March 5, 2003

ISU publishes assessment
of alternative education

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — An assessment of alternative education published by Indiana State University finds the state's six-year-old commitment to alternative education is paying off for students who may have previously slipped through the cracks of the public education system. [See entire study] [Download Acrobat Reader]

"Making a Difference: Alternative Education in Indiana" found more than 80 percent of alternative education students either attaining or making satisfactory progress toward their academic goals. The study also shatters the stereotype that most alternative education students are "troublemakers."

Legislation passed in 1997 provided funding to encourage the state's school corporations to establish alternative education programs. While only about 50 such programs existed at that time, the number of alternative schools has since increased to more than 250.

Because they focus on individual goals and positive results, alternative education programs have demonstrated extremely high levels of success, the report says.

The most common mission of alternative schools "is that they're here to help students who are not thriving in traditional school settings," said Thomas Steiger, professor of sociology at Indiana State and director of the university's Sociology Research Lab.

Steiger released the assessment during news conferences today at Booker T. Washington Alternative High School in Terre Haute and the Renaissance II Education Resource Center in Indianapolis. He co-authored the report with Barbara Lucas, director of the Indiana Department of Education's Division of Alternative Education and Learning Opportunities for the Department of Education.

The lab conducted interviews with state legislators, a random samples of 100 professionals - alternative school teachers and principals - and 100 school board presidents

Nearly 42 percent of the professionals surveyed indicated that "almost all" of their students would have dropped out of school if not for alternative education. Teachers indicated they expect 94 percent of their students to complete high school because of alternative education programs.

While 37 percent of students are enrolled in alternative education programs because they had been disruptive in larger traditional schools, the survey found that 34 percent of students were there because they were failing academically. Another 19 percent turned to alternative schools after withdrawing or indicating their intent to withdraw from a traditional school.

Terre Haute's McLean High School "was an awesome school. The classes were a whole lot smaller so the teachers could work more hands on with the students. I had a harder time learning with a big class," said Nicole Marie Cox, a 2002 graduate.

"I wasn't around the whole clique," added Josh Hayden, a 2001 McLean graduate. "It was smaller and easier to talk to the teachers and I just wasn't shy. I was more able to speak out in a smaller class."

Hayden has since attended a two-year college while Cox hopes to attend Indiana State this fall. Both say they would not have finished high school, nor gone on to college had it not been for the alternative school.

The atmosphere at McLean is "very nurturing. The staff's very positive. We do a lot of reward programs for the students: rewarding the positive behavior," said Rick Stevens, principal at McLean.

The assessment found alternative schools are succeeding despite lacking items most schools take for granted. Nearly half of alternative schools lack a library while 40 percent of them lack a gymnasium and one third of them do not have a cafeteria.

"You could argue that, in terms of resources, they certainly aren't equal," Steiger said.

One surprising thing to emerge from the assessment is that nearly one third of alternative schools have "Challenger" or accelerated learning programs, similar to gifted and talented programs found at traditional schools, said Steiger.

"People wouldn't normally think about students in alternative education doing well in settings that are more challenging than the traditional classroom. Often, we think of at-risk students as those who are just not as academically talented as others, but we found that many are outstanding students," he said. "But for whatever reason, maybe something in their life, maybe something at home, or maybe they just don't work well in the traditional setting, they have these other schools they can turn to and they seem to do well."

The assessment performed by Indiana State and previous surveys by Indiana University found that most Hoosiers "believe alternative education is a good thing. Overwhelmingly, Indiana taxpayers understand that we need all our students to graduate," said Lucas. "But only about 37 percent of them knew that we had these programs. These programs are closing the gap between the lowest and highest achieving students, and the lowest and highest performing schools. When the teaching practices begin to spill over in to the 'regular' classrooms, everyone wins.

"But for the most part, people don't know about the wonderful work that goes on," she said. "These programs are designed for at-risk students. They usually come from families struggling to make ends meet. They don't have a vocal constituency so they don't have anybody lobbying on their behalf. When programs get cut, these are among the first to go and it's too bad because it hurts the community in the long run."

-30-  

NOTE: The complete alternative education assessment is available at http://www.indstate.edu/news/alted_study.pdf

Reporters wishing to localize this story can find a list of alternative education programs by logging on to www.doe.state.in.us/alted/altedlinkpg.htm and scrolling down to "Directory of Programs for 2002-03. Programs are listed alphabetically by county and by school corporation. Photos and audio are available by contact the ISU Office of Public Affairs at (812) 237-3743.

Contact:
Thomas Steiger, director, ISU Sociology Research Lab,
(812) 237-3426 or soteig@isugw.indstate.edu or
Barbara Lucas, director of alternative education and learning opportunities, Indiana Department of Education, (317) 232-0579 or blucas@doe.state.in.us

Writer:
Dave Taylor, ISU Public Affairs, (812) 237-3743 or devtaylo@isugw.indstate.edu

ISU Public Affairs:
(812) 237-3773 or http://isunews.indstate.edu