Ep. 388: What’s Up with Dade Prep

Mike McShane: Hello and welcome back to another edition of EdChoice Chats. This is Mike McShane, Director of National Research at EdChoice, and you are listening to an episode in my series, What’s Up with Mike McShane. And today on the podcast we have Andy Prieto and Mark Strickland of Dade Prep, where they are going to help me answer the question, “What’s up with Dade Prep?” Dade Prep is a credit recovery secondary school. I don’t know if I necessarily even want to call it high school, but it’s generally targets older students who have been truant or who have otherwise become disconnected from the education system. Helps them do credit recovery, graduate, enter the workforce. It’s a really interesting school. They have a really interesting model. Both Andy and Mark bring their own unique backgrounds to it. Andy is the co-founder and executive director. He comes from a sports media background, a real estate development background, and brings all of that to the conversation.

And Mark works as an education consultant there. But before that, he actually spent 10 years in the NBA. He was a basketball player. And I think we have a really fun opportunity to talk about that unique background and how that both plays out in the school and what he’s able to do. And actually, we were able to broaden the conversation to talk about sports and kids in general. So I think the conversation you’re about to hear goes in a couple of different directions. It talks about school choice, it talks about starting schools, it talks about truancy, it talks about sports. There’s a lot going on, and I really enjoyed the conversation you’re about to hear and I think you will too. So without further ado, here’s my conversation with Andy Prieto and Mark Strickland of Dade Prep.

So Andy, Mark, it’s great to have you on the podcast. It might make sense to just start with a big picture. Tell me a little bit about Dade Prep. How did you all get started? Who are the students that you serve? What are you trying to accomplish?

Andy Prieto: Well, good morning. It’s a pleasure to be here. My name is Andy Prieto, Co-founder, Executive Director of Dade Prep Academy based here at Miami, Florida. So just to give you a little glimpse of who we are and what we do, Dade Prep Academy is a voucher-funded credit recovery private school. What that means is, our primary source of income are the Florida School Choice Vouchers, and we offer credit recovery services for students that come to us from the public school system primarily, or other institutions, could be private or charter school, students that are at risk of not graduating on time from their home schools. These could be students that are truant, that aren’t showing up, that are falling behind in credits, or haven’t passed the state assessments, which are required as part of the graduation requirements here in the state of Florida. So they come to us, they register as an alternative program, and we help them recover those credits in advance so they can get their high school diploma.

So again, we service the at-risk opportunity youth of the area here in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. I’ve seen the program grow from 2020 during the pandemic when we decided to open the schools, my partners and I. And we just saw a huge shift from pre to post-COVID-19. It was just a national pandemic in the education system. Kids just didn’t want to be in school anymore. They got used to the virtual learning, the hybrid learning, and didn’t want to go back. So we saw a huge surge in the at-risk student population, primarily here. And Miami-Dade is the third-largest school district in the country. It surpassed Chicago Public School. So that’s the audience, the student base that we service, and it’s been a great program that we’ve started here.

Apart from providing the high school diploma to our students, we also do career development. It’s very important for us to guide these students on to post-secondary. Give them options, whether it’s a community or state colleges, technical vocational colleges for a career of choice, or the US military, whatever branch of service they choose. I myself am a former Marine, oorah. I know Mark’s dad was a Marine as well. So Corps values is embedded in me. I bring that in the forefront how we conduct our business here.

Mike McShane: So Mark, you have a bit of a non-traditional background in getting into education. So how did you get involved in all of this?

Mark Strickland: I met Andy. I was already giving back. I got a couple of other businesses that gives back to kids. They’re free. And so education was next. You see all these programs. All these programs. You got a football program, basketball programs, just everything is sports. Nothing is education. And when Andy explained to me what he was doing, I thought it was great. I think it’s a game-changer, what he’s doing. It’s an opportunity to me to touch more kids, especially when it’s education-wise. I try to walk around and ask the kids what they want to do after school, so I can kind of point them in the right direction. Being an NBA player, a lot of these kids at the school talk to me. Because of that, I can get some stuff out of them that maybe a teacher can’t or maybe administrator can’t.

