learning Works! sends taxis to pick up mothers who have infants less than 1 year old. There is on-site daycare, and Planned Parenthood comes by once a week for all students.
The school has only been open as a charter school for two years, but is seeing its students graduate and succeed. Last year, 42 students graduated. This year, 80 students will get diplomas.
A student at the school, Anthony, spoke about his Learning Works! experience.
He came to the school six months ago and says, “It is better than any other school I’ve been to.” In 2007, Anthony was mistaken for someone else during a drive by and was shot in the head. He went into a coma for three months, spent a year and a half in hospitals and two years out of school relearning everything from walking to talking.
Correy took him on, and says, “When he first got here, he was in a wheelchair. He could barely move. Since he’s been here, he doesn’t use a cane or a wheelchair."
Anthony says, “I was insecure that people were going to make fun of me. Now I know everybody in the school.” He says of the chasers, “They are like big brothers, like mentors. Every time we need help, they are right there.”
Correy says. “Every student here in some way, shape or form, has hit rock bottom, and we’ve brought them back up—and that’s including the chasers.”
The students know that Learning Works! is, as Rahn puts it, “A place to go where you are forgiven, and we start over. It is about accountability, but you can’t push someone out. We do not believe in judgment. The end.”
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