Chris Sturgis Blog

Best Pics of 2008....so far

here are some of my favorite pics -- they are from my trip to Chile, carnival in San Fran, Godzilla Fest(better known as G-fest if you are in the know), the ACORN convention and of course the beauty of northern Michigan.

New Typologies for Alternative Education

I've been catching up on the amazing number of reports and insights on the graduation crisis and alternative education being produced through the CA Dropout Research Project (funded by Johnson, Hewlett, and Gates) and the efforts of the Irvine Foundation's to explore the status of alternative ed in CA.

One of the things I'm struck by is the continued efforts to categorize types of alternative schools.  As much as there is an on-going effort to rename alternative education there continue to be efforts to categorize alternative ed.

So we can always start with the basic "good" ones that help kids graduate and "bad" ones that warehouse kids and are symbolic of our overall policy towards struggling students.  There is a simple policy around this -- bad ones should be immediately closed and the resources given to good ones.

In the upcoming guide to MPG, I offer three types -- transfer schools in which the design is for students to get a diploma, transitional schools presume students will be moving on and need to be monitored on how well they do at their next school, and disciplinary which plays a function for schools to remove students  but needs to be designed to focus on underlying academic, emotional and developmental issues. And again they need to be monitored on how well students do when they return to a regular or transfer school.

The researchers and advocates in CA often refer to Last Chance High School: How Girls and Boys Drop In and Out of Alternative Schools, by Dierdre Kelly. Published in 1993, Kelly points out that districts use alternative schools in three ways:
1) as an educational safety net for students;
2) a safety valve to remove students that are not valued or desirable; and,
3) cooling out programs are districts that offer a series of "bad" alternative schools designed for student failure.

Jorge Ruiz de Velasco offers us a similar but somewhat different set:
1) student-centered in which the school responds to student needs and interests probably best exemplified by Alternative High School Initiative
2) student-reform which assumes that something is wrong with the student
3) dumping ground programs which fit neatly into the category of "bad". (Alternative Education in Continuation High Schools: Meeting the Needs of Over-Aged Under-Credited Youth Ruiz-De-Velasco, 2008).

Finally, Towards a Typology of Alternative Education  by L. Aron at Urban Institute 2003 summarizes much of the previous reserach including  Dr. Mary Anne Raywid, who has done much of the original thinking about alternative ed. Raywid's typologym as summarized by Aron,  is below:

• “Type I schools offer full-time, multiyear, education options for students of all kinds,
including those needing more individualization, those seeking an innovative or
challenging curriculum, or dropouts wishing to earn their diplomas.  A full
instructional program offers students the credits needed for graduation.  Students
choose to attend.  Other characteristics include divergence from standard school
organization and practices (deregulation, flexibility, autonomy, and teacher and
student empowerment); an especially caring, professional staff; small size and small
classes; and a personalized, whole-student approach that builds a sense of affiliation
and features individual instruction, self-paced work, and career counseling.  Models
range from schools-within-schools to magnet schools, charter schools, schools
without walls, experiential schools, career-focused and job-based schools, dropout-
recovery programs, after-hours schools, and schools in atypical settings like shopping
malls and museums.

• Discipline is the distinguishing characteristic of Type II programs, which aim to
segregate, contain, and reform disruptive students.  Students typically do not choose
to attend, but are sent to the school for specified time periods or until behavior
requirements are met.  Since placement is short-term, the curriculum is limited to a
few basic, required courses or is entirely supplied by the "home school" as a list of
assignments.  Familiar models include last-chance schools and in-school suspension.

• Type III programs provide short-term but therapeutic settings for students with social
and emotional problems that create academic and behavioral barriers to learning.
Although Type III programs target specific populations—offering counseling, access
to social services, and academic remediation—students can choose not to participate.”

I'm starting to wonder if all the typologies are designed as researchers new to the field begin to try to understand it and feel the need to create their own conceptual framework.  All of these described above are close enough that instead of engaging in the battle of the typologies, I think we should move forward into what we are going to do to expand the good/transfer/safety net/student-centered/Type I schools and swifty eradicate bad/cooling out/dumping ground schools.

Leadership in the Non-Profit Sector

I had a fascinating conversation with Amanda Berger at Rockwood Leadership the other day and it raised a question about whether the organizational structure of foundations are undermining our efforts to develop the leadership of our grantees and within the fields in which we work.

As strategic grantmakers think about investments in leadership, they do so with a very focused eye on the leadership of their field or even more narrowly, of their grantees. Yet, one of the greatest values of leadership trainings is the opportunities for cross-sector networking.

I certainly worry that the leadership of the youth employment/disconnected youth fields end up talking too much to each other, rarely positioned to learn from environmental initiatives, digital divide strategies, or health care alliances, all of which can help us think more creatively about our work.

What's ironic is that foundations tend to be multi-issue. Yet given the organizational structure, program staff tend to only fund within the parameters of their grantmaking.  So who should be thinking about leadership?  In the current organizational structure of foundations, I think it is Vice Presidents that should be thinking about the types, quality and quantity of leadership opportunities and whether we are doing the very best in cross-fertilizing our respective fields.