So I try to play my role in that way so we can best help the kids. If they want to go to school, we can send them to school, or if they want to get a job, I can find out what they’re interested in and then point them in that direction. But it’s been great to be a part of it. I’m here to do whatever Andy wants me to do. I just like giving back to kids. I think it’s needed now with the way kids are in society right now. But because of programs and schools like this, I’m talking to a lot of these kids and they’re changing their mindset. A lot of these kids are changing their mindset and start to understand what this thing is about, what’s really going out here for them, and trying to go in the right direction instead of going in the wrong direction, which is a great thing.

Mike McShane: Yeah, that’s fantastic. One thing that might I think be helpful for people who are listening to the podcast who might not be as familiar in this area, when we talk about truancy, we talk about truant students, what is driving that? Why are the students that you’re serving, why did they become truant? Was it stuff that was happening in home? Was it something that was happening at school? Is it some combination of things? As much insight as you can give to this truancy phenomenon for people who might not be familiar with it, I think that would be really helpful.

Andy Prieto: I think that’s a very good question. It’s a question we definitely more than an hour to even discuss a potential answer to. I want to say that it’s a systematic dilemma. It’s much deeper than what we do here from an educational perspective. I think with COVID-19 happening, it really exposed a lot that was already there. It’s a lack of motivation. Some of it could be a financial economic dilemma, where just people are struggling. It’s, how could I have the motivation to show up to school? Or even work, if I don’t have a job as a parent. There’s other necessities going on. I think with COVID, it just exposed a lot of these issues and affected the way students are, whether they’re going to school or not. I think that’s part of the problem. We can get political as well, but again, this is a nonpartisan issue. I think that the truancy part is just a lack of motivation from numerous fronts.

Mark Strickland: For me, the couple of kids that I’ve talked to, it’s environment at the school. There was a lot of fights. They just didn’t want to be around that. Or it was a situation where guys had to be with those bad kids or they were going to be the kids that were picked on. I think a lot of it has to do with home. We have kids here that have to work and contribute to the household. Unfortunately, you have those type of situations. It’s a number of things. What we’re trying to do is tap into that one little piece of them that wants to do better and wants to get an education. Because I think all these kids have that. You just have to try to find it and then hone in on that, and get them to come to schools like Dave Prep and give them options where they can get an education and credit recovery. We are a private school, so people I think run from that, but they don’t understand we’re a free private school. It’s a great thing that we’re doing and I think it’s changing a lot of kids’ lives.

Andy Prieto: Also, this new generation… I’m in my 40s now, feel great, but I think this younger generation now, there’s a lot more issues now or different issues now with social media, technology, this need to make money now. No longevity. This TikTok generation, instant gratification. I think that has a lot to do with it as well.

I think that has a lot to do with it as well. I grew up playing ball, playing sports outside for fun. We didn’t have social media or handheld devices that we were on all day, so it could also be this access to technology and creating this generation that wants quick results and they just are bored. They didn’t want to go back to school. They want to make money now.

Mike McShane: Now I’d like to dive into what you all actually do, what the school looks like. And maybe the easiest way to think about it is that if tomorrow I enrolled and I became a Dade Prep student, what would a typical day look like for me? What are my classes like? What’s my schedule? How does that work?

Andy Prieto: We’re an in-person school, 9:00 AM to 2:00, kids are here five hours a day. They do their instructional hours. We have teachers that are here, it’s a much more laid back environment versus other schools that they’re used to, their home schools, whether it’s public or charter. We take the laid back approach, learn at your own pace. It’s an in-person program, but they’re doing an online curriculum similar to iReady. They do one class at a time until they complete the 18 credit graduation requirements. We have students that might be missing four or five, six credits or less or more, and they can finish pretty quickly if they apply themselves and do the work. It’s a much more independent school environment. They come here, they love being here.

The model was to create an extension of their home. We don’t want a lot of these excessive rules that they’re used to in school. These kids from these diverse backgrounds already have a lot of rules at home, they have issues, a lot of the things we’ve been talking about, issues on the street, issues with their friends, in their personal relationships. Here we want them to feel at ease, calm, and that approach is working. We haven’t had any fights here, obviously verbal altercations, and we’ve been able to diffuse them quickly. The kids want to be here, they’re not truant, and we don’t see them leaving. They’re graduating. We have 100% graduation. We’re proud to say that and what we’re doing works because of that mindset and that environment.

