OPINION: 3 best practices for building strong non-traditional education programs

When the academic year 2011-2012 graduation season began in early May, Simon Youth Foundation President and CEO J. Michael Durnil, Ph.D., penned an op-ed piece on the best practices for building a robust non-traditional high school program. The article was shared with news outlets in the cities that are home to one of our Simon Youth Academies.

Now, as the graduation season comes to a close, Durnil's op-ed piece is being posted here for SYF blog visitors to read and share.


May 2, 2012
3 best practices for building strong non-traditional education programs.

            When President Obama in this year’s State of the Union address called for every state to require students to stay in school until age 18, I, like many passionate believers in the power of public education, considered it to be a significant gesture. I’m reminded of his call to action as the country enters another graduation season.

            Certainly, increasing the dropout age can play an integral role in addressing the nation’s staggering dropout rate – a student leaves school by their own choice every 29 seconds in this country.

            But while Mr. Obama endorsed a meaningful first step toward dropout reduction in his January speech, the policy he wants to pursue would have no teeth unless it is complimented by non-traditional programs that target student populations who can’t find success in traditional classroom settings, whether they are 15 or 18 years old.

            Only by bolstering dropout age requirements with innovative education programming that engages at-risk students and secures their commitment to classroom success will the country find its antidote to the dropout plague consuming its communities, particularly those that are urban and low-income.

            So what does a successful alternative program with the ability to reengage the most disillusioned students look like?

            First, the programs must offer unparalleled flexibility. Too often, dropout students have the will to succeed but challenging personal circumstances have slammed the door on their potential to achieve. For students who are teenage single parents, working full time to support impoverished families, or in and out of hospitals to battle serious illnesses, the 8 to 3 o’clock school day simply does not work. If non-traditional programs are to prove successful in reaching these kinds of students, they must remove the regimented framework that can snuff out success, which can be done while still demanding consistent participation and engagement on the part of the student.

            Second, non-traditional programs should create learning environments that are separate from the populations at a district’s traditional schools. At my organization, Simon Youth Foundation, we partner with public school districts to build and sustain alternative schools in shopping malls. Whatever the chosen site, the effect of the classroom location must make students feel safe, promote understanding, and operate with student-to-teacher ratios lower than 15 to 1. This creates an environment where a student receives personalized attention and can focus on the school work rather than the social structures and interactions that often threaten or detract from performance.

            Third, alternative education programs must work in concert, not competition, with local public school districts. In the ongoing debate about how to best reform the country’s public school systems, it is often lost on the most negative of commentators that public school districts are serving the communities and populations that are most in need and most at-risk. Programs that compete with public schools, and in many cases siphon vital attention and fiscal resources in the process, further impair districts’ abilities to serve their students, particularly those who are most at risk for slipping through the cracks and dropping out. This is why private, public, for-profit, and not-for-profit organizations must throw their support behind and align with public school districts, bringing to bear their organizational resources to help public schools develop and sustain novel non-traditional programs that activate student potential. This approach will ultimately improve not only the quality of life for students but the viability of the communities that both the students and organizations call home by helping secure the next generation of community-engaged professionals.

            While President Obama’s public support of such measures is a welcomed development, an increase of the student dropout age to 18 is certainly not the silver bullet that will slay our nation’s dropout epidemic.

            As the country celebrates another graduation season, I implore the nation’s thought and policy leaders to consider pursuing non-traditional education programs that operate in accord with public school districts and are flexible in their teaching structures and unique in their locations. Committing to these strategies will give more U.S. families reason to celebrate in the graduation seasons to come.

J. Michael Durnil, Ph.D.

President and CEO

Simon Youth Foundation

Florida Governor praises Simon Youth Foundation students in personal letter

We opened the mail at the Simon Youth Foundation headquarters Monday, May 21, to find a special letter from Florida Governor Rick Scott that was addressed to the 2012 graduates from our Simon Youth Academies in the Sunshine State.

In a brief but meaningful letter, Gov. Scott praises the students for their perseverance and hard work in earning their high school diploma.

We are excited to share the letter with the students and will be sending copies straight away to the Simon Youth Academy at Port Charlotte Town Center in Port Charlotte and the Simon Youth Academy at The Terrace at The Florida Mall in Orlando. SYF supports the schools in partnership with the Charlotte County Public Schools and Orange County Public Schools.

Simon Youth Foundation scholarship is recipient's ticket to her dreams

Selysa Marshall leaves for the trip of her dreams in May, 2012. She’s headed to Piura, Peru, as a volunteer who will teach to local students concepts like having a global mindset and virtues. It’s a chance for her to brush up on her Spanish – she wants to be a fluent
speaker – and to continue her training as a teacher.

Selysa Marshall earned a
Simon Youth Scholarship in 2010

As many people do when they achieve a long held dream, Marshall can identify definitive moments that helped her get to this point. For her, being named the recipient of a Simon Youth Community Scholarship in 2010 was one of those moments.