Council of Foundation Presentation on Multiple Pathways to Graduation

Hi all,
As promised here is the Multiple Pathways to Graduation presentation from the Council of Foundation (see below). There is also an additional page that refers to the many studies that informed this presentation. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me: chris@metisnet.net.

And be sure to go to www.ytfg.org/mpgresources for more information.

Download MPGProvidingDisconnectedYouthAccessToEducation.pdf

The Simon Youth Foundation Invests In Alternative Schools in It's Malls

The Simon Youth Foundation (SYF) is investing in improving the quality of their Education Resource Centers, alternative schools that are located in malls run by the Simon Property Group, Inc. based in Indianapolis. There are 21 Education Resource Centers located in 11 states.

The Simon Youth Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Simon Property Group, Inc. has recently hired Chris Chalker, an alternative education practitioner, as the VP of Education. Chris is working with National Youth Employment Coalition’s Education Development Net (a tool that includes program standards and a self-assessment for quality alternative education) to improve the performance of the schools.

The schools in the malls are based on a partnerships between Simon Property Group, which provides the facility and professional development, and the school districts that provide teachers and other resources. 

These types of public/private partnerships can be really valuable for increasing access to teens who still need to get their diploma. The San Diego Charter Schools also uses storefronts in malls as a way of going to where the kids are.

We Can Do Better - US Education is more affected by class status than Canada

An article in this week's Education Weekly highlights the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results. The results suggest that American students’ academic achievement is more likely to be affected by their class status and family background than was their peers’ in higher-scoring nations.

The test is given to 15-year-olds in 57 countries and included 5,611 U.S. students. The PISA results showed U.S. students scoring lower in both math and science than the majority of students from participating developed nations. An estimated 18 percent of the variation in Americans’ science scores were related to students’ socioeconomic circumstances, as measured by the PISA. That proportion was significantly higher than the 14 percent average among industrialized countries. And the socioeconomic variation was more than twice as high as that of several of the highest-performing countries in science, such as Finland and Canada, where it hovered at about 8 percent.

This is a call for action for the United States. We should set ourselves the goal of overcoming class bias equal to that of Canada's benchmark.

Department of Labor Grants Will Advance MPG

The Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration (ETA) has made two large sets of grants that are advancing the concept of Multiple Pathways to Graduation at the local level. They are:

1.    Multiple Education Pathways Blueprint (MEPB): $3,441,662 to seven cities to ”blueprint” and implement a system that can reconnect youth who have dropped out of high school to a variety of high quality, innovative multiple education pathways. Although this effort is more focused on the recovery of dropouts, the first meeting was held in Boston and the grantee cities were introduced to the important step of segmentation of the data used by Boston and NYC. The interests of the cities range from establishing career and technical education (CTE), supporting off-track students in schools, dropout recovery, and pathways into the workforce.  The cities awarded grants are Brockton, MA; Des Moines, IA; Metairie, LA; Gary, IN; Pittsburgh, PA; and Mobile, AL.

2.    Youth Gangs and Violence Reduction Initiative (YGVR):  Initially thought of as a mentoring program, the initiative expanded after Paul Vallas, superintendent of Louisiana's Recovery School District, suggested that any effort to address gangs and youth violence had to include re-attachment to school. Thus, the RFP included a description of how the efforts were aligned with the district’s dropout prevention policy as well as the city’s gang and violence prevention efforts. Cities that received grants include Baltimore, Chicago, Milwaukee, Orange County, FL, and Philadelphia.

Summaries of the local initiatives are here: Download dol_eta_attachment.doc

The DOL has made several additional grants related to expanding alternative education.

IMPLICATIONS

MEPB may be helpful in engaging networks and constituency organizations in understanding MPG and the importance of having a portfolio of schools that includes an adequate capacity of alternative schools.

The Youth Transition Funders Group (YTFG) process of developing MPG concluded that the best way to move an issue within a state is to have both the large urban city and at least one other city (and a suburban/rural community as well if possible) sharing a focus on an issue and driving toward supportive policies. The MEPB network of cities is interesting as it creates a multi-city focus on struggling students and dropouts in three states:

• Three cities in Massachusetts (Boston, Fall River, and Brockton)

• Two cities in Indiana (Indianapolis and Gary)

• Several cities in Pennsylvania (Philly, Pittsburgh, plus other funded under PA DOL grant).

Assuming that these cities are developing strategic approaches to MPG, it will be important for inter-state convenings to take place as well as the intra-city convenings funded by DOL. Philadelphia Youth Network will fulfill that role in Pennsylvania but it is not clear how that might happen naturally in Massachusetts or Indiana.

The Campaign for High School Equity

A new coalition, coordinated by Alliance for Excellent Education has launched The Campaign for High School Equity, an endeavor that should be acknowledged for leading an effort to increase graduation rates through Multiple Pathways to Graduation. Many of the leading beltway education advocates focus so much on system alignment they fail to think about student alignment. CHSE is an exception and I'm looking forward to their increasing influence in D.C.

