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Thursday, March 13, 2008
Can alternative schools work?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Steve Visser wrote about the lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union filed against the Atlanta school board and the private management company hired to run the district’s alternative school.
The ACLU suit describes the school run by Community Education Partners as a violent, out-of-control campus that fails to teach students.
The suit says school resource officers are physically aggressive and have used choke-holds on students. According to the lawsuit: “Teachers and at least one administrator routinely hit students, throw books and throw students against the walls or to the floor.”
The school doesn’t do any better when it comes to academics: The ACLU says no students there made it to senior year in 2006.
Atlanta school officials pay Community Education Partners almost $7 million a year to run Forrest Hill Academy. In today’s story, the company’s chief executive officer disputed the lawsuit’s claims.
He said most students dramatically improve within five months. He dismissed claims that teachers fight with students. Teachers are trained to restrain students when necessary, he said adding staff act quickly when students fight to keep other kids safe.
Many districts have some type of separate school for students with habitual discipline problems. But that doesn’t mean educators know how to help these kids. Many of these children are so close to becoming dropouts, that an alternative school is the last hope for getting them back on track.
Alternative schools are supposed to provide students with personalized attention to help them succeed academically and work through any problems they might have. Can alternative schools accomplish that? Or are they warehouses for violent-prone kids failing in school who are too young to drop out?
