Community Education Partners (CEP), Inc., a direct contractor that operated out of Nashville, Tennessee, working with public schools in their efforts to maintain strong academic and behavior improvement programs for students in grades six through 12. The programs supported students who had disobeyed school codes of conduct or who were not performing at grade level academically. Public schools depended on Community Education Partners’ programs to go beyond a disciplinary emphasis and implement strategies that encouraged students to improve academically.

Among its many successes, Community Education Partners was credited by the Houston Chronicle for a precipitous drop in crime in the Houston Independent School District (HISD). CEP opened a private academy, the Houston School for Accelerated Learning, which enrolled hundreds of students who had demonstrated learning and behavioral problems in the public school setting. Once CEP’s program was enacted, crime in HISD declined by over 20 percent.

The company was also active in the communities it served. In Florida, for example, it created a mentorship program that allowed CEP students as young as high school freshman to build positive relationships with successful local professionals like lawyers, bankers, and higher education professionals.