Marshall recently wrote to the Simon Youth Foundation Facebook page in April, 2012. In her Facebook message, she recalled the congratulations letter that SYF had sent her when it awarded her the scholarship.

“The letter said to pay it forward, and I think I will be fulfilling that soon,” Marshall wrote on Facebook in reference to her Peru trip.

In fact, Marshall, who is from Fair Oaks, Calif., has been paying it forward since she started college in the fall of 2010 as we found out when we called her after reading her Facebook post.

“I have spent my last two semesters working as a teacher’s aide in a classroom for special needs and autistic students in the San Juan Unified School District,” Marshall says. “I’m studying to be a teacher, and it has been a great opportunity to see if I want to go into the area of specialized teaching.”

Marshall, who is just 18-year-old, will already be entering her junior year of college at San Diego State University in the fall (she graduated high school a year early). At the university, she holds a 3.7 grade point average, but college had seemed out of reach until she received her Simon Youth Scholarship.

“My mother is disabled, and the scholarship was just the exact support that we needed so that I could go to school,” Marshall says. “I’d thought about college, but it wasn’t until I received the scholarship that I felt like I really needed to give it my all – you want to do well when someone puts that kind of faith in you.”

In an example of the ripple effects that SYF programs can have on families and communities, Marshall says one of her two older brothers has enrolled in college for the upcoming fall semester after seeing how her experience is shaping her future. Neither of her brothers enrolled in college after high school.

“I think that it’s important for people to make their individual choice that they want to go to college,” Marshall says. “It may not be for every person, but people that want to go should have the opportunity.”

SYF agrees. To quote Marshall’s Facebook message to us: “you’ve opened doors for me through your generous contribution.”

And SYF will continue to open as many doors as we can for as many students as our donors and supporters will allow. After all, you never know where one of those doors might lead. Maybe, Piura, Peru.

Simon Youth Foundation to grow its Nashville footprint

Many people will remember the devastating floods in the spring of 2010 that damaged or destroyed thousands of homes, businesses, and iconic places like the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn. Included in the overall $2 billion in property damages caused by the waters was the Opry Mills mall, the home to a Simon Youth Academy.

After two years of reconstruction, Opry Mills is Back in a Big Way, and we are thrilled to report that the Simon Youth Academy at Opry Mills is set to reopen, too, in August, 2012. The school will operate in partnership between Simon Youth Foundation and the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS).

The news caught the attention of Nashville's local NBC news affiliate, News Channel 5, and its education beat reporter Aundrea Cline-Thomas. Already in Nashville, SYF is partnering with the MNPS to support the Simon Youth Academy at Hickory Hollow.

In her report, Cline-Thomas talks about the growing SYF footprint in Nashville and how the Academy model lets students find their niche where traditional options just did not work. You can view a transcript of the New Channel 5 report on the new Simon Youth Academy at Opry Mills at the station's website.

In Seattle, it’s raining recognitions for Simon Youth Foundation students and teachers

Students present to community business leaders

While the ultimate recognition – receiving their high school diploma – is still a few weeks away for students at the Simon Youth Middle College High School Academy at Northgate Mall in Seattle, Washington, a group of them were recently recognized as honored guests at a joint meeting of the area’s Chambers of Commerce.

Students attended the monthly luncheon of the Northgate and Lake City Chambers of Commerce on April 18, 2012.

Academy students and teachers at the Chambers meeting

Five students, Luis Ruiz, Salenna Green, Era Budhathoki, Naz Uddin, and Luke Walker, took to the microphone to share their stories of perseverance in their quest to complete high school in the non-traditional environment provided by their Academy, which is supported in partnership between Simon Youth Foundation and Seattle Public Schools.

“The Academy gives us so many unique learning opportunities. Speaking to the Chamber of Commerce leaders inspired all of us to see ourselves there in the future,” Luke Walker says. “My school experiences have given me the sweet taste of success and motivate me to aim higher.”

The visit to the chambers was organized by Northgate Mall Manager Matt Bourassa, who also is the Treasure of the Northgate Chamber of Commerce.

“It is important for the business leaders in the community to know about the great work happening at the Simon Youth Academy at Northgate Mall,” Bourassa says. “The school finds its success through the great partnership between SYF, Seattle Public Schools and Northgate Mall, and we want to energize other companies and organization to become active partners to drive even greater success and opportunities for the students.”

Teacher honored for conflict resolution curriculum

The Academy’s students aren’t the only ones earning the accolades. The school’s lead teacher, Beth Brunton, received a Peace Education Award from the Abe Keller Peace Education Fund on May 1, 2012.

Brunton earned the award for her classroom focus on non-violent communication and instruction of conflict resolution skills. The award came with a $500 stipend.

“So many of our students come from challenging and troubled backgrounds, and conflict resolution skills become an important tool for them as they confront their personal challenges and seek success,” Brunton says.