A year later the Ferndale campus was opened in the old Foley's furniture warehouse. There's a CEP school in Dallas and one opening in Philadelphia. The schools in the rest of the district are safer and calmer with the troublemakers at CEP, says Terry Abbott, HISD spokesperson. And teachers are happier because the company has taken disruptive kids out of the classroom, says Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers. The Ferndale school reflects the differences from regular instructional regimens.
Kids wear khaki pants and school-issued jerseys and walk through metal detectors.
Jewelry is forbidden. They stay in the same classroom with the same teacher all day, at computer stations lining the walls. Several other aspects of the operation are unique, including the reliance on computer programs and videos. Its top recommendation is to have less computer-based learning, which can alienate and isolate already alienated kids. It notes that teachers don't actually do much teaching, but often serve primarily as monitors.