Articles by Rob DeBlois
The Need for More Alternative Schools
by Rob DeBlois
Since the tragedy at Columbine High School
last spring, educators throughout the country have turned their
attention to making schools more secure. In order to protect
students and teachers from a kind of random violence that once
seemed unthinkable, we have hired experts to help us develop
crisis plans, identify seriously troubled students, and create
programs that encourage all students to confide in adults when
they have fears about safety. schools more secure.
These actions are understandable. No one
wants to see his school on the evening news as a scene of death
and mayhem. Unfortunately, however, most of the efforts we have
taken address only the symptoms o f the kind of problem that
leads to violence in schools. Put simply. Too many children
become alienated and unknown in large traditional public
schools, primarily middle schools and high schools.
With the exception of a handful of larger
school districts in my state, most towns have just one high
school and one or two middle or junior high schools. These same
towns usually have at least five churches, several pharmacies,
many restaurants, a few grocery stores, and perhaps even a
shopping center. Why is it that we provide ourselves with many
choices for worship, entertainment, and shopping, but only one
choice for the public education of adolescence?
For me, one of the most startling aspects of
the TV coverage of the Columbine High shootings was the aerial
footage of the school. The sheer size of the facility astounded
me. That it took police several hours to secure the building,
and more than a day to make sure that it was free of bombs, came
as little surprise.
Yet Columbine is hardly an aberration. In many towns in my state
and across the country, the high school is the largest building,
with the possible exception of a factory or some other large
business.
Unlike businesses, schools should not be
designed to encourage uniformity, but to help each child
recognize his or her singular attributes- special needs,
talents, gifts. Large schools can do this for many students, but
they simply cannot do it for all. This is not a criticism, only
a statement of the obvious. Most of us recognize the needs of
very young children. We know that in the early grades, kids need
small schools with a close and personal atmosphere. We
understand that young children require nurturing and much
personal support. This myth gets perpetuated in our high
schools, Students who become alienated in junior high usually
remain that way through high school, if they don't drop out
altogether.
It is important for us to recognize that we
are not talking about strange or weird kids who walk around
schools in trench coats, threatening others. Most of the young
people who don't seem to fit are very normal kids. They are not
"other people's children." They are our kids-ones we see in
church, at the mall, or across the street.
These are students who may withdraw when
they are in a large group. They may not respond to the normal
activities of a traditional school. They may not play sports.
Some may have questions about their sexual identity. Some may be
quite intelligent and interested in learning, but not in the
way traditional schools expect.
For years, many in education have operated
under the flawed assumption that large schools are cost
effective. We have reasoned that, by placing a lot of students
and teachers together. we could offer more programs and classes.
In a large school, for example, we can offer Greek or advanced
calculus and have enough students to expect to fill those
classes.
Unfortunately, economies of scale do not
only pay the dividends expected. The flaws in our system of
large schools also have become obvious. Increasingly, we have
felt the need to create many smaller structures or groupings
within a large school to give students a chance to feel that
they have a place. These kinds of innovations take time.
personnel, and money, and many of the students they attempt to
serve simply are not "joiners and may never become part of the
sub-groupings.
Another hefty cost of large schools comes in
the number of students who repeat a grade and require an extra
year of schooling-along with otter programs if they remain in
school and graduate. Consider the numbers: If you have a high
school of 1,200 students (not unusual), and a graduating class
of 300, it is probable that 30 to 50 of these students will
have repeated a grade al some point in their school careers.
This means that each year, the school system has, for all
intents and purposes, served 30 to 50 more students than
necessary.
For those students who do not make it
through school and drop out prior to graduation, the cost is not
usually borne by the school system, but by some other segment of
the state's social programs. In either case, the money comes
from the pocket of the taxpayers.
Some of these students, the luckier ones.
get jobs and eventually obtain their General Educational
Development diplomas. A small number then go on to
post-secondary education and end up fulfilling a reasonable part
of their potential. Others just "hang out" and go from one
temporary job to another, often collecting whatever benefits
come their way, whether from the state, their parents, or
friends. Some become parents themselves. Others get into trouble
and end up in group homes. A few eventually end up in a training
school, at a cost that is several times that of traditional
schools. The most seriously alienated of these children end up
dead.
In terms of public spending, there is no
sense in our not meeting the needs of these children at an
earlier age. Unfortunately, it is not now in the short-term
financial interest of towns or school systems to provide small
alternative schools. But we could design incentives for our
public schools to serve these children.
The incentives could take the form of start-up grants from the
state or the federal government. Most districts, given the
choice to make adjustments for fewer students in other schools,
would find that they could afford these alternatives. But
without outside help, few if any districts are likely to set
aside scarce funds to serve a group of students who may be
falling behind and leaving school very quietly. Other incentives
might take a harder line, requiring, for example, that school
districts pay for a portion of the social services students who
end up in state care need.
The missing piece in our system of public
education is the lack of options for students who need something
different. Interestingly enough, it is in our urban areas that
we find the greatest availability of alternatives to large
traditional schools. But there are still not enough of these
schools in cities, and virtually none in suburban districts,
where the need for them is just as great.
By their very nature, alternative schools
are generally small schools, often with fewer than 200 students.
They tend to be staffed by teachers with a desire to work in
nontraditional settings. When you walk into an alternative
school, you generally get a sense of community and personal
caring. Different alternatives can have different missions, and
they can operate in substantially different ways. The goal is
not sameness; it is to reflect the needs and personalities of
the students.
An expanding body of research in recent
years has been telling us something about these schools that
seems like common sense: Small schools are places where students
get more attention, perform better, and are happier. In her
synthesis of this research, Mary Anne Raywid notes that small
learning communities often employ unconventional organizational
structures that help promote the sense of belonging. The bonds
that are created in small schools, she says, are likely to have
a positive influence on students long after they leave high
school.
What makes these schools so valuable in
violence reduction is the fact that a child will find it hard to
go through even a portion of the day without some meaningful
contact with an adult. Says Cathleen Cotton, a researcher at the
Northeast Regional Educational Laboratory: "It doesn't matter
what category you measure. Things are better in smaller
environments. Shy kids, poor kids, the average athletes - they
are all made to feel like they truly fit in." Small alternative
schools are not, of course, the complete solution to the
problems of alienated young people and violence in the schools.
But they can be an important part of the solution.
Charter school legislation should spur the
creation of these small alternative public schools. Districts
can devise plans on their own or through any of the existing
collaboratives. But educators should not under estimate the
public's desire for more choice. They should recognize the
possibility that, by not meeting this need, they could
strengthen the call for vouchers.
For the students and parents who want an
alternative to the often impersonal world of large,
comprehensive public secondary schools, it won't matter how we
get there, only that we do.
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