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Benefits of
The Northwest
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Alternative Schools: Approaches for Students at RiskThe Northwest Sampler - Alaska
Location Contact Founded in 1991, AVAIL is located in two storefronts on the first floor of a parking garage in downtown Anchorage's largest shopping mall. It is run as a nonprofit corporation in partnership with the business community in Anchorage. The school has a GED program, but its primary emphasis is on personality development, parenting skills, life stabilization, and employability skills. The former executive director defines AVAIL as "more of a home than a school" for the many students who have severed ties between themselves and their parents.
Enrollment in AVAIL's open-entry, open-exit program is around 60 students at any one time, grades nine through 12. Students are teen mothers on welfare, long-term dropouts, homeless youth, and others. Ninety-seven percent of the students qualify for Title I and 60 percent meet the federal definition of homeless. Students enrolled during the 1995-96 school year were parents to a total of 30 babies.
AVAIL was started with a four-year business-school partnership grant from the U.S. departments of labor and education in response to the high number of teenage mothers and Alaska native dropouts in Anchorage, and to the complaints of the business community that students did not have the skills necessary to hold a job. Since the grant ended the Anchorage school district has paid for materials and personnel, while local businesses have supported the program with in-kind assistance such as a discounted lease agreement, discounted rental rates for transportation, free printing, food, recreational activities, and many other products and services. Businesses in the mall employ some of the youths in the program.
Business people are often speakers at the school, talking to students about what it takes to survive in the work world and often relating the problems they encountered earlier in life. Agencies such as Planned Parenthood also make presentations to the students.
Each of AVAIL's three teachers has a case management load of 20 or more students—interacting with their employers, probation officers, and others. Students set up a contract every week for minimum attendance of four hours a day. Students punch in and out of the school; by doing so they earn leave days as they would on a job. If they don't meet their attendance requirements and run out of leave days they must make up the time that week or the next. On Friday the school has a town meeting at which time students fill out their contracts for the following week, do make-up work, make up missed hours, or take part in offsite physical/recreational activities such as bowling or skating (the school has no gym facilities).
Half of AVAIL's required courses are taught through computer software. Students are required to spend at least an hour a day using computer technology. The curriculum is determined by the individual needs of the student. A transcript is reviewed by the case manager and the student is placed according to his or her goals. If the student is a few credits short of the district requirements for graduation, a schedule of courses is drawn up that will allow the student to get a diploma. If a student is working to get the skills to attain a GED, the schedule is made accordingly. Work-based skills and school-to-work transition are addressed in a pre-employment skills class.
AVAIL is not accredited. Those students who do earn a high school diploma receive it from either the high school previously attended or the high school nearest to AVAIL.
Observed Outcomes
Keys to Success
Location Contact Nationally recognized Mat-Su Alternative School (MSAS) has both a middle high program for students ages 13 to 16 (20 students, grades seven and eight) and a senior high program (150 students, grades nine through 12) for students 16 to 21. Located in a rural area 45 minutes north of Anchorage, MSAS serves teen parents (34 percent), homeless youth, adjudicated youth (23 percent), and others who have dropped out and are behind in credits for their age. Almost one-third of the students do not live with their biological parents. An important feature of the school is that it is not required to accept referrals from the mainstream schools. Students attend by choice. The school operates year-round and is open from 7:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. to accommodate work schedules.
MSAS provides its students with many services including a licensed day-care facility, a food bank, a clothing bank, and an AA support group. To provide for students' basic needs, the school networks with more than 59 local, state, and federal agencies. For instance, if the Alaska Department of Fish and Game finds road-kill moose they will call the director of the school who will arrange for students to butcher and freeze the meat. This arrangement not only helps to supply the food bank but gives students an opportunity to learn skills.
Beyond basic needs, MSAS stresses responsibility and accountability, for which students are rewarded and recognized. Students must attend school for a minimum of three consecutive hours a day on MSAS's closed campus. If students miss school for any reason they must make up missed time within the next two weeks. Students must keep a weekly planner containing daily, weekly, and long-term goals and schedules, and check in at least weekly with their advisor to discuss their progress.
Students attend small classes in separate classrooms and do general studies in a large room where tutoring is always available and there is one computer for every two students. Other learning options are self-directed studies, computerized coursework, and work-study. MSAS is also developing an online tutorial program for remote and homebound students of all ages.
The MSAS curriculum has a heavy school-to-work emphasis, all the more important because the school is located in an area with high seasonal unemployment. Students must meet district requirements and additional MSAS requirements in order to graduate. All students must complete a World of Work class that focuses on personal, job, and basic computer literacy skills. High school students must work at a job at least 15 hours a week and middle schoolers must do community service. Students must be able to keyboard at least 30 words per minute to graduate. Certain students must take life skills classes and teen parents must take both life skills and parenting classes.
MSAS students run their own credit union and an employment service which helps place students in jobs in the community and at school. They also participate in the day-care center.
The MSAS staff of 19 (including 10 teachers, a work-study specialist, and a full-time nurse) act as mentors, coaches, and friends to the students. Even the custodian spends half her time training students to do custodial work. All teachers serve as advisors. They track attendance and call students who do not show up for school. Teachers spend the entire day, including lunchtime, with students.
Since opening in 1988, MSAS has received $4.8 million in grants, but now 90 percent of its funding is from the Mat-Su Borough School District. MSAS has helped 20 other schools set up similar programs and hosts an annual alternative schools conference.
Observed Outcomes
Keys to Success
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