OTAC  Home

 CSDC  Home

Links

Contact Us

Employment

Evaluation

Staff Calendar

by Robert DeBlois

(Robert DeBlois is director of the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program,
an alternative school based in Providence, Rhode Island.)

Alternative public schools are in jeopardy just when we need them most to meet the needs of troubled students. That does not have to be so. We can create and develop alternative schools that do not crumble the minute the political winds shift or the economy begins to slow down. I know because I run one that has stood the test of time. In a minute, I’ll tell you how, but first I want to tell you what too often goes wrong.

In my experience, alternative public schools have a brief life cycle that starts with enthusiasm and ends in disintegration. Typically, a school district will begin with a small program designed for anywhere from 15 to 30 students, run by a small group of full and part-time teachers, and paid for with state or deferral grants. These teachers generally have some freedom from normal school rules and regulations during the first year. That allows them to learn more quickly what works and what doesn’t.

Alternative programs usually work well in the beginning. The teachers are enthusiastic and committed. The students’ attendance and academic performance improve, and they seem to develop higher expectations for themselves. What more could we ask for?

The answer is consistency. Small alternative schools often disintegrate because the problem they were designed to solve fades from public attention once the needs of the students appear to be met. The trouble begins when alternative programs are forced to take students who really won’t benefit from the program but are placed there because the district has no other place to pt them. This muddles the mission of the program and frustrates the students and teachers in it.

The final stage in the life cycle of an alternative school occurs when the teachers who began the program ask for transfers. When they started, they had the power to decide which students would be admitted to the program and how they would be taught. As that power erodes, the teachers become burned out, stuck in a small, intensive program over which they have little control. Often, their replacements are people who do not want to be assigned to the program. In this environment, unhappy students end up with unhappy teachers.

The program then develops a reputation as a holding cell for problem kids, and teachers in regular schools are less likely to refer students to it. Eventually, the number of students in the program drops so low that the cost of the program becomes difficult to justify.

That doesn’t have to be the case, though. For six years, I have been the director of an alternative public school in Rhode Island for middle school kids who are in danger of dropping out. Our school, the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program, is becoming a necessity in our community. For many kids, it is the last chance for academic success. So it is not surprising we had 250 requests for placement for the 1994-95 school year, but only 60 spaces available.

I want to make one thing clear; we don’t admit just any kid who has a problem. Instead, we look for students who have repeated a grade or more but have demonstrated a desire to improve their lives. The collaborative is not an academic dumping ground.

Our main purpose is to help kids catch up, academically and socially, and return to a regular school. Ideally, we want our students to complete the requirements for three grade levels in two academic years. Some kids get through only two grades in two years, and others make it through only one. But the goal is three.

Our school is subject to oversight and expectations, but most school decisions are made without an army of bureaucrats approving them. I report to a board made up of superintendents from the participating cities of Providence, East Providence, and Pawtucket. Most of the money for the school comes from tuition of $6,000 per student, which the three districts pay. The collaborative also raises about $90,000 a year from private sources.

Still, the collaborative has struggled to survive. In each of the first four years of its operation, the school faced the possibility of being cut from school district budgets, especially in Providence, where money has been particularly hard to find. But strong community support most notably from the business sector, has made the program’s elimination less likely.

The keys to our success have been collaboration and independence. Collaboration and independence. Collaboration among the three school districts occurred because no single district had enough students (or money) to create a program for the kind of kids the school serves. This collaboration, in turn, gave us more independence. Because three school systems are involved, no single school board can dictate policy to the collaborative based solely on the needs of that school system. Rather, the collaborative’s board of superintendents, representing all three communities, makes policy decisions. The day-to-day operation of the school is in the hands of the director and the teachers, and this school-based decision making has filtered down to the students. At the collaborative, a student discipline committee made up of 10 students hears cases of student infractions of behavior codes and dishes out appropriate punishments. One teacher serves as an adviser to the committee.

Survival strategies

So how do you avoid the cycle of failure? Here are a few tips to keep in mind if you don’t want your alternative school to disintegrate:

Consider the school’s location. Should the program be located inside a regular school? Outside but close to the school? Or separated completely from the regular school? The answer will depend on what space is available at little or no cost to the school district. Keep in mind, though, that an alternative school that is large enough to survive on its own might have a better chance of developing its own mission and culture if it is located apart from a regular school.

Determine an appropriate size. Make the alternative school big enough to accommodate a steady flow of students, but small enough so students get more personal attention than they would in regular classes. A good range is from 100 to 160 students. Any smaller, and you risk not being able to justify the school’s existence. Much larger and you risk becoming a dumping ground for every kid with every kind of problem.

Create a program that is as free as possible from administrative dictates and union contracts. Teachers generally know what is best for students. Staff your alternative school with teachers who will take responsibility for the program’s failures as well as its successes.

Establish direct lines for communication. The school needs clear communication with counselors in regular schools who are responsible for identifying students for the program. It also needs communication with parents, who should visit the classrooms as often as possible.

Seek out financial assistance and volunteers from community groups and local businesses. Over the past 10 years, an increasing number of businesses and private foundations have offered to donate money and equipment to schools. Find the ones that can help your students.

Publicize the successes of the school and relate those successes to the school’s mission. For example, if your alternative school has kept students from dropping out, communicate this success through hard data and as much anecdotal information as possible. The mission of most alternative schools is to keep kids in school. Remember to give administrators and school board members who supported the program credit for helping the school improve.

Monitor per-pupil costs in the alternative program versus those in the district. Let people know that these kids could become a burden to society if the program did not exist. Tell them what it costs to keep someone on welfare or in prison.

Make sure most of the school’s money comes from local tax dollars. And, as a safeguard in tight budget times, make sure the money is a regular part of the district’s budget. Few people have the time or energy to search for grants and private donations each year to keep the program alive.

Because of budget woes, in fact, many alternative schools are in jeopardy of closing down. That worries me-and it should worry you. The number of students who need the special academic and social attention alternative schools provide is increasing, especially in urban areas. Fortunately, you and your fellow school leaders can take the steps necessary to establish and maintain effective alternative schools.

Internet link: http://www.asbj.com