Academy Engages Incarcerated Youths

Marcus, left, and Demondre, right, are escorted to the Maya Angelou Academy inside the New Beginnings Youth Development Center, a lockup facility in Laurel, Md., for teenagers convicted of crimes in the District of Columbia.

—Christopher Powers/Education Week

By Mary Ann Zehr

Laurel, Md.

It’s not easy to keep young people on task for learning in a youth prison, but David Domenici, the principal of the Maya Angelou Academy, a charter-like school here serving incarcerated juveniles, is trying to do it while at the same time creating a model program for improving educational services for young offenders.

Located at the New Beginnings Youth Development Center , a lockup facility housing young men convicted of crimes in the District of Columbia, Maya Angelou is one of a small number of schools run by charter school operators targeting incarcerated youths. As of late last month, the academy was educating 60 to 70 teenagers, ages 14 to 19, who were serving time for crimes ranging from unauthorized use of a vehicle, to armed robbery, to manslaughter. A few stay as little as five days; others may be incarcerated for a year.

Yet, in the short time they’re here, Mr. Domenici hopes to give each of them the best education possible and also likely the best...