OVERVIEW, SABISH JHS TEAM 2, FOND DU LAC, WI

Alternative Education Program
For
Students At-Risk
Project Overview

In 1995-96, the staff at Sabish Junior High began an initiative to serve the 9th grade "at-risk" students. Staff interest for at-risk programs was high because of a concern for a lack of success among many students. In prior years a number of the 9th grade at-risk students were leaving Sabish with only 1 - 4 credits compared with their non-at-risk classmates who generally received 4 - 6 credits. The creation of our at-risk programs was essential to providing academic, social and emotional success for students. " Characteristics of an alternative program include one in which the students and staff attend by choice. The program is to be an alternative to the regular school program, with a distinctive mission. It is to be separate from the regular program with class size small enough to allow for individualization. The aims of the program would be broad enough to develop fully each student intellectually, personally and socially. The staff in an alternative program should be free of normal school constraints" (Raywid, M. A., 1988). With these characteristics in place another obvious, but essential element needed to be considered. Class size, which is often large in the regular classroom needed to be scaled down for our at-risk programs. "An emphasis on small size will allow students to get more individual attention and greater flexibility in curriculum, scheduling and teaching strategies" (Glass, R.S.,1995).

This project was undertaken in order to determine strengths and weaknesses of the programs which would be used to recommend modifications to improve the existing programs. Teaching staff involved in the programs stated they believed they had been inadequately informed about the programs' goals and objectives prior to their implementations. They also felt as though they had no part of the selection process which determined student eligibility. Teachers not involved in the program have expressed concerns that the programs did not fulfill certain expectations. However, there is an overall consensus by the Sabish teachers that the programs had been beneficial and that their continuation was warranted with certain modifications.

At-risk programs cannot be postponed until late in the educational career of a student. The factors that determine an individual to be at-risk start at a young age and intervention must begin as soon as possible. "At the middle-school level, it's very important that kids get channeled in the right direction academically and socially. This is a very vulnerable period in their lives because of peer pressure and all the distractions. Middle school children may have the most to gain from the behavior modification emphasis of alternative school programs" (Glass, 1995).

In order to gain an understanding of what teachers perceived as strengths and weaknesses of the programs, we used two different survey tools. We surveyed the teachers who were directly involved with the programs as to their objectives, student eligibility, curriculum and outcomes. These teachers were also provided with the original program proposals and asked to assess them according to their outcomes. Teachers who taught non-at-risk 9th grade classes were also surveyed as to whether they could detect changes in student behavior and classroom climate in relation to the existence of the at-risk programs. Finally, students who were involved in each of the programs were also surveyed as to their success. These findings were compiled and will be used to provide recommendations to the teaching staff who work with the programs in order to modify them for improvement.