Camelot Launches New Educational Service in Nation's 5th Largest School District

LAS VEGAS, March 22, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Camelot Education, a national leader in providing programs to school districts for students with behavioral issues or special needs, has launched a new set of services designed to evaluate and improve local alternative education and special education programs to ensure that special needs students receive an appropriate high quality education.

This set of services represents a new and separate strategy for Camelot, which operates 40 programs in partnership with districts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Florida and Texas. In Clark County, the nation's fifth largest school district and Camelot's first for this new array of services, rather than go in and operate the programs as it normally would, Camelot is examining how and why students are selected and sent to alternative schools – and the quality of education they receive in those schools. 

"Part of what makes Camelot so successful in helping at-risk students turn their lives around is that we use our expertise to continuously review our techniques and results. In this case, we are reviewing an entire district's program with an eye toward capitalizing on strengths and overcoming deficiencies," said Todd Bock, Camelot Education's CEO.

The approach in Clark County highlights Camelot's ability to help districts, particularly those that want to operate and build capacity in their own alternative education programs, but need expertise to evaluate and guide steps forward.

"We focus on developing teacher, administrator and organizational capacity by providing professional development and consulting services," said Raymundo Rodriquez, Camelot's Chief Strategy Officer. "Issues such as special needs, alternative education, special education and related innovative teaching practices are ongoing and pervasive issues facing educators across the country. From our experience successfully operating these kinds of programs, we bring a unique expertise to school districts."

Although Clark County represents Camelot's first engagement of this kind, the model can be replicated to help districts large and small. In this case, Camelot has a team of 30 highly experienced alternative education specialists from various aspects of Camelot campuses around the country visiting District schools to validate the strengths and procedures that are yielding positive results and identifying areas where improvement is needed.

Once that work is completed, Camelot will use the information it compiles to host a custom professional development conference for 250 educators in the District. The training modules at the conference, to be held in the third week in June, will be informed by the assessment of 20 schools.

Prior to the conference, Camelot officials will present their findings to the Clark County School Board in May. The report will include the findings and analysis across the system. Camelot will discuss the findings with the board, answer all questions and then use the feedback to prepare for the June conference.

"We're using the same training model and materials that we use every day in the schools we operate to help build the District's capacity so that it is prepared to address any problems on its own," CEO Bock said. "The District's leadership deserves credit for its desire to ensure that students who have made mistakes or lost their way still receive a great education and opportunity. We are pleased to add these professional development and consulting services  to our portfolio. We expect them to be a great complement to our core business that will offer much needed support to districts across the country." 

Read more about Camelot Education at www.cameloteducation.org.

SOURCE Camelot Education

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http://www.cameloteducation.org