DYS Education Initiative Overview
Beginning in 2003, the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS) undertook an unprecedented reform of its education programs. The continuous improvement process, referred to as the “Education Initiative” has created access to high quality education and employability opportunities for the approximately 2,000 youth each year committed to the Massachusetts juvenile justice system. For more information about the mission, goals and guiding principles of the Education initiative, click here.
To support this effort, DYS selected Commonwealth Corporation (CommCorp), in partnership with the Hampshire Educational Collaborative (HEC), to manage and provide leadership for educational programming in residential facilities as well as creating workforce development opportunities for DYS clients during their community reentry. Currently CommCorp and HEC are working with the Department to shape a number of strategic initiatives including:
- System-wide Approach to Support High Quality Education: The development of an integrated set of strategies, services, programming and staffing at multiple levels – the classroom, regionally and statewide through the collaboration of educational service providers and DYS’s contracting partners.
- Effective Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Development: The promotion of effective teaching and learning based on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s curriculum frameworks and standards.
- Teacher Recruitment and Retention: The creation of a professional teaching corps that possesses strong subject matter knowledge and teaching skills that can address multiple learning styles and levels.
- Special Education: Improvement of the alignment and integration of special education services with the general education approach.
- Accountability, Evaluation and Student Outcomes: The movement toward a data-driven system to support improved student achievement.
- Transition Services: The enhancement of systems for educational credit recovery and reconnection to public school and alternative education as well as programming that maximizes job readiness and employability skill attainment so youth are prepared for employment.
- Workforce Development: The development of a range of job readiness, vocational and work-based learning opportunities that give DYS clients access to skills, training and employment experiences. For more information on these activities, including Bridging the Opportunity Gap, Holyoke Mentoring initiative or the Life Skills, Career Development and Employability program.
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Profile of DYS System and Clients
Each year in Massachusetts DYS serves approximately 10,000 youth, either in pre-trial detention programs (5,500 annually) or in residential treatment and community re-entry centers. As of November 1, 2008 there were 1,700 DYS committed youth being served.
The population of juveniles committed to DYS has decreased since 2002 by 35%. This decrease has been supported by a reduction of youth committed to DYS by the courts (in part by the Department’s aggressive leadership of the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI) an initiative supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation); by a decrease in the average length of commitment; a reduction of the number of females referred to DYS by the courts; and a decrease in the number of juveniles whose commitment was extended beyond 18 years of age.
The profile of the DYS committed population includes the following characteristics:
- The average age of the population is 17 years;
- 85% of committed youth are male and 15% are female; and
- 34% are Caucasian, 30% are African American, 28% are Hispanic, 3% are Asian and 5% are other.
DYS operates 102 programs including 63 facilities ranging from staff secure group homes to highly secure locked united and 36 community reentry centers to service youth who live in the community (residing with a parent, guardian, foster parent or in an independent living program).
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Employability and Transition Services
In 2006 DYS expanded its educational offerings to include more focus on vocational and job readiness training. Through funding to DYS from the Massachusetts State Legislature, CommCorp, in partnership with DYS, created a work-based learning initiative called Bridging the Opportunity Gap (BOG): Job Readiness, Vocational Training and Employability initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to provide clients with vocational and employability skill programming that supports the entry of youth into today’s competitive labor market. The BOG initiative has provided DYS clients, in all of the five DYS regions, with access to job readiness, career development, vocational and employment skills training. In 2008, BOG served 354 youth in 12 programs; in 2009 BOG will served over 400 youth within 15 program locations. BOG program providers include: community based organizations, career centers, regional workforce investment boards and vocational technical high schools. For more information and outcomes on the BOG initiative, please click here for the 2008 BOG Annual Report.
In 2008-2009, Commonwealth Corporation piloted a mentoring initiative, targeted at DYS clients returning to the community to provide additional support to youth. The pilot was administered in Holyoke and is a partnership between the DYS Western Region, two faith-based groups — Light of Restoration and Faith Unlimited Institute, Mass Mentoring Partnership, and Commonwealth Corporation. The program focused on the following purposes:
- To create an adult, caring relationship to support the youth
- To provide activities that enhance youth skills development around education and employment
- To offer field trips, speakers, and activities enabling youth to experience and explore a variety of work environments and professionals.
Key Partnerships
CommCorp, in partnership with DYS, has also collaborated with the National Foundation of Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) to expand entrepreneurship training for youth in a variety of settings in the DYS continuum of care. This pilot program, administered in 2008, provided professional development to teachers to learn how to implement the NFTE core curriculum. Participating DYS sites included RFK Action Corp’s long term secure boys program, Gandara, RFK Girls program, Westfield Youth Detention Center and the DYS/Putnam Vocational Training Program—all in the DYS Western Region. For more information on the NFTE pilot, please click here for the 2008 Commcorp-DYS NFTE Report. For more information on NFTE, go to www.nfte.org.
Through funding from a federal Perkins grant, CommCorp and DYS established a Horticulture Pathway at greenhouses in the Central and Western DYS Regions. Both greenhouses serve DYS clients in all phases of the continuum of care—from short term programming through community reentry. Youth gain exposure to many aspects of horticulture and small business development through this program. Skills and competencies include plant care and development, landscaping and designing exterior gardens, to hands on experience in marketing and selling greenhouse products.
CommCorp, HEC and DYS are also piloting a Career Development Initiative in residential facilities. To guide instruction during the “Life Skills” block in educational programs, curriculum has been developed to help youth gain skills in goal setting, life skills and job readiness competencies. To support this pilot program, a guidance counselor coach will work for participating facilities to assist with curriculum implementation, integration of technology to access the Massachusetts Career Information System (http://www.masscis.intocareers.org/) and the development of a student portfolio to capture student work.
Commcorp has also provided DYS with access to training and education for DYS line staff and caseworkers through the Youth Worker Credential Pilot. This 14 month program provided training and credentialing for front-line youth workers in the Western region. The pilot provides participants with professional growth, academic advancement, and extends the length of employment of staff in the youth service field. For more information on this program or to receive information on how your agency, organization or youth staff might participate in similar training, click here.
Commonwealth Corporation has also developed and published the Community Resource Guide, a manual to assist program staff and youth in the identification of local community resources related to education, employment and social service supports. The Guide is a hard copy and on-line resource to help support the transition of youth into productive life choices.
Our Approach
Research indicates that differences in cultural, racial, and gender-influenced experiences impact the ways in which youth engage or do not engage in learning and are further complicated when considered alongside additional challenges teachers face teaching in a juvenile justice setting. If left unexamined, these differences can lead to a mismatch between students’ prior experiences and the classroom experience and support services offered by teachers and youth workers, respectively, thus limiting student achievement and success.
Commonwealth Corporation, in collaboration with DYS and HEC, is committed to recognizing and exploring multiple means to addressing the impact of these cultural and racial disparities on youth, teachers, and other youth workers in DYS. In addition, aligned with a positive youth development approach defined by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) and embraced by DYS, CommCorp supports the integration of a positive youth development approach to work being done in educational and transitional services in order to better promote positive change in the lives of DYS youth.
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