Quiet Time: Transcendental Meditation Program Initiative

The video above describes the program that will be piloted at Redwood High School this year.  Resources follow are the end of the video.

10 staff members were trained to meditate in June, staff practiced over the summer and then culminated with a 1-day meditation retreat on Monday, August 11th.  More staff will be trained in phase two this fall, while those that have been trained will continue to support one another to practice meditation.

The program will be piloted with two groups of students: REAL and TAPP. REAL stands for the Redwood Environmental Academy of Leadership.  TAPP stands for Teen Age Parent Program.  Both groups of students are more or less a cohort and have several classes together.

One of our students was killed in gun violence in the early part of this summer.  It is the expectation for this program to give students a tool to over come this and other kinds of stress they carry with them.

Why the Blog?

Hello and thank you for reading.  I am humbled to think that anyone would read anything that I write.  It is pretty amazing to even think about the power we all have to share our ideas.

I must be honest and share that originally...finishing the Master's degree to continue with a doctoral program served as a wonderful incentive.  Through the classes I have become more aware of the overwhelming world of social media and some of its good uses.  More and more it is being done with good purposes, intentions, and outcomes.  As a result collaboration and learning is happening all over the place not just the classroom: it's what I have learned is called Connectivism.  Over simplified connectivism learning theory is that learning has many sources and modalites and spaces. Resources are not just the books and not just the classroom teachers.  Examples of connectivism in practice are online classes, The Kahn Academy, The Teaching Channel,  Google Apps for Education, and and so many other wonderful resources.  These resources have opened up the world to so many individuals that previously didn't have the opportunity to engage in this way.  In this exciting and nervous time and I offer some of my own learning.

I humbly share some learnings, resources and experiences to serve as an impetus for conversation to improve education as a whole, but specifically alternative secondary education in particular.  The intention is primarily to better serve the many students we all serve in continuation and alternative high schools across the country.  Many if not the majority are dated and need to overhauled to truly educate the most at-promise youth. (I use the term at-promise instead of the traditional at-risk in order to build from any place they come to use from).

In the world of alternative education you find amazing stories of adversity and more importantly overcoming said adversity to many triumphant success.  But this is not the case for many.  Unfortunately, in the world of education students that need the most help are given the least amount: 180 minutes of instruction per CA state law.  With that said our model of serving students must improve to better prepare students for the challenges ahead of them.

In these blogs I only look at a small but significant aspect of alternative education: the improvement of career, college, and life readiness cultures on all campus.

Thanks for reading!

In community spirit,
Miguel

The Need for a Career, College and Life Readiness Culture in Schools

Through most of the 19^th and 20^th centuries America’s economy was industrial based.  As a result, a high school education and college education for that matter was not necessary.  In America’s economy there was opportunity for a person to find a decent paying job to provide a sufficient wage to support a family.  As many Americans have learned during the “Great Recession” this is no longer the case.  America’s and the global for that matter has shifted to a knowledge and/or service oriented economy.  Some blue-collar jobs remain, but the transition to an information and service economy has made a post-secondary education absolutely necessary to be prepared to effectively compete for a good paying job.   Long gone are the days of blue-collar, single income homes affording families the ability to fulfill the American dream: purchasing a home, earning vacations and a standard of living with leisure income.  Competitively preparing our students for the 21^st century and beyond has required a revamping of our educational expectations for students to have greater college choice and attain a post-secondary education.  Post-secondary education is to include trade training, certificates, 2-year degrees, 4-year traditional degrees and beyond.

Comprehensive Best Practices for Creating a College Going Culture

There are many best practices for creating a college going culture.  When researching the original purpose of working in a comprehensive school setting I found the following from UCLA, ( “Creating a College Culture” is a UCLA Project, lead by Dr. Patricia McDonough) a great foundation for having the conversation about establishing a college going culture at any school. The specific best practices come from your implementation of the following critical principles. Dr. McDonough also talks about the need for 4 conditions:  

1. School leadership is committed to building a college culture
2. All school personnel provide a consistent message to students that supports their quest for a college prep K-12 experience
3. All counselors are college counselors
4. Counselors, teachers, and parents are partners in preparing students for college.

