The Waukegan Career Academy is finishing its first school year, and though it’s too early for the state to draw any conclusions on success, the administrators, teachers, students and parents involved in the alternative two-year high school are gung-ho.
“This is their first year in operation, so it’s too early to have any statistics on success, but overall, programs like this are usually successful,” said Paul Kren, senior consultant for the Illinois Department of Education in Springfield. “From interviewing students and staff, we saw no major problems. The kids seem to be enjoying themselves and functioning well. There is more of a family spirit than in a traditional school. Kids in these programs become very supportive of one another and also demanding of one another. They don’t like screwups, because that will put their programs in jeopardy.”
The inspiration for the concept was to reach students likely to drop out, such as immigrants, students who become pregnant or those who simply fall through the cracks of the standard high school system.
Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 opened the school last fall, and the beauty of it is, it’s not costing the district a dime extra. “The cost factor to the district is the same for students at the academy as it would be if they were at the high school,” said Alan Brown, District 60 superintendent.
A Truancy Alternative Educational Opportunities grant of $190,000 per year for three years from the Illinois State Board of Education allows for program innovations such as smaller classes and team teaching. (The average cost of $4,179 per pupil in the school district includes elementary and is a little higher for high school.) “Initially I was concerned about whether we could afford an additional program because we had to start the ball rolling before we got the grant,” said Robert Taylor, school board member. “It was a gamble financially, but it paid off.”
There are 252 freshmen and sophomores enrolled in the academy this year, which amounts to 12 to 15 percent of the freshmen and sophomores in the district. The school does not include juniors and seniors but is considering expanding to juniors. Classes meet in a 1910-era building on the old Waukegan East High School campus, vacated two years ago when the city’s two high schools merged. The students are there because they chose to be. In fact, students and their parents are required to sign contracts that contain behavior, attendance and study stipulations as well as promises by the students to perform community service and by the parents to volunteer at the school. Principals and counselors at the middle schools identify students who they think would benefit from the program and they are given applications to submit.
“This is not a school for kids who have been in trouble or for special education,” said Frank Young, principal. “It is for kids who for a number of reasons would not be a success in a traditional high school. We want success for all kids in this district.”
A lot of people thought this was going to be a school for gangbangers and behaviorally difficult students, said Wendy Barnes, a sophomore social studies teacher who has taught in the district five years. “In fact, we see no gang signs here. We have no deans, and we don’t send kids to the principal’s office. We also don’t have any outside security, while at the regular high school they do.” (There is a Waukegan police officer on duty at the high school at all times.)
What they do have, Young said, are smaller classes that allow for more personal attention; teachers who work as teams on curriculum and know every one of their students; and course materials addressed to students in terms of careers. For example, he pointed out, a math problem might require a student to figure how much space he would need to allot for a shipment of goods if he were a warehouse foreman.
Course materials, he said, came out of a 1986 consortium of representatives from top U.S. firms who drew up what they considered to be pertinent curriculum components.
The idea is to make school relevant for students who saw no link between academics and the real world.
“We are close to our students, and they come and talk to us about their problems,” said Barnes, who at 30 is one of the older teachers on the faculty. She had experience working with 8th-grade graduates who were below grade level in a Summer Training Education Program (STEP) and said she “jumped at the chance” to teach at the academy.
Dave Mousel, a sophomore math teacher who grew up on a farm in northwestern Wisconsin and taught one year at the high school before signing on with the academy, said, “There is a lot less stress working here, and it seems more worthwhile. We have seen these kids grow and develop. There is more feedback. You can say `hi’ in the halls.”
Molly Homan, a Waukegan native, teaches sophomore English, as she did last year at the high school. “I came here because I was going to be cut at the high school, but I have chosen to stay,” she said. “I like working as a team. You can get more accomplished when you can sit down and talk about the kids. And they are not faceless. Over there (at the traditional high school), you would see a student once a day if they made it to class.”
Bobbi Clement, a mother of seven who volunteers as a secretary at the academy, said that when a student at the high school misses a day, the parents receive a phone call from an automated calling system. “Here (at the academy) you get a call from a human being. Every teacher knows your child. For many kids here, this is more family than they have ever experienced,” Clement said.
The academy employs teaching teams, who use a core curriculum of credited classes in literature, math, science, business, etc. This allows students to return to regular classes at the high school in their junior year. But teachers also implement interdisciplinary projects for students.
Barnes, Mousel and Homan offered a project last fall on the national election in which students tabulated statistics, studied issues, held debates, visited the Lake County Courthouse and held mock elections. As a result, students were really excited about the election, Barnes said.
Barnes’ social studies course is modeled after Work Achievement Values Education (WAVE), a federally researched program that aims at building self-esteem and helping students choose a career. The Private Industry Council of Lake County has given the academy a grant to fund it, including Barnes’ training in Washington, D.C.
Included in the curriculum are such practical things as preparing a resume, writing a letter requesting a reference and interacting in an interview. “They teach the same things here as at the high school but in a practical, useful way,” Clement said. “For our son (at the academy), who wants to be a chef, that makes sense.”
The atmosphere in the classrooms isn’t what one might expect in a school geared to students at risk of dropping out.
In one classroom recently an informal interchange was taking place between teacher and students. No one was doodling, day-dreaming or looking bored. In another class, students were working on a writing assignment, exchanging ideas with one another. In a third, students were working quietly and independently without supervision while the teacher tended to computer problems in an adjoining room.
