 Alternative Pathways in Education
Combats Rising Drop Out Problem
By Robert Waddell, April 18, 2009
The high school, located in a desolate area of South Brooklyn, a traveler either gets there by subway and a bus or by ferry boat. Good Shepherd high school in Red Hook is surrounded by warehouses, bridges and an open sky free of tall buildings in an urban terrain that only the painter Edward Hopper could have realized. With a large super market and an Ikea, this working class neighborhood is slowly being gentrified.
Good Shepherd high school is one of many specialized transfer schools around New York City that were designed for truant students. The school teaches the value of education together with the value of work. Students get home visits by counselors when they’re absent and the school’s student body is nearly 200. And, to be sure, as one of the multiple pathways to education, Good Shepherd Schools is an aggressive antidote to the rising New York City drop out problem.
Housed in a 4 story modern building, this was the first Good Shepherd School in New York City created by Sister Paulette LoMonaco, under former School’s Chancellor Frank Macchiarola, which was designed to target students who might drop out.
“We tell students ‘you have got to change,” said Rachel Forsyth, a social worker and director of Transfer High Schools at Good Shepherd, "This is your opportunity. With community partners, rigorous curriculum, we have to reinvent high schools. We need to re-think what we think school is supposed to be.”
According to the New York City’s Department of Education statistics, African American and Latino males are most vulnerable to drop out of school. Nearly 140,000 high school students, ages 16-21, have dropped out or are “significantly off-track for graduation,” say DOE and Good Shepherd statistics. Approximately half of all freshmen will become over aged and under-credited, for example a student who is 18-years-old with fewer than 44 credits to graduate, could leave school and not return.
 By September, 2009, there will be 40 transfer schools citywide. There are 53 learning to work schools and programs around the city. Eighty-seven percent of students in the 53 learning to work schools are Latino and African American; of that statistic, 43% are African American and 44% are Latino.
At Young Adult Borough Centers, YABC schools around the city, programs like GED and learning to work are offered. In many instances students who come to these programs had become invisible at their original high schools and needed closer attention paid to their academic performances.
So, when a student enters a Good Shepherd School, teachers and advisers work backwards from graduation and tailor a student’s class program to what they need and at the same time introducing them to work and addressing any literacy issues.
“We identified the 5 factors to help students succeed,” said Michele Cahill, vice president for the national program at the Carnegie Corporation who supports Good Shepherd, “caring adults, high expectations, engagement, opportunities to contribute, a sense of mastery and continuity with adults.”
As an alternative high school, Good Shepherd has partnered with the Department of Education, community groups and businesses. This type of education is called Multiple Pathways because it exposes students to multiple choices of either work or school. The students have jobs and internships as part of their educational experience, as well as focused individualized advisories.
“Counseling is at the heart of students’ success…the problems that led to dropping out go far beyond academic difficulties. The school also aims to help students map out their futures after high school,” said Inside Schools.org, a website run by Advocates for Children.
“We’re on the front line,” said Forsyth. “We’re heavily invested in multiple pathways to keep students from dropping out.”
In the Bronx, Good Shepherd runs a school at Adlai Stevenson. To differentiate different drop out prevention programs, YABC schools are for students 17-years-old with 17 credits who attend class at night, with some internships and these schools have approximately a student body of 300.
A transfer school, like the one in Red Hook, accepts students with any amount of credits at any age. Forsyth said that all multiple pathways to education were dedicated to serving those students who are over-aged and under credited.
“We give students a lot of attention,” said Forsyth. “There’s a higher ratio to students than to grown ups. Everyone knows each other’s names. A student here can’t fall off the radar.”
 At the Good Shepherd School, said Forsyth, if a student is absent for more than 2 days, someone from the school will go to their homes and knock on their door. Curriculum is tailored for each student’s academic needs with work at internships, which include the Brooklyn Aquarium, a local fashion designer, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, New Youth Connections newspaper and an in-house culinary school.
“This is a caring and nurturing environment for teachers and for students,” said first time teacher Justin Wedes, who conducts a computer class. “I feel supported by the staff to improve, reflect. I feel nourished.”
Wedes said that his biggest challenge was engaging students who have traditionally been disengaged from their own educational process. But, he said he uses his “childlike curiosity” and innate enthusiasm to overcome his student’s apathy and laziness, he said, towards math and computer science by making a real compassionate connection with his students as real people.
With so much positive and personalized attention, with an emphasis on literacy, education, work and community, Forsyth said that, “we try to cultivate a culture of positive peer pressure.
“It matters when you come here. This is a place where a student’s voice is important.”
For more information about Good Shepherd Services, log onto www.goodshepherds.org or speak to a high school guidance counselor.
This story was developed through the Education Beat Writing Fellowship at the New York Community Alliance. |