In addition to the usual types of reform suggestions, the Campaign for High School Equity includes policies that relate to dropout recovery, special populations, inappropriate or disproportionate referrals to special programs, and attention to underlying issues. A sample of the more innovate recommendations include:

• Use high-quality, valid, and accurate assessments for all students (including appropriate use of accommodations when needed) and mandatory use of alternative assessments, which may include native language assessments and simplified English assessments when ELL students have not yet met the threshold.

• Implement a variety of quality high school models shown to support different learning styles and student situations (for example, high-quality charter schools, small schools, newcomer schools, alternative schools, career academies, distance learning, and immersion schools).

• Provide integrated student supports that utilize both in-school and community-based services (for example, high-quality high school counselors, social workers, health care, and mental health services).

• Ensure that legally and educationally valid criteria are used to appropriately inform decisions regarding student eligibility for services in special education, services for English language learners, college preparatory curricula, and gifted and talented programs.

• Develop and support "education centers of excellence" at institutions serving people of color to strengthen their capacity to recruit and train a diverse pool of teachers; 

• Offer federal incentives to encourage states to develop alternative school-finance formulas that minimize heavy reliance on local property taxes and increase resources for the students and schools that need it most.

Members of the Campaign include the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, the National Council of La Raza, the National Indian Education Association, the National Urban League, and the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center.

Pro Bono Architectural/Design Services

Hi all -- I wanted to let you know about this great opportunity for pro bono design assistance from architects for schools and non-profits.

Public Architecture, a national nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, has recruited over 200 leading architecture and design firms to provide pro bono design assistance to under-resourced nonprofits, schools, and related entities.  Through its national program called "The 1%," Public Architecture is focused on forging productive relationships between professional design firms and pro bono "clients."  Some of the more compelling pro bono design examples cataloged The 1% program website involve schools and education-related nonprofits. 

Each of the seven professional design services described on The 1% program website represents an est. $25,000 contribution that Public Architecture is able to leverage from its more than 200 participating firms, with some firms able to undertake multiple such projects simultaneously.  Over the next two years, Public Architecture wants to challenge its firms to deliver pro bono services to 100 schools and education-related organizations.  Public Architecture is thus seeking to partner with foundations to support the process of matching firms with pro bono clients as well as developing resources and providing necessary guidance and coaching along the way.

Here are the typical services a firm could provide a CBO:
+ Facilities Needs Assessment
+ Capital Campaign Materials
+ Building & Space Identification
+ Interior Design & Brand Integration
+ Accessibility & Code Compliance
+ Healthy & Sustainable Environments
+ Facilities Renovation

You can find a description of them online at:
http://www.theonepercent.org/Nonprofit/Service_Offerings.htm

And contact John Cary at jcary@publicarchitecture.org for more information.

And if you end up working with one of the architects, I'd love to hear about your experience!

District Policy and Dropout Factories

Although I think it is great that once again Bob Balfanz had directed attention at the dropout crisis in our country by focusing on schools that are dropout factories, I think his analysis can be dangerous without a deeper consideration of district policy.

It's hard enough to improve a large, neighborhood high school. Districts policy can blindside a school by throwing additional challenges. And then on top of that, we have name calling of being a dropout factory? If Balfanz was working hand in hand with local advocates, parent groups and community organizing groups, I could see how this might be helpful in building public will. As a stand alone communication strategy, my guess is that it can feel pretty divisive, destroying trust rather than building it, at the school level.

A few things to be considered:

How does district policy shape who goes to which school and what are the implications for schools becoming "dropout factories"?

• District policy -- establishing zones, how implementation issues of reforms are managed, etc can all shape whether a large neighborhood school can improve or whether it becomes a dropout factory.
  
  • In Chicago, policies to close down big schools to establish new small schools in the campus pushed high number of kids to "receiving school".  Without consideration for gang lines, some receiving schools had high levels of tension, making everyone feel less safe, forcing adults to attend to school climate, when they needed to be focused on helping kids learn. Thank goodness they are re-thinking this policy. Let it be a lesson to all districts.
• Increasingly districts are enabling policies that allow schools to use selection criteria. This means that the neighborhood schools have higher concentrations of kids that are struggling. Higher concentrations of struggling students bring down the achievement of kids with higher skills.
  
  • In NYC, the district set the policy that new small schools did not have to serve special education and ELL students? Guess where the kids went....to large neighborhood schools, increasing the proportion of higher need students.
  • In Philly, an entire set of schools have selection criteria that requires no disciplinary problems in younger grades. But guess what? We know that in most places, boys with black and brown skin are treated differently, with much higher suspension rates and longer periods of time(contributing to lower attendance). So where do the kids get to go....the large neighborhood schools.

Kudos to Chicago -- they have set a new policy that selective schools have to be responsible for all the kids in enroll in 9th grade. Even if they discharge students for not performing at the expected level, they accountability system will hold them responsible for the graduation rate of all the 9th graders. Thus they will have more incentive to help kids and keep them in school, rather than produce higher achievement/grad rates by selecting kids out.