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Changes should be made in schools to increase the number of successful students
by Joe Nathan
How do you feel about the fact that the tragedy at Columbine – which happened five years ago this month, not only COULD be repeated in Minnesota, but also HAS? The death of a student at Cold Spring shows the importance - I'd say the NECESSITY - of arranging secondary schools so that each student is known very well by at least one adult.
This isn't to deny the hard work and commitment of many educators. They, too, are at risk. Adults, as well as teenagers, have died in tragedies at places like Columbine. Minnesota has too many large, all too anonymous junior and senior high schools.
Over the last 20 years, there has been a huge exodus out of large Minnesota junior and senior high schools. In the mid-1980s, Minnesota educators began to create alternative learning centers for students who were not succeeding in conventional junior and senior high schools. Two 1987 laws allowed students to transfer out of existing secondary schools if they were not succeeding, using various measures such as grades, test scores, absence, involvement with the juvenile justice system, etc.
State department figures show that about 4,500 students out of about 870,000 participated in these programs in 1987. This year there are about 817,000 students in district public schools around the state. And according to state department officials, the number of students participating in alternative programs has grown from 4,500 to about 180,000! By any method of figuring, that's a huge jump.
The 180,000 figure does not include students attending chartered public schools, or many of the students participating in post-secondary options. Clearly, large and growing numbers of students are leaving conventional secondary schools.
What does it mean?
First, and this is good news, families and young people have more options than they did 20 years ago. Youngsters who feel that the conventional school is not a good fit for them have new opportunities.
Secondly, more and more educators are recognizing that large traditional schools are not a good place for them, either. A growing number of educators are leaving traditional district schools to help create or work in new options. These include charter public schools, often independent of local districts, or alternative public schools, which remain part of districts or are supervised by a group of districts.
Third, new charter and alternative school options are available in many suburban and rural communities, as well as urban areas. (For a list of charters, see the Profiles of Minnesota Charter schools on the home page of our Web site, www.centerforschoolchange.org. For alternative schools, see the Web site of the Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs, www.maapmn.org/schools.html.)
Finally, conventional secondary schools need to carefully, honestly examine their strengths and weaknesses. Some students are succeeding in conventional schools. But changes can and should be made to increase the number of successful students. I'll talk more about that in a future column.
In the meantime, remember: Columbine was a warning, not just a tragedy.
It can, and sadly has, happened here. And it can happen again.
Joe Nathan is director of the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. He can be reached at jnathan@hhh.umn.edu.
Columns by Joe Nathan
© ECM Publishers, Inc.
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ABOUT JOE NATHAN
Joe Nathan, a senior fellow at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, directs the Center for School Change, which seeks to help transform public education and to produce significant improvements in student achievement. Nathan has been a public school teacher and administrator and coordinated the National Governors Association education reform project, Time for Results. His most recent work involves strengthening rural communities to help increase student achievement and reduce violence. His specialty areas include parent and community involvement, school choice, charter schools, and youth community service.
Nathan has testified before twenty state legislatures and the U.S. Congress. He regularly publishes commentaries in major U.S. newspapers and has appeared on several hundred radio and television programs. The American School Boards Journal named his most recent book, Charter Schools: Creating Hope and Opportunity for American Education, one of the seven best books written about education in 1997. Nathan holds a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Minnesota.
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