IALA

High School Graduation in Four Years – Why Not Two Years or Even Six?

Peter Wieczorek — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:57:15 +0000

High Schoolers have many more options today then they did even a decade ago. There are Alternative, Charter, Private and On-Line options, and now there are options in many states to graduate early or if necessaryto stay one, two or even three additional years. Recently both the New York Times and U.S. Today had articles reflecting these new options.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-02-25-senioryear25foronline_st_N.htm

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/a-diploma-in-10th-grade/

Green the New Alternative in Education by Peter Wieczorek

Peter Wieczorek — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:01:13 +0000

Schools have been involved in environmental education and the “Green Movement” for nearly 40 years now, but now with advances in technology and connections with the internet schools and students are able to connect, create and learn in ways that were not possible in the past. Several sites of interest are available that either directly or indirectly deal with “Green” and environmental topics in education:
http://www.greencharterschools.org
http://www.janegoodall.org/
http://www.inhabitat.com/
http://www.next.cc/

Graduation For All

Peter Wieczorek — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:11:47 +0000

Here are a couple of very interesting and extensive articles on graduation rates and the need to promote graduation for all students. The first article talks mostly about the graduation gap between the upper 2/3 of high school students and the lower 1/3, made up mostly of urban, low-income African American and Latino students. The other article is from the Governor’s Guide to Dropout Prevention and Recovery.

http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0910ACHIEVINGGRADUATION.PDF

http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=450020&subsecID=900201&contentID=254746

National and State Alternative Education Conferences

Wayne Jennings — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:22:03 +0000

Mark your calendar for any of the following conferences about alternatives of interest to you or colleagues.

The Washington Association for Learning Alternatives will hold its 35th annual conference March 4-6, 2010 in Ocean Shores, WA.

The Connecticut Association of Alternative Schools and Programs will hold its 32th annual conference March 24, 2010 in New Britain, CT.

The National Youth Leadership Council will hold its 21st annual National Service Learning conference March 24-27, 2010 in San Jose, CA.

The Institute for Democratice Education will hold its 18th IDEC conference April 6-13, 2010 in Tel-Aviv, Israel.

The Iowa Association for Alternative Education will hold its annual conference April 8-9, 2010 in Des Moines.

The Michigan Alternative Education Association will hold its annual conference April 28-30, 2010 in Bay City, MI.

The Magnet Schools of America will hold its 28th national conference May2-5, 2010 in Tampa, FL.

The National Charter Schools conference will be June 28-July 1 in Chicago.

The Arkansas Association of Alternative Educators will hold its annual conference July 11-13, 2010 in Rogers, AR.

The Green Schools Across America will hold its first annual conference Oct. 24-26, 2010 in Minneapolis.

The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network will hold its 22st annual conference Nov. 14-19, 2010 in Philadelphia.

Cell Phones in the Classroom?

Peter Wieczorek — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:57:54 +0000

In a recent article in Principal Leadership, October 2009, the principal of a large high school discussed the use of cell phones at school. She was using cell phones to text with her students as another way to increase communication. She stated that texting helped student report things like fights and other personal issues that students didn’t necessarily want to talk about in person. Recently there have been other publications including Curtis J. Bonk’s The World is Open, and an article from the New York Times “Industry Makes Pitch That Smartphones Belong In Classroom.” B0th Bonk’s book and the article suggest that cellphones are no longer simply instruments for talking or even texting, they are similar in speed and power to many classroom computers. Plus many schools have extremely limited computer to student ratios. The book and the article argue that it is time for administrators and teachers to join the 21st century and welcome cellphones, especially the new generation smartphones, into the classroom and let students use them for the learning tools that they have the potential to be.

I would like to know what others have to say about the use of personal technologies such as smartphones in the classroom.

New Center for Research on Digital Media and Learning

Wayne Jennings — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:44:06 +0000

There’s little doubt that the Internet will transform schooling (read choices) and how students learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. A newly-created Digital Media and Learning Research Hub at the University of California-Irvine will explore the impact of digital media on learning and its potential for transforming education. The Center is funded by a $2.97 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The foundation has invested substantially ($50 million since 2006) researching digital learning and gaming with positive results and continues with a variety of media projects including astonishing findings of the positive impact on youth in the three year research report, Living and Learning with New Media.

Constitutional Law Change Proposed

Wayne Jennings — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:21:41 +0000

David Bly, former President of the Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs and a co-founder of IALA has written a powerful booklet, The Middle Class Amendment, which you can read online. Bly, a Representative from Northfield, is a member of the Minnesota Legislature. While IALA does not make political endorsements, we think the topic of interest to alternative educators and students because Bly like many of us believe education change is nearly impossible. Thus, Bly proposes a constitutional amendment.

Education Without Walls

Peter Wieczorek — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:46:09 +0000

The technology revolution has entered into every part of our lives, and now it seems that the implications for education are about to bring major changes to the way students and indeed all of us learn and gain information. There are a multitude of options for students of all ages to gather and disseminate information on multiple platforms. Many people have already discovered the multitude of useful websites providing information regarding distance learning. The Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning http://mediasite.ics.uwex.edu/mediasite5/Viewer/?peid=a863be1f5bc348bbb1c875366dafe581# has a great presentation with many thought provoking ideas for educators. Another intriguing site is ted.com TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. TED’s world class presenters on video stretch users with valuable information on a wide variety of topics.

Building a Better Test?

