Oak Ridge has an alternative school, which for some years served the purpose of being sort of the last stop before reform school. If students are expelled (usually for zero-tolerance offenses), they are usually permitted to attend the alternative school rather than just drop out.

It still serves that purpose, but over the last few years, we’ve been moving toward making it truly an alternative — a place that also serves those students who, for whatever reason, just can’t function in the big, open environment at the high school. Beginning about a year ago, it also became home to our credit recovery program, whereby students who had failed classes necessary for graduation could make up those credits in an online format and still graduate on time.

The alternative school is housed in the old Daniel Arthur building on Emory Valley Road. The facility was built as a school, but is in poor condition at this point, and not an optimal design for this purpose. The section of the building that houses the alternative school has exterior doors to each classroom; the plumbing is unreliable, and the electrical system is maxed-out.

On the other hand, with completion of the high school renovations, we will have an entirely empty, reasonably new building adjacent to the high school campus within a few weeks. Designed as home to career and technical classes (what we used to call "vocational" until the term developed negative connotations), it’s a good facility. We no longer teach cosmetology or automotive repair at ORHS (now with health sciences, networking, CAD, and other subjects having taken their place), and the career-and-tech classrooms are integrated with the rest of the high school. As they should be.

After a lengthy discussion last night (an hour and a half?), we made the decision to move the alternative school to G Building, adjacent to the high school.

There are three pages of solid reasons for the move, and only one that gives pause: will the closer proximity to ORHS (adjacent, actually) create any danger of students assigned to the alternative school for disciplinary reasons, mixing with the general student body?

I believe that the answer is no. Roger Robinson, our alternative school principal, is a gifted educator with a calling to work with struggling and difficult students. Chuck Carringer, the ORHS principal, has proven himself at ORHS. Working together, I have absolutely no doubts that they will devise strategies to accomplish the necessary separation for those students who should be separate, while allowing access to both facilities for those who need it.

(continued.. a few hours later)

As I noted in the meeting yesterday, I’d had a couple of phone calls over the weekend after Bob Fowler’s article ran on Friday.  Both callers had concerns about "those kids" being too close to the high school.  This afternoon, I had an e-mail to the same effect (excerpt as follows):

In preparation for increased math requirements in high school beginning in 2009-2010 (15 months from now), Metro Nashville Public Schools are dropping their 7th grade Algebra offering.

Julie Martin, the district’s math coordinator, said parents should embrace the new changes. She said two years of middle school preparation are necessary for the new, more rigorous Algebra I curriculum requirements that roll out for 2009-10 — far tougher coursework than what’s tested on the current Gateway end-of-course exam.

I’ve read and re-read the article, but the concept still doesn’t make sense to me. If the new Algebra I is going to be that much harder, perhaps they need to raise the standards required for admittance to the course in 7th grade, but to bar admittance entirely based on grade level seems foolish. Some kids are ready; some are not. However, keeping a student in a course that is too easy for their ability level fosters boredom and loss of interest, which is decidedly counterproductive.

Different people — even children — have different interests, aptitudes, and abilities. Any given child may possess extraordinary abilities in one subject, while remaining rather ordinary in others. Some are advanced in all areas, and others struggle with everything but gym. I’ve wondered for a long time what it might be like to have school based upon mastery alone, rather than our current system of age-based progression.

If we wish to raise the level of math competency in high school graduates — an entirely different conversation, but assume for the moment that we do wish to do this (because the state says we must) — would it not make more sense to allow those students who are ready for advanced material earlier, to do so?

Some thought needs to be given to the core principle of enabling each student to reach their full potential, in whatever discipline that might be. We all talk about it, but sometimes, it seems like we’re going in the other direction.

Postscript: Jackson Miller has an opinion on the subject.  Along with the City Paper.

Cathy’s been on my list of "good moms" for a variety of reasons, but this post adds another jewel to her crown.

