School officials pleased with Alternative High School Initiative

Student choice is a good thing, according to Nashville city and school leaders, particularly when it comes to addressing the needs of kids who don’t fit perfectly into classic models of high school education.

Mayor Karl Dean announced Tuesday during his State of Metro address that Nashville is one of two cities selected to participate in a partnership that stands to enhance the city’s network of alternatives to traditional high schools.

Nashville will be participating in the Alternative High School Initiative, a network of youth development organizations that works to create educational opportunities for young people for whom traditional school settings have not been optimal.

“It means options. Options for our students who are clearly not succeeding in a traditional high school environment,” Dean said in his address. “This partnership will bring additional smaller-learning communities to our district, like the Big Picture School that started this year. It means we will be taking a positive step toward meeting more of our students’ needs.”

And Jim Briggs, director of innovation and redesign for Metro Nashville Public Schools, told The City Paper Tuesday that he’s “excited” by new alternatives that will soon be made available to students.

“We still have a large population out there that’s looking for a fit,” Briggs said. “A lot of kids, when they don’t fit in somewhere, will misbehave.”

The program was launched in 2003 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a response to national trends of diminishing high school rates.

This coming school year, AHSI will provide technical assistance in determining the student choice options that will best serve Nashville. MNPS and the city will not have to pay for this research and planning portion of the program.

New options for students — which may be made possible in the form of new schools, programs, or schools within schools — may be debuted as early as the 2009-2010 academic year. Programs may be accessed by middle and high school students, depending on the outcome of the planning phase.

A variety of education models is accessible to Nashville through AHSI, but Briggs said he thinks two stand out, in particular, in terms of complementing what already exists.

The Diploma Plus model involves small communities of students, with a focus on proficiency rather than class time. Curriculum is focused on the future, and the program tracks students several years after high school completion to monitor effectiveness.

The YouthWorks program is geared to students interested in construction, with classes taking place near work sites and integrating necessary academic knowledge with practical work skills.

Whatever programs are selected for Nashville, participation with AHSI stands to deepen the ability of the mayor’s office to directly engage in the education of students. Briggs said the AHSI initiative will fall under the umbrella of the mayor’s office, though significant coordination with MNPS is planned.

Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors said the application for the AHSI has been in progress for the last year, and involved collaboration with MNPS as well as community organizations.

“We were very fortunate to be selected,” Neighbors told reporters Tuesday. “It really will give [students] something outside of the traditional mold. Not everyone fits in that mold.”