Peter Wieczorek — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:41:25 +0000

After school budgets, testing remains one of the most controversial and talked about subjects among administrators, teachers, parents and students. Edutopia has an interesting article along with several links regarding the future of standardized testing. The article Reinventing the BIG test http://www.edutopia.org/reinventing-big-test-the-challenge-of-authentic-assessment gives examples of several promising alternative assessments to the standardized multiple choice tests that are so prevalent across the country.

Some say tests can’t assess important characteristics such as responsibility, autonomy, engagement, affiliation, hope and other aspects of major school outcomes. For a huge sample of tests see Compendium of Assessment and Research Tools and the newly developed Hope Survey (see products).

School Choice Expanding Worldwide

Wayne Jennings — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:35:43 +0000

Since the early 1990s when the nation’s first charter school was opened in St. Paul, MN, the scope and availability of school-based options to parents has steadily expanded in the U.S. and abroad. No longer can traditional education be a public monopoly. Sponsored by the National Center on School Choice (NCSC), this 648 page ($115) Handbook of Research on School Choice studies K-12 school choice. Coverage includes charters, vouchers, home schooling, magnet schools, cyber schools, and other forms of choice, with the ultimate goal of defining the current state of this evolving field of research, policy, and practice.

Technology’s Impact on Students

Peter Wieczorek — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:13:28 +0000

Several recent articles outline the uses of technology in the classroom and give readers lots to think about.

The first article deals with the effects of technology on students throughout their education. Lenovo to Research Tech’s Effect on Learning: Global Education Research project will study how technology affects education in and after school, from kindergarten through higher education.

Another article Google Wave has Great Potential for Education, a new online collaborative tool combines eMail, instant messaging, and file sharing in a dynamic environment and outlines how Google is moving further into communicating and collaborating on the web.

A recent US Dept. of Education report, Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning finds that students learn more with online learning and even more with blended programs (both classroom and online) in elementary, secondary and higher education. The differences are not great but consistent and promising.

Cell phones appear to have considerable potential for learning. Early adopters combine the power of cell phones, social networks, websites and software. Student engagement and motivation increased. This early in the movement approach is generating excitment over the possiblities. Lift the Cell Phone Ban describes dealing with both the distraction factor and the interest.

Welcome to New Website Editor

Peter Wieczorek — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:17:25 +0000

Peter Wieczorek will be editing the website. He is a life science teacher, advisor and board chair at Northwest Passage High School in Coon Rapids, MN. Peter has spent the majority of his career working with youth in non-traditional/alternative settings. In addition to working at NWPHS he lives in Clear Lake, WI with his wife, Renee and two sons, Isaac (12) and Noah (9). He is excited to be joining IALA.

Alternative Education: Standards, Descriptions, Action

Wayne Jennings — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:18:10 +0000

Several helpful documents are available for describing, implementing and evaluating alternative education programs. The first three refer to alternative education broadly, that is, providing a choice of programs for all students. The last one is more attuned to at-risk students.

Ray Morley and the Iowa Association of Alternative Education prepared a thoughtful document, Alternative Learning Environments: a Checklist of Quality Indicators. This offers a program the opportunity to examine its practices for their alignment with some of the best thinking about alternative education.

The Seattle Public Schools under the leadership of Elaine Packard adopted a well-worded document, Quality Indicators for Alternative Schools in the Seattle School District.

Member John Loflin wrote a valuable document which is part of our resource bank of materials. His Pseudo-Alternative School Checklist identifies numerous aspects of alternative education which are not truly “alternative” practices. It is a thoughtful and provocative document.

A Tennessee official has written what they describe as the first national framework of practices that are common to alternative education which have been adopted by the National Alternative Education Association. The framework covers 10 areas: Mission, Leadership, Climate, Staffing, Curriculum, Assessment, Planning, Parents, Collaboration, Program Evaluation.

Valuable Resources on Alternative Education

Wayne Jennings — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:01:02 +0000

Here are useful resources with links to other sites:

Brief descriptions in Summary of Educational Models include: Accelerated Schools, America’s Choice, Big Picture, Communities in Schools, EdVisions, Job Corps, Youth Build and 17 more.

The Alternative High School Initiative (AHSI) is a network of youth development organizations with over 258 sites nationwide for creating educational opportunities for young people for whom traditional school settings have not been successful. AHSI was launched in 2003 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Financing Alternative Education: Profiles and Policy by The National Youth Employment Coalition with the support of major foundations and the U.S Dept. of Labor recognizes that some of the most promising and innovative practices are taking place in our nation’s community-based and alternative education schools and programs serving youth between the ages of 16 and 24 and describes innovative practices and funding mechanisms.

Range of Alternatives

Wayne Jennings — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:01:28 +0000

We recently created the outline below showing the kinds of choices available to students in some parts of Minnesota. This may be similar to other states. By no means are all of these alternatives available to all students in all places but it represents a major shift in what parents had to choose from in 1970 which was almost nothing in the public sector. In that sense it represents major progress in the IALA mission of leading, promoting and supporting learning alternatives in education to better match needs of every child. Of course, much remains to be done to reach the policy that every state and the federal government provide a choice of different programs for each child.

Minnesota Options for Students

1. State approved alternative programs (SAAP)

Area learning centers (ALC)
Contract schools
Alternative programs

2. Charter schools

3. Online/distant learning schools

4. Traditional schools

5. Magnet schools

6. Post secondary enrollment options (early college enrollment)

7. Open enrollment

8. Nonpublic schools

9. Programmatic schools

Open education
Core knowledge
Subject: performing arts, science
Experiential and community based
Project based
Waldorf
Montessori

10. Recovery schools

11. Democratic schools