Here is a wonderful graph of the 9 Critical Principles of a College Culture:

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Schools with a "college culture” usually exhibit most or all of the following NINE CRITICAL PRINCIPLES of a COLLEGE CULTURE:
College Talk Clear, ongoing communication among students, teachers, administrators, and families about what it takes to get to college.	Clear Expectations Explicit, clearly-defined goals, communicated in ways that make them part of the culture of the school.	Information & Resources Comprehensive, up-to-date college information and resources, easily accessible by all students, families, and school personnel.
Comprehensive Counseling Model View of counseling that makes all student interactions with counseling staff opportunities for college counseling.	Testing & Curriculum Information about and access to “gatekeeping” tests (PSAT, SAT, etc.) and courses (A-G, AP, etc.) for all students.	Faculty Involvement Informed, active participation from school faculty in the creation and maintenance of a college culture.
Family Involvement Meaningful engagement on the part of family members in the process of building a college culture.	College Partnerships Active links in a variety of forms between the school and local colleges and universities.	Articulation Ongoing coordination between counselors and teachers among all schools in a feeder group.

An Updated Commitment to Career, College, and Life Readiness

As I shared in "Background and Need..." creating a career, college and life readiness culture on any school should be an integral part of the educational experience.

In our school's particular case we have the wonderful challenge of transforming an outdated continuation school model to one that better prepares students for the 21st century given a myriad of academic and social challenges students present to the school’s educators.  The challenge and wonderful opportunity to do the aforementioned is so involved and broad that this post and even this blog spot is too limited.  I'll leave that up to the dissertation.  But in reality the school community with go through the process of redesigning the school program and physical buildings. In doing so many areas will be examined: pedagogical approach, credit recovery opportunities, small learning communities, 21^stcentury skills, career pathways, structure of the bell schedule, design of general classrooms, design of specialized classrooms for career pathways, teacher collaboration, support systems for students, etc. For the purpose of this Blog thread I will focus on my thoughts, learning and resources that may help other educators begin to engage in the same conversation to update their alternative school's career, college and life readiness culture. The most common term used today is college and career readiness but I have added the term life, a term I learned through research...it just makes sense.  The data speaks for itself so say that some students will carry on with life with no formal education after high school.  But the term career, college and life readiness attempts to inclusive to all options post secondary education.  Given the achievement data of our own and many other alternative schools the more appropriate term may just be career, college, and life readiness. This encompasses most facets of constructive post-secondary education. 

Context of Redwood High School

Redwood Model Continuation High School (Redwood) is a part of the Sequoia Union High School District and was established in 1966 to provide a three-hour educational program for predominantly working students to continue or complete their high school education.  Redwood High School is located in San Mateo County on the border of Redwood City and San Carlos, both with some very affluent areas, about 25 miles south of San Francisco.  Feeder schools include Sequoia High School, Woodside High School, Menlo Atherton High School, Carlmont High School, Hillcrest High School, and Gateway High School.  Over the past three years the school has had a yearly average of 518 students walk through its doors.

The Redwood student population is very transient; the average school enrollment is approximately 335 students throughout the year.  The school demographics data demonstrates that Redwood High School has significantly higher Chicano/Latino students and significantly fewer White students as compared to the overall student population of the district.  The district has 46% Chicano/Latino students, while the same ethnic student groups makes up 80% of Redwood High School’s student population.  Similarly, the district’s English Language Learners is 18%, while Redwood population is 54%.  Student achievement data follows to show that students that enroll in Redwood struggle to attain the academic markers of their peers in the comprehensive sites.

The topic for this project,  Career, College and Life Readiness, addresses the mission of the school.  The design of the educational program is outdated and can better serve students to truly be career, college, and life ready, given longitudinal data shared by a local community college, Cañada College.  Of approximately 98 students that enrolled in the fall of 2009 only 1 Redwood student earned his/her 2-year Associate of Arts (AA) degree.  In addition, the notion that students that need the greatest amount of academic support, as demonstrated by low achievement data, are best served with a state mandated minimum180 minute instructional of school day is antiquated.  The economic demands for a longer formal educational preparedness is clearly articulated by the regional economic focus of technology.  Silicon Valley is a ripe place for innovation and career opportunities.  One can make the argument that Redwood students do not receive the kind of academic preparedness to make them truly career, college and life ready.  The immediate goal of earning the high school diploma must be expanded to include greater and more comprehensive career and college readiness skills.  The aim of this project is to aid the school in selecting and implementing the best practices to better prepare students with 21^st century skills to be career, college and life ready.  The task to do so with some of education’s most challenging students is the moral imperative of the school.  Its educators are charged with finding effective solutions.  In its most pressing form the ultimate aim of the school is social and economic justice for students, families and the greater community Redwood serves.