Mike McShane: Now are students able to enroll at any time? Can they enroll mid-year? Do they have to start at the beginning of the year? Can it be any year? They can enroll technically as a quote unquote “senior,” and they’re only there for one year as they work through their classes? Can students work for multiple years? How does that work?

Andy Prieto: They can enroll anytime of the year. We don’t have any deadlines for registration. We have seniors coming in all the time that don’t need much to graduate, they’re just missing their state assessments or very few credits. We help them register. We even have helped them register without voucher, without tuition. We do it free of charge. We give back to the community because we understand that there are some students in schools in these peculiar situations where these students are stuck. They’ve done their three years, three and a half years, and what can they do now if they miss the assessment? Drop out? GED? No, that’s not an option. In certain instances, we register them free of charge, no voucher, and we help them graduate because we want to help the community and we want to help these kids.

Mike McShane: I’m glad you brought up that last point because that was actually what I was kind of going to ask Mark next. In talking to a lot of these students, one of the questions, I’m trained as a researcher, and the classic question for researcher is sort of, “Compared to what?” You spend a lot of time talking with these students. If they weren’t there, where are they? What are they doing? What’s happening there if they’re not with you?

Mark Strickland: I think that’s the best part of it. They would probably be working or at home or getting into things that they don’t supposed to get into. That’s the great part about it, it gives them an option to come here, it’s a safe environment where they could get an education. I think here, they appreciate the education more because to me it seems like it’s a last chance, a last chance you, this is the last chance diploma school. This is your last opportunity to get a degree. Because I tell a lot of these guys, “Even if you do want to be a street guy or something, eventually, if you’re blessed enough to get out of that, you’re going to have to get a job. You’re going to have to work at some point. Man, at least having high school diploma, at least have that.”

When you go in and you say, “Okay, what’s your education?” “I have a high school diploma,” at least have that. Don’t go in there saying, “I dropped out in the ninth grade. I don’t have a diploma. I don’t have a GED.” Nine times out of 10, it’s going to make it very difficult for you to get a job. I think that this is a great program. Everybody here talks, the kids are always talking to me, they’re always upbeat. You always have one or two maybe but I try to pick those guys out and talk to them more than the other kids because I’m trying to figure out why. Then eventually as time goes on, they change and then they’re just like everybody else, so it’s about welcoming them and making them feel in a comfortable environment, man, that they can achieve the things that they want to.

Sometimes it’s pointing them in that direction. Sometimes these kids need direction. They don’t know that they can get a job pumping water and sewage, and it’s a good job, you get good benefits. It’s a county job. People don’t know that you can be a manager at Chick-fil-A and make about 300,000, $350,000 a year. A lot of people don’t have that information. They think, “I’m not working at Chick-fil-A,.” But no, if you work your way up and become a manager, now you have a decent, honest living. That’s the most important part is trying to give them some direction.

Mike McShane: Yeah, and I think opening up their worldview, saying, “Yeah, there’s actually a lot of stuff out here that you could be good at and you would enjoy.”

Andy Prieto: What we’re doing is great. All around it works. Milton Friedman said that, “The core of economic development starts in education.” I didn’t grasp that until recently, I have to admit. It really starts with giving these kids, giving the community the tools. The most basic tool is a high school diploma. Me growing up, you could have worked at McDonald’s without a high school diploma. You could have worked your way up, as Mark just said. To work at Chick-fil-A, you got to get in there with at least a high school diploma getting anywhere just to stand a chance. Now with these record real estate prices down here in Florida and everywhere, everything is so expensive, gas prices, you just can’t afford to live anymore unless you have these basic tools.

The issues that we see is, I think on a national level is, well, the awareness first and the communication between the public and private sectors in education. There’s disconnect there somewhere and I think it stems from this lack of awareness. That’s why it’s important that we have these failed documentary projects on school choice and what you guys are doing is very honorable because people need to be made aware what school choice is, that the first school choice voucher was there, state of Vermont, 1860, what Milton Freeman did and what 32 states are doing now, including Puerto Rico. It’s amazing having funds available for programs like ours to start, and at the rate of our expansion down here in Florida, we’re doing nothing compared to what we could be doing on a national level. But I think it’s important that we have a bridge with these public school districts that don’t understand the benefit of vouchers, that it isn’t about enrollments, it isn’t about their funding, it’s in most cases, two different pots. People don’t even understand that it’s not even from taxpayers at times. It’s from either Fortune 500 companies or other donations that are provided.

