When I began teaching at an alternative school for felons, the mental health counselors said that I would be witnessing the results of child abuse and kidnapping cases that make the headlines and then are forgotten. Now I see the same stories as I review my "Inactive Rolls" at the end of the year. Every year I see on the Inactive list a full case load for a mental health professional, as well as a load for one or more teachers. Some Inactive students are deceased, while others transferred to better schools. My Inactive Roll averages around 75, and most of the kids end up on the streets. Four years ago when our school became
The Wire, it topped 150. I wish that decision-makers, who follow the conventional wisdom and starve alternative services for fear of warehousing troubled kids, could
More and more, it seems, schools are touting high graduation and college acceptance rates -- and the media are by and large passing them along as truth. But should we believe them? What about about schools and districts that require seniors to apply to schools as part of their graduation requirements, no matter whether they plan to attend? What about college acceptance rates padded with community colleges that take pretty much anyone? What about all the kids who may have dropped out along the way, including since the beginning of senior year? Graduation rates have always
