Online Database Features Policies to Support and Expand Alternative High Schools
January 25, 2010
NLC’s Institute for Youth, Education and Families (YEF Institute) has launched a new, searchable, interactive online database — http://ahsi.nlc.org — containing examples of policies that can facilitate the growth of high-quality alternatives for high school.
The Alternative High School Initiative (AHSI) Policy Database is accessible to all city leaders and is designed to help them make the case for local, state and federal policy and funding changes to expand alternatives and options for students who struggle in traditional high school settings. This repository contains tools and resources, examples of legislation, planning materials, fact sheets, research studies and other helpful documents.
Municipal officials and AHSI partners taking advantage of the database are also able to contribute their own related resources, strengthening the arsenal of effective strategies at the disposal of local leaders.
The Alternative High School Initiative Network
The online directory of policy-related resources is designed to help build and share the effective strategies of the Alternative High School Initiative (AHSI), a network of youth development organizations supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation committed to creating educational opportunities for young people for whom traditional school settings have not been successful.
Members of the AHSI network have opened nearly 300 high-quality alternative high schools across the nation to provide students with greater options and reduce high school dropout rates. The YEF Institute has partnered with AHSI to identify a set of seven federal, state and local policy conditions that are essential for alternative high schools to achieve large-scale success. These conditions are described in detail in a YEF Institute publication entitled, “Setting the Stage for New High Schools: Municipal Leadership in Supporting High School Alternatives.” The AHSI Policy Database contains numerous examples of ways that public officials can fulfill these conditions, which include:
- Increased college access;
- A need-based, adequacy approach to funding;
- Rigorous, reasonable academic standards and assessments;
- Strong accountability;
- Expanded options for students and parents;
- An open sector and a readiness to open alternative high schools; and
- Coordination with city and other public agencies and community organizations.
Since 2008, the YEF Institute has also worked with Indianapolis, Nashville, Tenn., and Newark, N.J., on an AHSI Place-Based Partnership project to assist each city in rapidly opening a portfolio of innovative model alternative high schools. School models with dual high school and college enrollment opportunities such as Gateway to College, models serving over-aged and under-credited students such as Diploma Plus and innovative programs developed by Communities in Schools, Big Picture Learning and YouthBuild are now operating in the three cities as a result of the initiative.
The AHSI Policy Database
Housing user-generated content, the AHSI Policy Database will aid local leaders and AHSI partners in their efforts to open alternative high schools across the country. By capturing best practices and lessons learned since the AHSI Network was created in 2003, the database offers current and future AHSI partners and civic leaders examples of existing policies that support alternative high schools, as well as materials that will help make the case to constituencies that can bolster funding and expand opportunities for students.
Exploring the database is a user-friendly experience, with multiple search fields and categories that can narrow results by policy area, policy level, audience, resource type and relevant AHSI organization(s). For example, civic leaders may customize a search to include only resources related to funding case studies relevant to state-level policymakers interested in the StreetSchool Network school model.
A search for local college access initiatives yields examples that include the Atlanta Mayor’s Youth Program, which offers students a broad set of college counseling services. A search for state policies on expanded options highlights how Communities in Schools of Georgia received a waiver of “seat-time” requirements, enabling students at its Performance Learning Centers who attain a specified level of proficiency to advance to the next course level without having to wait until the end of a semester or school year. This policy allows over-age, under-credited students to catch up in their coursework at a quicker pace, enabling them to graduate on time with their peers.
Consistent with Web 2.0 characteristics of interactive information sharing, user-generated content and collaboration, the AHSI Policy Database encourages user submissions to continually expand the collection of resources available.
Details: To visit the AHSI Policy Database, go to http://ahsi.nlc.org. To learn more about AHSI, visit www.ahsi.org or contact Marjorie Cohen at (202) 626-3052 or cohen@nlc.org.