A different kind of education
San Jose schools face the same problem every school district in the country faces: losing at-risk students. The San José School District has found a solution to this problem while including these students as part of the traditional school population. The San José Schools alternative school program allows for individual attention to students’ needs while engaging them in regular campus activities.
For some students, the traditional school format does not work. Students may become apathetic and risk not graduating. In the San José School District’s alternative education program, students can play sports, participate in extracurricular activities, and be included in regular school graduation ceremonies. At-risk students may have problems with English language proficiency, difficulty in motivation, simply moving to a new school, or many other seemingly small but crucial reasons. San José Schools are successfully meeting the needs of these students.
Help students learn
The San José School District’s alternative education program could become a model for the rest of the country. Classes in these programs tend to be much smaller and focus on the needs of the individual student. The San Jose School District has approximately thirty-two thousand students, so it has to find a way to manage the needs of all students while addressing budget and resource allocation concerns.
The San Jose Unified School District has created smaller alternative specialized campuses within six of its high schools. Each of these campuses has about fifty students who receive instruction from two teachers and an on-site counselor. The students involved in the program are generally juniors or seniors who are in danger of graduating from high school. The goal of the program is to help these students recover the academic credits needed to graduate. Students spend approximately half the day in intensive classes and the remainder of the day taking classes at a community college or vocational training center.
San Jose School District’s director of the alternative program, Linda Ferdig-Riley, uses the information provided by high schools to select students who need assistance and will be included in the program. The program provides a distinctive and unique curriculum for each student. These specialized plans include monthly report cards, one-on-one counseling sessions, and career guidance designed specifically for different students.
How the San Jose School District Alternative Program Compares
This program seems to be working; The San Jose School District has a dropout rate of about seven percent compared to the California state average, which is twice that rate. The number of students in the program is smaller than in other districts, but the results appear to be better. The number of students considered for the program is far greater than the number of spaces available.
Other alternative educational programs in the state prevent students from actively feeling part of the school population. The San Jose School District’s alternative program allays fears that could prevent students from taking advantage of this opportunity. This program allows students to attend school functions at their former high school, which helps keep them part of the school population and alleviates the stress students feel when moving to the alternative campus. When it comes to keeping students in school, these kinds of pressures can be key to keeping them in school.