Demond Irby, 17, said he had never witnessed that kind of decorum in other high schools he has attended. “No one here is trying to start something,” he said. “I didn’t go to school much before. Now I go almost every day. I hope to go on to DeVry Institute and become a computer engineer.”
Despite the apparent informality, students are expected to maintain an 80 to 85 percent grade average. “We have a no-fail policy,” Young said. “If a student doesn’t achieve a certain level, he gets an incomplete, which allows him more time to finish the required work.” In a traditional class, a student would get an “F” and have to repeat the entire course, Young added.
One facet of the academy that still needs development, Young said, is cooperation between the school and business. Barnes, for example, plans to bring business people into the classroom to conduct mock job interviews. Already, however, Marshall Field and Co. and many local companies have contributed merchandise to a school store from which students are allowed to buy things with tokens earned for grades, attendance, etc. The store is run by freshman business students.
Sophomores also take a principles of technology class at the Lake County Area Vocational Center on the College of Lake County campus, for which they earn a science credit. This occurs a year before students at the standard high school are allowed to take courses at the vocational center, Young said, and allows academy students an early look at various careers.
There are 12 teachers on Young’s staff, and all volunteered to teach at the academy. The academy also shares with the high school the services of health, physical education and driver’s education teachers.
“I wanted teachers who were good in their subject area but who could teach in non-conventional, non-traditional ways. I looked for teachers who would be flexible and willing to work in many roles and work long hours,” Young said. “I wanted people who were not afraid to call parents, who were not afraid to go one on one with kids. I have seen more parents in here this year than I have ever seen in any other school I’veworked in.”
It is no accident that the staff is young. “Sometimes older teachers get entrenched,” Young said.
There are more than 3,200 students in grades 9 through 12 in the Waukegan School District. Only 63.9 percent of those who enter high school graduate, whereas statewide the average is 80.8 percent. Young said that 68 percent of the academy students have greatly increased their attendance over last year and that 21 percent have shown a slight improvement.
When students go back to the high school they will continue to be tracked to assure their success, Brown said, and they will be able to call their counselors at the academy in the event of problems.
The racial mix of the district is about one-third each of blacks, whites and Hispanics, with a small percentage of others such as Asian or American Indian. But at the academy, 50 percent of the students are Hispanic, reflecting figures that show them to be at higher risk of dropping out. Five students who enrolled in the academy in September opted to return to the traditional high school, and one student was removed for disciplinary reasons.
Maakai Holmon attended for one semester because she was lacking some credits to qualify her as a junior. As soon as she was able, she returned to the traditional high school. “I can learn more at the high school,” she said, “because there are more teachers and more courses. Also, there are more students, so if you miss a class you can always get the notes from someone. At the academy you couldn’t always do that. I like a bigger high school.”
Part of the academy program is the extended day, from 3 to 5 p.m., when 8th-grade and high school students as well as those enrolled in the academy can go in for tutorial help or to make up credits. About 200 were enrolled in that program this year, Young said. “If they are willing, we can help them get back in step.”
Because of that program they have also been able to help students with scheduling problems, such as pregnant teenagers. “After they have the child, we can work around their child-care hours and allow them to come to school later and stay later and still get their credits,” Young said.
Demand is making administrators look at the possibility of adding the junior year to the program next fall. Space limitations as well as the need for mainstreaming make a full four-year program unlikely. “There are still things at the high school like advanced math that we can’t offer here,” Young said. Academy students, however, are eligible for any extracurricular activities offered by the high school, and a number of them have gone out for sports, Young said.
Latonia Gordon, 17, said she wasn’t real big on going to school last year. This year, not only her attendance but her grades have improved. “Teachers work with you more individually, and classes are more geared to real life,” she said. “If I have to go back (to the high school) next year, I think I’ll be able to make it because I have more self-confidence. I want to go to cosmetology school and own my own business.”
Sindy Arroyo, 15, said that last year she was hanging out too much with her friends and that her grades had slipped. Some of her friends were sent to Puerto Rico by their parents to live with family because of problems. Her parents enrolled her in the academy, where she said she is back on track. “I want to be a lawyer,” she said.
Like the others, Arroyo is required to do 18 hours of community service each semester. She works at the Waukegan Public Library.
Irby helps his grandfather gather and distribute food to the poor through a North Chicago church. Other young people work in church soup kitchens, help clean the campus or run the recycling program.
Their parents, who must give nine hours a semester, help with testing, work as hall monitors and do office duty.
“It’s like a big happy family at the academy. They help one another and I love going there to volunteer,” said Paul Fish, whose son is a freshman. Fish and his wife have helped with one of two parent workshops presented this year. Until he entered one of Waukegan’s junior high schools last year, Fish’s son had always been in small schools. “He started missing school for the smallest excuse and certainly wasn’t ready to go to the high school with 3,000 kids,” Fish said. “This year he never missed a day unless he was sick, and recently he came home and told us he wants to go to college.”
“The initial perception in the community was this was where we were going to put incorrigibles,” said Ted Potkonjak, a District 60 board member. “It is really a place for kids who need more attention and help. They are working hard over there and doing a heck of a nice job. When the Illinois State Board of Education evaluated the school this spring, under `Concerns’ examiners wrote `None.’ “
In this era, that sounds like high praise.
