Ombudsman: An Alternate Route

Nashville Business Journal – by Jenny Burns Nashville Business Journal

Todd Stringer, Nashville Business Journal

Mark Claypool, president of Nashville-based ESA, has a background in social work and founded the company in 1999.

Nashville-based Educational Services of America Inc. is in talks with Metro schools to offer an alternative school to get students who aren’t likely to graduate back on track.

The program, called Ombudsman, offers students with little hope of graduation a chance to catch up by creating a compressed learning environment that puts the student in charge.

“Most of our kids have issues from home that keep them from getting a lot out of a traditional school environment,” says Mark Claypool, president and founder of ESA. “They either need to work a lot, have children of their own or have a lot of economic challenges. You have to create a relevant experience for them.”

ESA was the brainchild of Claypool, a Nashvillian with a social work background. Since founding his company in 1999, it has grown from one employee to 1,500 with 130 programs in 17 states serving 8,000 students a day.

The company offers four programs: the Ombudsman program for students at risk of dropping out, a program for educating exceptional students, another for college students with learning disabilities and one for children with special needs.

If Metro schools sign on, it will be ESA’s first program in Tennessee. Assistant Superintendent for Student Services Ralph Thompson and school board members Gracie Porter and George Thompson have visited ESA programs in Chicago and Miami.

“It was absolutely phenomenal, very student-centered,” says Thompson.

The program in Nashville would have 20 to 24 students at a time with three teachers, Claypool says. There’s no down time or class changes. Teachers offer one-on-one help and students’ peers don’t know what grade level they’re working on, which eliminates embarrassment.

In its ombudsman programs, 85 percent of the students graduate with the program or return to public school to graduate. Thompson says the program is needed in Metro schools.

“I believe it gives our students an extra opportunity to learn in a smaller setting. The hours are more flexed on a three-hour schedule so they can attend to work or to their children, which sometimes keeps them from coming to school,” he says.

Metro schools has a 70 percent graduation rate, which is up 10 percentage points since 2004, but below the state goal of 90 percent. Nashville is no different than other urban areas, Claypool says.

“There are a growing number of students that are just not buying in, their life has gotten a lot more complicated, their home life is not solid, there’s not a lot of support to pursue academics. Poverty in urban areas is a huge issue that drives them to need to work earlier than is ideal,” Claypool says. “You couple that with more rigid standards from No Child Left Behind, and our students are worse prepared.”

Metro Nashville Public Schools is one of two school systems in the state to be placed under “corrective action,” meaning it failed to meet No Child Left Behind standards. Greater state direction will result if the school system continues to miss those targets.

An ombudsman program costs $5,400 per slot. Metro schools is looking at about 210 slots. Claypool says that cost is $1,500 less than the district spends normally on a student.

Marc Hill, chief education officer for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, says having ESA in Nashville is an asset in a city that has made education a priority.

jburns@bizjournals.com, 615-846-4276