Colorado Graduation Pathways
Interventions and Support
Outreach to Out-of-School Youth
Increasing efforts to reconnect youth who have dropped out by understanding the challenges faced by this population and increasing a body of effective practices aimed at reconnecting them to high-quality educational opportunities with pathways to post-secondary education and careers.
Out-of-School Youth Profile:
- Majority are over-age and under-credited
- Tier 2 and 3 youth
Various interventions that some Colorado Graduation Pathways schools are using to provide outreach to out-of-school youth include:
- Multiple pathways to graduation: Creating options and flexibility that includes diverse educational programming as well as collaboration across multiple agencies and systems.
- Specialized programming for high-risk youth: Assists with smooth transitions, integrate into communities and stabilize them in their education and social settings.
- Positive adult relationships: Provide mentoring programs, building healthy rapport between adults and youth have a positive impact on a wide range of academic and social indicators.
Resources
Multiple Pathways to Graduation: New Routes to High School
Completion,
2010, S. Marsh
Concerned about the persistently high dropout rates from big-city
secondary schools, education leaders are
trying a new approach to
increasing the graduation rate -- multiple pathways to graduation.
This report provides
snapshots of different approaches to providing
multiple pathways to graduation: (1) Targeted Popuation
approach;
(2) District-Wide approach; and (3) Linked Learning approach. This
report describes these
approaches in detail, provides examples of
each, and analyzes what district leaders must do if they want to
implement one or another of the approaches. The report ends with an
analysis of how well the different multiple
pathways approaches are likely to work in districts with particular
characteristics.
Expanding the Pathway to
Post-Secondary Success: How Recuperative Back-on-Track Schools are
Making a Difference, 2010, Steinberg, A., & Almeida, C.A., New
Directions for Youth Development
Districts and states that have begun to get traction in improving
their graduation rates are pursuing a reform
agenda that includes
both the redesign of failing high schools and the development of
multiple alternative
pathways that help young people get back on
track to graduation and to post-secondary education. Unlike
traditional alternative education, new back-on-track models assume
that challenge, not remediation, will make
the most difference,
especially for youth who are over age for grade and far behind in
accumulating the credits
they need. The goals is for students to
make up for lost time by accelerating their learning so that they
can
complete high school and move successfully to post-secondary
education and careers. Although these small
schools do not in
themselves constitute a replacement or transformation strategy for
large low-performing high
schools, they are a necessary part of a
comprehensive approach to turning such schools around. (NOTE: where
do we find this document)
When Failure Is Not An Option: Designing Competency-Based Pathways
for Next Generation Learning, 2010, Sturgis, C., & Patrick,
S. International Association for K-12 Online Learning
This exploration into competency-based innovation at the school,
district, and state levels suggests that
competency-based pathways
are a re-engineering of this nation's education system around
learning -- a re
engineering designed for success in which failure
is no longer an option. Competency-based approaches build
upon
standards reforms, offering a new value proposition for the
education system. Frequently, competency
based policy is described
as simply flexibility in awarding credit or defined as an
alternative to the Carnegie unit.
Yet, this does not capture the
depth of the transformation of the education system form a
time-based system to
a learning-based system. Competency-based
approaches are being used at all ages from elementary school to
graduate school level, focusing the attention of teachers, students,
parents, and the broader community on
students mastering measurable
learning topics. This discussion draws on interviews and site visits
with
innovators and the limited literature that has been developed
on the topic of competency-based approaches.
This paper has been
designed to generate a deeper understanding, as it is critically
important that competency
based pathways be implemented effectively
with a vigilant focus on student learning.
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED514435
Program Contact
Peter Fritz
Phone: (303) 866-6601
E-mail: Fritz_p@cde.state.co.us