The John Dewey Academy is a college preparatory and therapeutic school, which has been accredited by the New England Association of Colleges and Schools. There are thirty-five students who were alienated, acting-out, and gifted adolescents whose self-destructive behavior needed residential treatment not only to stop toxic behavior but also to help them begin to use, rather than continue to abuse, their superior intellectual and artistic potential. Some had been institutionalized. Most arrived while still taking psychotropic medication. At Dewey, mood altering medication is rejected.
Kenneth Steiner, Dean of The John Dewey Academy, describes new students "to be psychiatric and educational failures. They have made poor choices which make them immune to traditional treatment and educational approaches. It is important to note we admit students on the basis of an interview, so we do not have standardized test scores, transcripts, and psychiatric reports." In the school's twenty-two year history, all graduates attend college. Steiner asserts "No other special purpose school or treatment program can match this critical bottom line which is performance after graduation."
The John Dewey Academy class of 2007 will attend Brown University (2); Colby College, Columbia University, Mount Holyoke (2), St. John's, Skidmore (2), and Vassar Colleges. One was wait listed by Harvard pending assurance he would attend if admitted. Columbia (2) and Davidson Colleges, Georgetown and Northwestern Universities, Skidmore College (2), Duke, Johns Hopkins, the Universities of Chicago & Edinburgh, Vassar (2) and Williams Colleges (2) admitted students who choose to attend other schools.
A member of the class of 2002 whom John Dewey had predicted would win a Rhodes Scholarship was admitted only by Columbia University where he was the salutatorian of his class, elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and won four major leadership awards. He had been rejected by Yale and Columbia Law Schools, but attends Harvard Law School, where he currently has a "B+" and two "A's," so it is likely he will be elected to the Law Review. Another graduate of this class attends NYU Law School.
A member of the class of 2003 graduated from Mount Holyoke and has been admitted by the Ph.D. clinical psychology program at Yeshiva University. Another graduate will attend Albany Law School.
Thomas Edward Bratter, president and founder of Dewey, who does college advisement and placement, reports, "Today, college admissions is more competitive and difficult. My first letter of recommendation for this class averaged twenty-five pages each student because nothing is automatic. We have sons and daughters of alumni whose SAT scores exceeded 2350, who had achieved all "A's" at Dewey, had great extra-curricular activities, and positive recommendations but were rejected by their parent's colleges. However, they were accepted by more selective colleges. Brown University, for example, rejected the son of an alumnus who then achieved all "A's" at NYU and transferred after I had written two letters of protest to the University president. This year two Dewey graduates will attend Brown. Princeton rejected a daughter who received all "A's" since kindergarten. She now attends Williams College where she continues her unblemished record of "A's," is a first year editor of the culture section of the student newspaper, and a member of the debate and crew teams. I had predicted she only would make the Dean's List which was an underestimate. She will be a bona fide candidate for Phi Beta Kappa and to win a prestigious Marshall or Truman Scholarship."
Most of the Dewey faculty possess doctorates and have college teaching experience. A former Rhodes Scholar and a former Ambassador to the United Nations are currently faculty members. All faculty members have taught at Dewey for more than five years, though two are expected to retire soon. One is an octogenarian, the other is seventy-five years old.
Bratter concludes that "The list of colleges which admit John Dewey Academy alumni make this school indistinguishable from the most elite prep schools in America."