Why Alternative/Continuation Schools

Students go to schools like Redwood for a variety of reasons.  The reason run the imaginable continuum.  Students have had challenging upbringings that never provided a stable home life to focus on school.  Some students have been victims of domestic violence or sexual and emotional abuse.  Some students have had challenging educational skill gaps that were never address.  Some students are teenage parents and need additional support.  Some students are quite brilliant and felt unchallenged in the comprehensive school setting.  Some students are very talented in ways that the comprehensive schools were not able to bring out. The reasons run long.  Yes, some students battle real disciplinary issues, but overwhelmingly the students are great.  Far from the stereotypical image at the top of this post. 

From the first parent-students orientation we tell our students that we are not in a position to blame, judge, or exacerbate challenges.  We do, however, tell our students that we need to move forward from the past by first being honest with themselves and taking ownership of the part they can control moving forward.  The other part is that they have to come to school on a very regular basis and take advantage of the caring staff the works diligently to help them.

Alternative and continuation schools exist to help students that were under-resourced or not supported to get back on track and set a new positive road for themselves and their respective families.

There are marked differences between alternative high schools and continuation high school.  This topic is beyond the scope of the thread of blogs.  I may blog on these major differences down the road.  For the purpose of this blog thread I use them interchangeably.

Current Issues

Career, College and Life Readiness as an educational focus is a more recent phenomenon.  In saying this, we are bound to see an even greater focus on college and readiness due to the changing nature of the global job market focus on 21st century skills: soft skills and the growing knowledge economy.  However an on-going issue for all students, let along continuation school students, is the misalignment between high school preparation and post-secondary expectations in career technical programs, community colleges, and 4-year colleges.  It is may not be common knowledge that students have an alarming drop out rate from college: ~ 50% of all students that start college drop out independent of any predictors.  However, the rates for students who are first-generation college, low-socioeconomic status, and or students of color have the most challenging time earning the college degree.  According to Carol J. Carter, author and student success expert,  89 percent of low-income first generation students leave without a degree.  For alternative high schools this becomes even more challenging given that the design of the school is credit recovery, not learning focus or acceleration.  Most experts, articles and resources speak of the college and career ready culture as one based in four years of high school.  The on-going challenge for our school is how to prepare students hat have struggled for many years in the traditional school setting in a minimal school day.  I am the optimist, but this can't be done for the majority of students.  Our expectations are too low and the opportunities we afford them are misaligned.  Another controversy is the seemingly simple definition of career, college, and life readiness.  The terms are complimentary and similar, but not the same.  If a student plans on earning a certificate in a 1-2 year junior college are the skills required different from a student that plans on earning a 4-year or even post-graduate degree?  The aim for Redwood High School is to learn the best practices and adapt them to the continuation or alternative school setting as best possible knowing full well that the solution is quite daunting and challenging.  But there is not other option...our students depend on our ability to transform our school to effectively meet their needs and prepare them for their futures.

Action Research Project: Engaging in the Transformation for Student Success

Some of the research I read shared how vocational schools were able to increase the percentage of students that earn admission to four-year colleges.  The addition of culturally and economically relevant programs coupled with traditional best practices must be implemented.  Unfortunately, I found no research based literature on an alternative/continuation high school that has implemented such a program in a alternative/continuation high school setting. As a result, the research the school is about to embark upon can be foundational for teachers and schools across the country that are aiming to implement Common Core and be a part of an alternative school that creates career, college and life readiness culture.  We have a wonderful opportunity to provide the case study of the redesign of the academic program and design of the physical building.  This will provide greater insight for other schools seeking the same solution: better preparation for students to be career, college and life ready upon earning their high school diploma. 

Further Research

As has been discussed in this paper the global market is changing to a knowledge and service based economy.  In order to be competitive and earn the jobs of the future students will need to learn updated skills.  The on-going research of college and career readiness has been focused on the traditional comprehensive school setting.  More research needs to be conducted with specific continuation and alternative high schools.  It is imperative that the consideration of limited resources and limited time with challenging student situations makes for a very difficult program to construct.  More research needs to be done on how to best teach students with the limited time spent in the continuation high school.  A student's time in an alternative high school can vary greatly. It can be als long as two years or more or as little as a semester in order to recover credits to earn graduation.  In addition, more longitudinal research needs to be conducted on impacts of specific career pathways.  Do some pathways afford students more opportunities than others? It is a complex issue but it is imperative that educators find viable solutions as our country’s economic standing in the world may depend on it.

