Oklahoma’s 280 alternative education programs taught more than 11,000 students last year.
More than 3,000 of them were seniors.
"Of those seniors that they served, they had a 93 percent graduation rate. So, of those students that were on track to drop out, they were able to enter one of these 280 programs and get back on track and graduated," State Director of Alternative Education Jennifer Wilkinson told the State Board of Education this week.
Wilkinson said Oklahoma’s philosophy is a big part of that success.
"There are other states that consider alternative ed to be their punitive or their suspension path. We did not, as a state, decide to do that back in the 1990s, and we have had better success because it is a partnership," Wilkinson said. "They're choosing to go here. They acknowledge they have some struggles and some areas that they need to work on."
Wilkinson said alternative education teachers and administrators know the students they serve may have bigger life issues keeping them from succeeding in school, like trauma, poverty or substance abuse issues.
"This program looks at a holistic approach to serving those students, meeting those basic life needs ? food, shelter, clothing, mental health services — as well as your academic services," Wilkinson said. "And we have found that both of those, married together, will make a student more successful."
Oklahoma's alternative education program is built on 17 principles to help at-risk students succeed, making alternative education more or less like normal school.
