Four years ago, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) administration, led by Principal Stephen Nixon at the time, identified the need for an alternative learning environment that provided the type of hands-on, project-based curriculum that isn’t always present in mainstream education. In 2012, the MVRHS created the Alternative Education program.
Now the program occupies its own small wing of the high school. It is home to English, math, science, and history classrooms, and a small study room. Students can voluntarily join the program, or are recommended by a guidance counselor, teacher, or parent. In order to provide a more intimate setting, class size is limited to a maximum of 12 students. Alternative Education students take their academic courses through the program, and their electives through the mainstream or CTE program. In other words, it’s a school within a school.
“At the time, there was a feeling that there was a need both for kids and for the school as a whole for a program like this, that could be kind of a testing ground for some progressive, innovative things,” Alternative Education department chairman and science teacher Anna Cotton told The Times Monday.
Progressive innovation is now what the program is all about. The small class sizes and flexible schedule allow students the opportunity to work on big, interdisciplinary projects, and travel on- and off-Island for hands-on learning.
“Last week I went to Chappaquiddick with a group, and we actually used two full blocks from Alternative Education, and because we have the four teachers here and we’re seeing the same students, it’s much easier to schedule things like that,” Ms. Cotton said. “It’s a little harder in a classroom where you may have 20 students, and you might teach five different classes.”
Ms. Cotton, history teacher Joel Graves, math teacher Margaret D’Angelo, and English teacher Brendon Snyder teach their respective classes to students in ninth through 12th grade. As a result, students who stay in the program in the long term build a close relationship with their instructors and peers.
“I think it definitely attracts students who want to know their teachers more, and want to know their classmates and feel connected,” Ms. Cotton said. She said the Alternative Education program is a good place for students who may have a hard time learning in the traditional academic environment. “Students will say, ‘I need to be doing something; it’s harder for me to hear a lecture and then go do something with that,’” she said.
That’s the reason for project-based learning. This year, one English class read Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” and designed board games based on the game theory modeled in the book. In math, students built a catapult. In science, freshmen collected native plant seeds and grew them using a greenhouse. Other students are working with the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival on stop-motion animation movie projects.
“There’s a laundry list of things, but I think we want our students to be doing things that are real and that have real application and real meaning,” Ms. Cotton said.
Different from CTE
Hands-on, applicable learning is also valued in the CTE program at the high school. Alternative Education is different, however.
“We’re focused on academic standards,” Ms. Cotton said. “They’re focused on applications specific to the industry and to the program they’re in, so they have their own set of standards on what kids need to be able to know and do.”
Students can be in the CTE program and take their academic courses through the Alternative Education program, however. Additionally, the two programs often work in tandem. For example, Ms. Cotton’s senior students are currently designing model houses.
“I’m focused on understanding electricity and Ohm’s law and the physics standards, whereas Billy Seabourne in the construction trades might focus more on learning to use a saw,” Ms. Cotton said. “I’ve done bread projects and cooking science with Jack O’Malley, and I’ve done a project with the automotive teacher looking at fuel with my chemistry class.”
Alternative Education students also have other options. They may take some classes in the mainstream, such as Advanced Placement classes, or participate in the dual-enrollment program with Cape Cod Community College.
“One of the big goals was to allow students who are choosing this to also access all the other parts of the school,” Ms. Cotton said.
Additionally, this year the program teachers implemented a curriculum called SMARTS, which emphasizes skills such as goal setting, flexibility, organization, and prioritizing.
“I think one of the big things across the board is that we ask students to do real things, but we also spend time teaching them the skills they need to do those real things,” Ms. Cotton said. “Especially coming from the Island, there’s so much thought about how our kids are going to do in a different setting, so I think one of the best ways you can help students do well is really help them own who they are as learners and what they need to do to be successful.”
School stigma
Ms. Cotton said there is some confusion in the school community surrounding what the program is and what kind of student can join — beginning with the name of the program. Some connect the word “alternative” to “mean something like you’re pregnant, or you’re drug-addicted, or you’re all these things — we are not those things,” Ms. Cotton said.
She said there’s a lot of confusion about the special education component as well. Although the teachers do accommodate students with an individualized education program, Alternative Education is not a special education program.
Some students in the high school also have a misconception about the program, Ms. Cotton said: “I think high school students generally don’t want to do anything that’s too different from their peers, so the tendency for anything that’s different is to ask, Is it worse? Is it lower?”
Ms. Cotton said that she faced that misconception herself as a high school sophomore. “I went to Brookline High School, and it had School Within a School, which sends kids to Harvard and all this stuff, but still, when I wanted to do it my sophomore year, my father was like, ‘What is that?’” she said.
Other people in the community simply don’t know about the program, Ms. Cotton said. Earlier this year, the Montessori School sponsored a screening of the movie “Most Likely to Succeed” at the Film Center. The movie focuses on High Tech High, a project-based, interdisciplinary charter school in California.
“All these parents were really interested in it,” Ms. Cotton said. “It’s like, Well, yeah, that’s a lot of what we’re doing in the Alternative Education program, but people don’t know about it, or they’ll say, Oh well, that’s lower, or that’s not an honors class. That’s something that we work with, that perception.”
Only in its fourth year, the Alternative Education still has a lot of room to grow, she said. In the course catalogue for the upcoming school year, Alternative Education will have its own section. Courses will be changed from a College 1 (C1) credit level to a College A credit level, which encompasses both C1 and honors students.
“We didn’t want a kid to feel like Alternative Education would benefit them, but they didn’t want to hurt their GPA, so that’s why we made the change,” Ms. Cotton said. “We wanted to make sure that kids of all levels could feel like this is a place for them.”
‘Just as easy to fail’
Monday, The Times sat down with a few students in the Alternative Education program. Many said they appreciate the small class size.
“With less people, you don’t really get that distracted,” Julia Peters said.
“There’s a lot of unity between us,” Eddie Rosado said. “It’s kind of like one big family. Everyone is just very close, and we care more about each other than if we were out in the mainstream program, just because we’re around each other so much.”
They also appreciate being able to have an input in their education. “I just like the idea of having something different that’s not the same as normal school,” Walter Greene said. “It’s close to it, but with a little bit more freedom, and you can talk to your teachers more.”
“I like how we can somewhat have a say in our curriculum and what we learn,” Mr. Rosado said. “At the beginning of the year we write down ideas of what we want to focus on. It’s way more involved.”
They all agreed that there there is a misconception within the school about the program, however. “People look down upon Alternative Education, because they don’t know exactly what’s going on,” Mr. Rosado said. “People ask me, ‘Is it easy to pass?’ I say, It’s just as easy to fail. It’s the same thing. We’re learning just like everyone else is.”
Mr. Rosado, who said he’s now ready to reintegrate into mainstream academics, said he’s needed the program to get through high school.
“If it wasn’t for Alternative Education, I wouldn’t be where I am right now, because I needed it at the time when I came in; I needed a lot of support,” he said. “I think it has helped with my future by just helping me get through high school with all the support that I needed.”
