James E. Davis School

The James E. Davis School offers students in grades 6-12 a quality education. The James E. Davis School Middle School serves students in grades 6-8. Middle school students are given coursework in math, science, social studies, physical education, art, and language arts. Middle school classes are kept small in order to provide students with individualized attention and maintain an environment that facilitates learning. In each class, the teacher is licensed in the area that he or she is teaching. Some classrooms have aides to help students, especially with reading and math issues.

The James E. Davis School High School offers a Core 40 curriculum to students in grades 9-12. Though most students are discharged from our facility and return to their home schools before having the opportunity to graduate with us, we typically have three or four graduate with us each year. We offer both core courses and electives in the following subject areas: math, English, social studies, science, health and physical education and art.

High school students, who are 17 years old, and have very few credits, are offered the option of taking TASC preparations classes. For these students, as soon as they begin to show promise on the TASC practice test, they are sent to a testing facility to take the TASC.

All students are offered after school tutoring three days a week. This tutoring is based on diagnostic and progress monitoring exams that are given to students upon their arrival at James E. Davis School and periodically thereafter. Students can also request tutoring to help them with homework. Special Education students who are struggling with coursework or their behavior also have a special education teacher available to them during school hours and on specific days after school.

All students are also a part of the James E. Davis School Behavior Management System. This system is multi-faceted. It includes a highly effective and therapeutic procedure to help students with their behavior that includes positives, such as material rewards and verbal praise, and consequences for inappropriate school behavior, such as the loss of privileges. This system also provides a thorough documentation of student behavior. This documentation is put into a database that can be arranged into various ways for the teachers and students to analyze and use to construct goals during their advisory periods and monitor progress. Even when student behavior is so disruptive that they must be removed from the classroom, the dean of students at James E. Davis School uses specific de-escalation training tools to disengage the students from their negative behavior and work on more positive replacement behaviors.

We have built our program around creating an environment that promotes academic and behavioral success in our students. Everyone in the building takes an active role and feels responsible to this end. We are willing to accept new ideas and try new strategies to facilitate student achievement. Teachers look at students as individuals, recognize that they have specific needs, and endeavor to meet those needs in ways that are educationally and emotionally beneficial. Through formal diagnostic testing and informal observations, teachers identify student weaknesses and help them to improve academically and behaviorally. Teachers also hold students accountable. Learned helplessness is addressed with students and teachers provide encouragement and motivation, but do not give in to any student’s belief that he or she cannot learn.

Our teachers genuinely care about the social, emotional, and educational welfare of their students. Teachers take a unified stance on discipline as well as reward, making the students’ experience at James E. School a consistent one. We focus on three behavioral core values: Respect, Responsibility, and Productivity. We strive to make meaningful connections with students and encourage them to see the relationship between their choices, their consequences, and their quality of life.

The school has adopted The Teaching Family Model as its primary tool for providing behavior support to students. Though typically used in a home setting, the philosophy lends itself well to teaching students with behavioral and emotional issues. The Teaching Family Model is an organized, fully integrated approach to providing humane, effective individualized treatment and services to students.

The Teaching Procedures are five teaching methods used by teachers to encourage and motivate youths to learn and acquire skills. The Teaching Procedures used include:

1. Effective Praise used to strengthen and reward desired behaviors
2. Teaching Interaction used to correct unwanted behaviors
3. Planned Teaching used to teach new skills and help prevent problem behaviors from occurring
4. Intensive Teaching used as an intervention strategy to help youth manage their anger
5. Problem Solving used to help youth learn to solve their problems in positive ways

Please contact the principal, James Stuart and he will be happy to answer any questions you may have about James E. Davis School and post-secondary scholarships etc.