01/18/2014
Dr. Steve Perry, Ed.D., M.S.W., is Founder & Principal of Capital Prep. He founded the school to ensure that any child from any race or economic setting can be provided with access to a world-class education.
Capital Prep, a year-round school that is more than 80 percent black and Latino, can boast of sending every graduating member of its senior class on to a four-year college. In the four years since Perry founded the school, he has sent 80 students on to college.
Perry founded the school with the specific purpose of creating a school that would serve students with backgrounds similar to his. Born to a teenage mother, Perry grew up impoverished in a public housing project just outside Hartford. He recalls, "I had to be a principal at some point, or a prisoner, because I spent more time in the principal's office than the principal."
Perry's demanding approach has yielded big results. The school of just under 300 sixth- through 12th-grade students boasts a near 0 percent dropout rate. That's a stunning achievement considering Hartford is one of the lowest performing districts in Connecticut
"We decided we were going to open a school. We were going to serve mainly black and Latino children, but the only color I was looking at was the color of success," says Perry. Perry has achieved that by holding staff and students to the highest expectations.
You can watch a documentary about Steve Perry and his school at this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kwOIgtg108
