Chicago Excel Academy Executive Director Tyree Booker Sits Down with Chicago Tonight
Camelot Education’s Chicago Excel Academy Executive Director Tyree Booker recently sat down with WTTW’s Chicago Tonight for “A Closer Look at CPS Options Schools.”
In Mr. Booker’s complete interview, obtained from WTTW and posted to Camelot Education’s YouTube page, he offers an in-depth look at Chicago Excel Academy, one of Camelot Education’s accelerated schools.
Chicago Excel Academy opened in 2012, after Camelot Education was selected by the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to provide an alternative education to some of the 60,000 students in the city who are identified as being overage and under-credited.
“For them to identify that problem and see the need to fix it shows great leadership on the part of CPS,” Booker said.
To help serve that population, Chicago Excel Academy educates 375 students between the ages of 16-21 in need of credits to earn their high school diplomas. Using an extended day program (school runs from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.), students to earn five credits per semester, ten per year. (CPS subsequently added three more Camelot Excel Academies in Englewood, Southwest and South Shore.)
Chicago Excel Academy services don’t stop at academics.
“We provide services for social and emotional support, we deal with truancy—we deal with all those factors that kept students out of school,” Booker said, adding that a lot of students who attend Chicago Excel Academy deal with “life issues.”
“You take a father out of a family. You put a mother on drugs. You put a child in a situation where they don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” Booker said. “These are kids that really want this, but life has put them in a situation that they [could not achieve it].”
To help student achieve success, Chicago Excel Academy employs a rating system that evaluates the academic, attendance, social and emotional achievement of each student on a weekly basis.
“If a student is positive for three weeks, they become a pledge to student government, and student government members then get privileges,” Booker said. “[They get to] plan prom, homecoming.”
Working together through student government and other programs, students learn to work with a variety of types of people to achieve their goals.
“Regardless of where you come from, what affiliation you have, you’re in this building to get your education,” Booker said. “Having the opportunity to work together collaboratively builds skills outside of here.”
To further promote success outside of the classroom, Chicago Excel Academy provides a post-secondary program to all students. School staff meet with students to determine a plan for after high school – a four-year college, community college, trade school, military or full-time job.
“We set [students] up with a post-secondary plan, individually catered to what they want to do,” Booker said. “We have to recognize the needs and goals of each student.”
Booker added that the community support Chicago Excel Academy has enjoyed throughout the city has been instrumental to the success of its students, inside and outside the classroom.
“Community organizations that care about the youth of Chicago have partnered with us and really allowed us to run a great program.
