Is our IPS “dumping” certain students into alternative programs to increase its grad rate?
This is a possibility for any district according to “Hidden Dropouts: how high schools game the system by dumping underachievers into alternative programs.”
http://www.pressreader.com/usa/usa-today-us-edition/20170221/281479276181361
Except for the recent scandal at IPS #28, we don‘t hear much from the IPS Alt Ed Division. You’d think we’d constantly hear about how students were “turned around” and put “back on track” and returned to the mainstream where they were successful, and all due to our district’s alternative programs.
(FYI Here’s the link to IPS alternatives http://www.myips.org/Page/34369)
One reason for this lack of public information may be that IPS alternatives simply warehouse students in “soft jails” in the underbelly of the system. This goes along with the history of punitive alternatives which are actually created for the school adults who don’t know what else to with the chronically disruptive. Here alternative schools act as “safety valves” for teachers and not “safety nets” for those students underserved by the district. In some cases then, IPS programs are neither alternative nor educational.
Here’s the real question: If IPS alternatives do “work,” why can’t any student attend?
Thus, the issues here are: 1) How would we know if IPS doesn’t game the system to increase its grad rates; and, 2) are IPS alternatives the first step for some students into the pipeline to prison? We won’t know unless we see the data–but does IPS keep data on its alternative programs and students?
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John Harris Loflin is an IPS graduate and retired IPS teacher. He has a graduate degree in Alternative Ed from IU. John’s ideas are published locally, in the state and the U.S., and internationally. He’s also presented at conferences regarding alternative and democratic education on 6 contents. See his work here:
http://vorcreatex.com/general-alternative-ed/
http://vorcreatex.com/indianapolis-indiana-alternative-ed/
http://vorcreatex.com/national-international-alternative-ed/