Mike McShane: I’m curious about just starting a school. Talk me through that. You got to find a building, what’s that like?

Andy Prieto: How do we start a school? It’s pretty simple. We have to just identify an adequate location that has the right compliance documents and procedures and protocols, and we can open right away. It’s a little harder. In a nutshell, it’s really identifying a location here in the state of Florida. There’s certain zoning requirements and inspections that are conducted by the Department of Education, all that passes, then you’re able to open.

The way we’ve started the model is just we’ve simplified it by providing the online curriculum, an in-person online curriculum for students to learn at their own pace, but we took it a step further. We got the community involved. We started having other community agencies that work on a grant, they have their own federal funds, they come in and provide wraparound services to our students. They do workshops in financial literacy, mental health, behavioral services. We even have a yoga instructor that comes in once a week to teach our kids about yoga, meditation, and how to calm themselves, all free.

Yoga, meditation and how to calm themselves all free of charge. That teaming up with the community has been really helpful in providing them with this balanced education that we provide here. So I truly believe it. If it takes a village to raise one child, it takes a community to run a school.

Mike McShane: So talk to me about your teachers or a lot of maybe the content, if that’s what you want to call it, is through programs, online programs. So it sounds like you have a kind of unique role for teachers. So what do you see their jobs as being? Where do you recruit them? How do you prepare them? Yeah, big picture, what’s going on with your teachers?

Andy Prieto: We hire teachers here that have graduated with an education degree or have worked in the public school system. We want people with experience that understand classroom management, that understand this population. And then obviously once we hire the right candidates, we train them internally as well. And it’s just a great environment for the kids. So they’re facilitating progress of these students as they learn at their own pace. We’re also Cognia accredited, which gives us the same accreditation as Miami-Dade County Public Schools recognized in 90 plus countries. We operate here at the highest standards.

Mike McShane: So I’m kind of interested in, as you look to the future, what do you think the next five to 10 years holds for your school?

Andy Prieto: I mean, I like to think big. I think it’s fun to attempt the impossible as Walt Disney said. I see this business model growing all over the country, even internationally. Why can’t we have an international school choice voucher fund funded for all students all over the world that they can learn virtually. But domestically, I think that addressing the US first is, the next 10 years, I mean, we still wouldn’t be able to do much. 32 states offer vouchers these savings accounts from taxpayer dollars, private donations, Fortune 500 companies. There aren’t enough private schools doing what we’re doing. And I have an open door and I’d love to have an open discussion with other advocates and other entrepreneurs that would be interested in having similar models all over the country.

Because again, we have to answer this question, what are we here? Who are we here to serve? Ourselves, our wallets or the community? I’m here to serve the community. I feel that this was a duty from the public that’s been placed on me. And I really mean that to the core because you really have to answer that question and to be able to make a difference the way we’ve been doing it. And let me tell you, this is my first education project. I come from the sports media background, real estate investments. I didn’t know anything about this until it was brought to me by my wife.

Mike McShane: Well, it was actually interesting when you were talking about starting up a school, because it is, as you might imagine on this podcast, I interview people who run schools and a lot of them who come from an education background can be really stressed out, overwhelmed, challenged by all of the stuff that comes with starting up a school. So where you said, look, you find a facility and you have the zoning regulator. It sounds like you come from a background where that sort of stuff is stuff that you’ve worked through. So I’m curious how you think that background has shaped your ability to do this. Whereas, like I said, someone who perhaps prepared as a teacher, as a school principal, when they see zoning regulations they’re like, oh man, what do we do here? Whereas for you with a real estate background or something, you’re like, yeah, this is like every business. We could find a space. I know what to do. What is that kind of entrepreneurial background? What does that bring to school leadership?