Her child missed a day of school for reasons beyond her control, and she was advised by the school to "just say that he’s sick" next time. In a day when attendance policies are already rigid enough to cause even the best parents some consternation, having the school tell parents to just lie about it is entirely counterproductive.

See, it’s stuff like that that got us into the overbearing process of coding into policy how many sick days can be excused by parental note. Not all kids are the same — some are almost never sick enough to miss school, and some catch everything that goes around. Most moms develop the ability to discern the difference between a cold and bronchitis, or a 24-hour bug that will go away on it’s own and something more serious. Running to the doctor every time a child is under the weather overburdens local pediatricians’ offices, makes it harder for someone who’s truly in need to be seen quickly, and imposes a financial hardship on parents with inadequate or no health insurance.

Such policies also encourage parents to send their kids on to school even when they are sick and contagious, putting others at risk in the process. 

I’m glad there are still parents like Cathy out there. All told, it makes everything work better — even fouled-up bureaucracies that think that everything can be regulated.

ORHS is on the list again this year — but this is a list we definitely want to be on.

I looked at the list narrowed down to only those Tennessee schools that made it, and found some interesting tidbits.  First, we have the second-highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students (of the Tennessee schools on the list); the one above us, White Station, is one of those that I would only marginally place in the "public school" category.  As an  "optional school," students have to meet some fairly rigorous admissions criteria:

• Applicants must score at or above the 80th percentile on the Reading/Language Arts subtest or its equivalent AND on the Mathematics subtest or its equivalent.
• Applicant’s report card must have A’s and B’s with no more than one C as a semester average. Report cards must also have no D’s or F’s as a semester average in any subject.
• Applicant’s report card must show satisfactory conduct and attendance (including promptness to school and to each class). A total of more than 15 absences and/or tardies is considered unsatisfactory.
• For tenth through twelfth grade applicants, ACT scores in Reading, English and Mathematics must be equivalent to the 80th percentile or higher. On the SAT Reasoning Test, Critical Reading and Mathematic scores must be equivalent to the 80th percentile or higher.
• Final approval is contingent upon review of the student’s second semester grades.
• Transportation is the responsibility of the student’s parents/legal guardians.

The top two Tennessee high schools on the list are both magnet schools, operating on the same type of rigorous screening to admit only the most capable students.  If Oak Ridge worked that way, we’d undoubtedly be way on up at the top of this list, too.

But, that would deny opportunity to a significant number of students in this community… students who deserve a chance at the best teachers, who deserve the opportunity to stretch beyond the boundaries of what their parents achieved, or even what their parents think they can achieve.  It provides some opportunity for students who took a little longer to mature academically, but by their junior or senior year, they’re ready to take on some really tough courses.

Beta, graduating next week, doesn’t make anyone’s list of academic all-stars.  She got a lottery scholarship on the basis of her ACT score (29), not her GPA (something less than 3.0).  But she has performed quite well in some tough classes — AP Physics, AP Chemistry, and AP Calculus.  It’s those other subjects that are bothersome to her — things like Wellness A, Civics, English — stuff that most people can breeze through — that nicked her GPA pretty badly.  Basically, if it’s not interesting to her, she does only the minimum necessary to pass.

I’ve tried explaining that this is not a good strategy, but… let’s just say she has an independent streak.   One that she comes by honestly (and it’s not her dad who’s to blame).

Anyway, I’m quite proud of Oak Ridge’s placement on the Newsweek list.  I’m somewhat concerned that we’re falling in the rankings over the last five years, but we’re still only sixth of the 15 Tennessee schools in terms of the percentage of graduating seniors having passed at least one AP test — and that means they passed as juniors, since the scores from this year’s tests won’t be in until July or so.  Three of the five above us are among those who admit only the best students to start with.

That’s nothing to shrug off.  Now, if only we can find a way to bring the rest of the student body up a notch, maybe we can reverse that trend for next year.