Need Addressed

Nearly 50% of all Philadelphia public school students are on a path to falling off the on-time graduation track by the time they reach the end of middle school—that is, they will not graduate high school within four years. A 2006 joint report from Philadelphia Education Fund and Johns Hopkins University—entitled Keeping Middle Grades Students on Track for Graduation—states that “as early as sixth grade, we can identify a significant percentage of students who will ultimately leave the School District without graduating. Before they drop out, these students will have multiple years of low test scores, poor behavior, and weak attendance. This will impact not only on the students themselves but the schools they attend.” Among the study’s findings:

  • Latino males have the lowest on-time graduation rate of any group in the city: 29.3%- 38.2%
  • In 2005, about 8,000 students officially dropped out of Philadelphia schools, and an additional 5,000 spent so little time in school that researchers called them “near dropouts”

Crime statistics from the 24th, 25th and 26th Philadelphia Police Districts, located in the East Division of North Philadelphia, demonstrate a clear need to address drug use among neighborhood youth. The East Division is known as a place where large quantities of drugs enter the community and are then distributed throughout the city. It is commonly referred to as the city’s “drug haven.” According to the Police Narcotics Division, nearly 40% of the city’s drug arrests in the past five years have been in this geographic area, which accounts for only 12% of the city’s total population. Six years ago, the area was designated to receive a Weed and Seed Project grant. Weed and Seed is a federally funded national program that targets areas staggered by high crime rates, violence, and drug activity. CADEkids is an active member of the North Philadelphia Weed and Seed Project consortium.

Drug use is a major factor in crime and student-on-student violence in Philadelphia. Student-on-student violence/assaults inside schools have increased and weapons arrests have increased dramatically since 2000. The number of homicides of young people (ages 7-24) increased by 41% in 2005 alone. The 2007 Philadelphia Report Card—produced by Philadelphia Safe and Sound—reports that gunshot wounds are a major factor in most of Philadelphia’s youth homicides: 90% of youth homicides resulted from gunshot wounds. The three latest Report Cards identify substance abuse and early sexual activity as two of the most damaging high-risk behaviors in adolescents. The 2006 Report Card found that “safety continues to be the greatest challenge confronting Philadelphia’s children, as the most recent information suggests that children and youth are increasingly faced with violence in their communities.” The current crisis—illustrated by 812 youth gunshot wounds in Philadelphia in 2008 (down from 1,030 in 2006), costing $30 million (at $37,500 per treatment) in Medicare hospital trauma center costs—warrants a scaling up of the CADEkids prevention service model.

CADEkids Program Participant Demographics

During a typical school year, the “CADEkids” demographics are: 65% African-American; 25% Latino; 4% Caucasian; 4% Asian; 2% other. Approximately 80%-85% of participants qualify for the free or reduced-price lunch program.

The public middle schools these children attend have a high incidence of drug-related problems, poor academic performance, and dangerous incidents—defined as weapons offenses (guns, knives, or other weapons) and violent incidents (homicide, kidnapping, robbery, sexual offenses, and aggravated assaults)―in their neighborhoods.

CADEkids focuses on the schools that feed into Pennsylvania’s persistently dangerous schools (PDS), 10 of which are located in Philadelphia in 2011-12. There are nearly 100 feeder schools providing students to the PDS schools, and you can find many serious behavioral issues to be addressed at these sites, as in upper grades. Our goal is to scale up and replicate the program to provide basic behavior modification skills sets to all of the children in this feeder school system. We are in 24 schools in 2011-12.