Andy Prieto: So in 2014, my partner at the time, Rory Holloway, was a predominant boxing manager. He represented several world champions at the time, notably, obviously we all know who Mike Tyson was and is. He was a heavyweight sensation, but Rory Holloway was his manager under Don King, and he was the one that got him with his co-manager and promoter, the biggest sports contracting in history to date. It was a 400 million contract on the Showtime network in MGM Grand. I had the privilege to work with Rory for over 15 years, did a lot of projects together. In 2014, we released his story, Taming the Beast, the untold story of Mike Tyson, and we were able to get that in over 30 countries. It was a very exciting project I was involved in. It did very well. But the experience that I got from that, dealing with some of the greatest minds in sports, I should say, it was a humbling experience.

It gave me a different perspective of how business it is not how you can go from zero to 100 overnight. I got a taste of that. I mean nothing like Mike that was making 30 million a fight and ran through 400 million, but that’s another conversation. Fast forward 2017, 2018, I was twiddling my thumbs a little bit and I said, “What’s next? What’s next for me? I’m still in my late 30s. What am I going to do?” I meet my wife, fiance at the time, she was a counselor at a local school here, and she was already referring students to other alternative programs with her caseloads. She was about 400 to 500 students at any moment that were seeing her or attempting to see her as a counselor. They were overworked as you said. She’s been in there 17 years at the time. So let’s fast forward to 2020, the pandemic happened. We all know it was quite the dilemma there. She said to me, “Let’s open up a private school.” I said, “Well, I don’t know. Who makes money in education?” I didn’t believe it. I didn’t think that. It was interesting.

When I started digging in, I started doing my due diligence on the vouchers available here in the state of Florida and what our governor DeSantis was doing with his policies and how much of an advocate he was for it. Mind you, I didn’t know anything about this. I said, this can work, but what we have to do is we have to work with the public schools here in the area. So my wife at the time was the one that really started this, and the rest was history. It went from 50 students, 100 students, 200 students, and it just snowballed from there. I want to say that it was a large part due to her. I got to give her the credit. My wife and then my partners as well, and Dr. Mogdus and Dr. De Jesus we’re instrumental in providing the facility that we’re in now. We have over 15,000 square feet here. It’s small compared to a public school, but we’re able to serve our student population pretty well.

Mike McShane: So Mark, I have a question for you that may be a little bit out of left field, but I want to throw it out there because I don’t always get the chance to talk to someone with such an athletic career as yours. I think this is my sort of hypothesis, putting things out there that getting young people involved in sports is a very good and important thing, and not enough young people play sports or they play sports, but they don’t persist in sports. And I think there’s actually a fair amount of research that it helps connect people to schools. But I think also just we have an obesity problem, we have all sorts of health issues that are going around. So I would love to know your thoughts on what do we think we could do in America, maybe in Florida, in schools to help get more kids active playing sports and persisting, staying active, staying healthy for their lives?

Mark Strickland: Yeah, you’re right about that. Me growing up man, I was a little kid with a bad attitude and sports changed that whole concept. Sports did everything for me. It gave me discipline, it gave me toughness. It built social skills because I’m around a bunch of different people from different areas. It done all of that. Made me focus more on schools because back when I was growing up, if you didn’t have good grades, you couldn’t play. So it made me do better in school, made me focus more in school. I mean, sports is the number one driver of kids with discipline. Having some direction and knowing what they’re good at, what they’re not good at. And also, coach Cheney used to tell me, it teaches you how to handle adversity. That’s what it does.

I mean, if you go down just like me, if I go down and turn the ball over and I sit there and pal for two minutes while they’re laying the ball up on the other end, I’m coming out. But if I turn the ball over and I hustle down, and I may get a block shout on that end, and then we come back and score. That teaches me, okay, hey, the next play, okay, the next situation. Let me keep moving. Let me keep going. And second part of that question, to get people more involved, I think it starts with just information. Letting parents know that that’s available to their kids, talking to more kids.

It’s talking to more kids, schools really driving sports programs, because I think sports really helped. It helped me out a whole lot. I think my life would’ve been really different if I wouldn’t have played sports. It kept me away from gangs, it kept me out of trouble. It made me want to make my parents proud and see them up there, and I scored my first touchdown. And my dad’s chest all out and he’s proud. So those are experiences that shaped me as I got older. So I think, just putting it more information out, letting more people know that, “Hey, man, we have these type of sports programs.”

