Alternative Choices

November 9, 2009  
Filed under News

Have you noticed the student body decreasing? More and more students have decided to attend Future Visions or the Alternative Learning Center for Ottawa High School.  For people who do not understand what alternative is, it is another facility students attend when they cannot take the challenges of a traditional school. Many alternative schools allow students to work at their own pace.

“I think learning is for everyone, but sitting in a classroom may not be,” Burl Powell, counselor, said. “People who attend alternative are still part of the school and should be allowed to attend school functions such as prom, sports games and dances.”

In 1970, there were only a few alternative schools in the United States. Today that number keeps multiplying because more and more students are dropping out of a regular high school. People who are most likely to go to alternative schools may have academic disadvantages, are disabled, have a low socioeconomic status or are probationary students.

It is necessary to identify at-risk students as soon as possible, according to answer.com. Once a student has been identified, the remediation process can begin. Examples of remediation include tutoring, child care services, medical care, substance abuse awareness programs, bilingual instruction, employment training and close follow up procedures on truancy and absenteeism. Schools also try to work with parents to help them learn ways to help their at-risk child.

Finally, the government is now recognizing that a decline in federal financial support and higher standards have been having a negative impact on at-risk students. Therefore, intervention programs that support school districts who are struggling to help their at-risk students as well as incentives for school districts that successfully help their at-risk students have been established.

Tyler Markus, senior, said that in alternative, students get more privileges than the rest of OHS students get. They get a five minute break after every hour; they get a lunch of up to an hour and an open lunch with that. They can come in when they feel like it just as long as they have 20 hours in by the end of the week.

“I don’t understand why when someone doesn’t even go to our school anymore still gets to attend prom, dances, and sports related activities? It is infuriating when we work hard but yet the people who do not work hard still get the same opportunities,” Kim Wagner, senior, said.

It is obvious that the practices developed in the early schools of choice are contributing to local, state and national and are going to keep trying to improve public education in the United States. Based on these realities, the continued growth and expansion of alternative schools is likely to continue.

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Chelsea McComb

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