Experts in the Field

Committed and passionate people abound in the area of college and career readiness.  It is a popular and important topic as evidenced by the national educational system transition into the Common Core era.  Common Core anchor standards for English language arts include college and career readiness standards in reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language.  In scope of research and work I came across a number of experts in the field: Dr. David T. Conley of the University of Oregon, Dr. Jonathan Brennan of Mission College, and Ms. Carol J. Carter of LifeBound.  Dr. Brennan is a national expert in high school and college student success that I met during one of our district’s board meeting.  He has developed and defined nine solutions or student types that promote achievement: 1. neuro-savvy, 2. purposeful, 3. resilient, 4. broadly intelligent, 5. Positive, 6. balanced, 7. creative, 8. empowered, and mindful.  Dr. David Conley has spoken at numerous conferences including the National College and Career Readiness Symposium.  He shared during the Actualizing College and Career Readiness Symposium that the current system is geared around eligibility rather than readiness, that there is an aspiration gap, and that the Common Core Standards align with all the major skills necessary to be college and career ready.  He goes on to define College and Career Ready “as the alignment among student skills, interests, aspirations, and their post-secondary objectives."  Finally, Dr. Carol J. Carter is a student success experts that gives keynote addresses, offers professional development and writes about college readiness.  She attributes several key indicators such as lack of exposure, role models, stability in the home, and being first generation college students to the challenges students in low socioeconomic situations face in being college career ready.  Overall the findings make clear that the endeavor to create college and career ready students is a very challenging task.  There are many indicators in this complex educational function.  The authors mentioned contribute to the growing body of knowledge to define college and career ready in the 21^st century while offering a variety of best practices and approaches to best support students truly be college and career ready.  Still none define their work in the alternative school setting.

Resources

• Advancement Via Individualized Determination: www.avid.org

 This website is home base for embedded comprehensive site college going program.

• California Continuation Education Association (CCEA): www.cceanet.org

This website is the home page for the continuation school association.

• Coalition of Essential Schools: www.essentialschools.org

This website home to CES which is at the forefront of creating and sustaining personalized, equitable, and intellectually challenging schools. The aim if for all student to reach their fullest potential.

• College and Career Readiness and Success Center: www.ccrscenter.org

The center's mission is to help states and other CCRS stakeholders better inform, align, and support efforts to ensure that all students are ready for success in college and careers. 

The Center’s mission is to help states and other CCRS stakeholders better inform, align, and support efforts to ensure that all students are ready for success in college and careers. - See more at: http://www.ccrscenter.org/about-us#sthash.7Nw4P8kj.dpuf

The Center’s mission is to help states and other CCRS stakeholders better inform, align, and support efforts to ensure that all students are ready for success in college and careers - See more at: http://www.ccrscenter.org/about-us#sthash.7Nw4P8kj.dpuf

The Center’s mission is to help states and other CCRS stakeholders better inform, align, and support efforts to ensure that all students are ready for success in college and careers - See more at: http://www.ccrscenter.org/about-us#sthash.7Nw4P8kj.dpuf

The Center’s mission is to help states and other CCRS stakeholders better inform, align, and support efforts to ensure that all students are ready for success in college and careers. - See more at: http://www.ccrscenter.org/about-us#sthash.7Nw4P8kj.dpuf

The Center’s mission is to help states and other CCRS stakeholders better inform, align, and support efforts to ensure that all students are ready for success in college and careers. - See more at: http://www.ccrscenter.org/about-us#sthash.7Nw4P8kj.dpuf

The Center’s mission is to help states and other CCRS stakeholders better inform, align, and support efforts to ensure that all students are ready for success in college and careers. - See more at: http://www.ccrscenter.org/about-us#sthash.7Nw4P8kj.dpuf

• Jobs For The Future. www.jff.org

This website looks at the the changing economic picture and provides resources for researching the new careers.  

• National Alternative Education Association. www.the-naea.org/NAEA/

This website is the national alternative education site with resources for alternative educators.