The Lawrence Journal-World (KS) notes that the closing of Lawrence Alternative High School may be bad news for students who attend it, but good news for test-score bean-counters:
Some students at the alternative school are saying they will drop out if they don't like the new alternative programs being designed for use in the district's other schools. And their absence could boost the district's overall test scores -- a key component of the act's requirements.
"If a significant number of kids drop out, then they won't bring the scores down," said Dick Wedel, a former social studies teacher at LAHS, adding that he hopes they don't drop out. "That's one way to get better scores."
Whether that comes to pass is anyone's guess.
Ironically, test scores within LAHS are one of the reasons that the school is being closed. With only about 10% of students deemed "proficient," scores were too low to justify the school's $1 million operating costs. The scores aren't surprising, considering that these kids were referred to LAHS after having problems at other schools (and anecdotal evidence suggests these kids hated standardized tests as well). But if LAHS didn't seem to help these kids do any better in school than they had before, I can see why the district made this decision (even though the district claims the school would have been closed regardless, based on other factors).
About 80 students will get to see what they think of the new alternative programs at the other schools in the district, which may included mentoring and personalized learning. Some of them don't particularly like big schools; others feel that "regular" schools don't care too much for them. It remains to be seen if the new programs will be more effective than LAHS was, or whether the drop-out rate increases.
Posted by kswygert at January 10, 2005 12:57 PM