Simon Youth Foundation approach to teaching at-risk students applauded by academic

While Simon Youth Foundation has the same goal - earning a high school diploma - for every one of the students enrolled in its national network of 23 Simon Youth Academies, our amazing teachers use different approaches, unique to each classroom and student, to get there.

Extended one-on-one time with teachers, computer-based curriculum, shortened school days, giving classroom credit for time spent perfecting skills at a full-time job, and performing community service and outreach are just some of the different strategies that teachers in our Simon Youth Academies use to engage students who had struggled to connect with course work in a traditional classroom setting.

Courtesy IUPUI

The approach of putting a student's unique needs first is winning the support of academics like Sheila Kennedy, a Professor of Law and Policy in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis.

In a new post to her blog called One Size Doesn't Fit All, Kennedy writes about SYF's cumulative graduation rate of 90 percent since 1998, explaining that flexible learning environments have led to the foundation's success.

"It is their focus on the individual needs of the students they admit. No rigid ideological framework that students must fit within, no 'secret formula' that must be imposed," Kennedy writes.

You can use this link to connect to Kennedy's blog page and read her full post on how Simon Youth Foundation is serving as a model for successful student instruction.

The web address for IUPUI Professor Sheila Kennedy's blog site is http://sheilakennedy.net.