Letting recreation centers, getting more involved with communities and letting parents know what they got going on and actually having rec centers that have those programs and with good coaches, good mentors, those are things that need it. Once that starts to happen, I think kids will start to get more back at school, because I’m seeing it more now when I talk to kids with the Hoop Dreams program and talk to kids here at the school. They are really changing their mindset. Kids are really starting to understand, “Hey, I got to go to class. I got to get my grades. I got to find me something that I like early in life, so that by the time I get to 25 or 26, 24, I kind of know, once I leave college, what I want to do.”

Mike McShane: So for one last question. I know y’all are working on a documentary right now. How’s that going? What’s the plan with that? Where are you in the process? What are the hopes you have for that?

Andy Prieto: So we’re currently filming Ed Nation, Education Nation. It’s basically a film documentary about school choice timeline, from the very first school voucher available in the state of Vermont until today, and what’s going on. So it’s called Ed Nation, currently in production. We’re very excited about it, to see what awareness it can bring, just to kind of get an audience to understand what school choice is. Then we have a follow-up. We have another documentary project that we’re slated up. So we want to focus on education related content, bridge media with education to see what happens. I think it’s all good. I wanted to mention something about Mark as well, if I may. When Mark came to me, Mark is one of those guys, he’s very humble, modest. I’ve dealt with athletes before. Mark came to me, and he said, “I want to be a part of this. What do you need me to do?”

He offered to donate his time. He offered money, and he was just willing to do anything to be a part of what we’re doing here. He believed. He believes in our program, and he believed in me. And I’m just honored to sit here and work with the likes of Mark Strickland, because he doesn’t have to do that. He can easily stay retired in the sunset and enjoy the beach, where he lives, and doesn’t have to do anything. And I’m not going to say any names, but there are other athletes out there, that are about themselves and their self-interest and wouldn’t do anything, unless you pay them in the high six figures.

Let’s just leave it at that. Mark isn’t that personality, even though he’s played at the NBA 10 seasons, illustrious career for 17 years, under Pat Riley, Coach Chaney, greatest minds in sports. Guy’s the humblest guy, will sit there and have a conversation with you and smoke a cigar, if you want. So I just would like to thank Mark for his partnership, his participation, and the influence that he has, not just with our student population, but also our staff. He brings tremendous value with our organization.

Mike McShane: Well, thank you both very much for taking the time to talk today. I really appreciate it.

Mark Strickland: Thank you.

Mike McShane: Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. I feel like we could have definitely kept talking for much longer, which is always a good sign. It’s not every day you get to talk to someone that brings those particular experiences that they’ve had. Andy talking about the work he did with Mike Tyson and all of that cool stuff, and Mark talking about bringing his NBA experience into the school, I think it’s great. And one of the things that I’ve found really edifying about doing this podcast, but just being involved in the kind of school choice movement in general, is that the freedom that school choice allows can really bring a lot of very interesting people into the field, that might not otherwise have been involved.

Given the strictures of traditional public school systems and others, you don’t always have the opportunity to bring in people with divergent backgrounds. You have to be certified, you have to go through certain processes. And so, it can just be a lot harder to do stuff like that. So I think this is one of the really cool things about school choice is that it brings in passionate people with unique experiences, who can bring their knowledge. Starting a school is kind of like starting a business. It’s starting a complex organization. You need a space to operate, you need capital, you need staff, you need all of those things. And people who come from a business background have experience doing that. So I think, if you can sort of pair that acumen with educational acumen, you have an opportunity to build something really cool and something better that, if it was sort of like just business people, but people who didn’t have education experience, that’s probably not going to work out so great.

And if you have people with just education, but none of the business side, that’s probably not going to work out so great. So thinking about ways to bring those different skill sets, bring that different knowledge together, I think, is awesome. And I think it’s just one of those many opportunities that school choice policies create. I’ve spoken enough, those are just my reactions to it. I hope you all had similar ones to me and enjoyed that conversation as well. As always, please subscribe to this podcast and get it in your podcast inbox or whatever. I don’t know, it just pops up on my phone and I listen to it. So I hope you can do that too.

And I want to thank, as always, Jacob Vinson and Eve Elliot, our two podcast gurus, our producers, our editors, who put all of this stuff together and make it sound great. And I want to thank you. Thank you all for listening, and I look forward to chatting with you again on another edition of EdChoice Chats. Take care!