by
Leslie Jirsa
(Following
is the first page of Leslie's action research. For
the complete paper, click on the red button on the
right.)
Research
Question
Would a small, intimate “advisory” group
help my students with no history of academic success
graduate from high school?
Rationale
I teach in a New York City public high school of
approximately 600 students. My students range in
age between 17-21. We are one of 28 remaining schools
actually classified as “Alternative” left in the
New York City public school system.
Of
our 600 kids, approximately 80% are recently immigrated
Chinese students. These students are enrolled in
an intensive, sophisticated English as a Second
Language (ESL) program offered by our school, and
the college rate of our Chinese students is exceptionally
high.
The remaining,
“other” 20% is a wandering, languishing, frustrated
group of mostly African American and Hispanic American
students expelled from other New York City public
schools. These kids seek a “second chance” to receive
a regular high school diploma in a place where they
can keep trying until they turn 21. The most common
reason for the prior expulsion of these students
is failure; most of these students simply flunked
out of their previous schools. These students rarely
pass all of their classes in any given semester,
few of them actually graduate from our school, and
very few of them go on to college.
I teach
almost all of these “20%” students in my mainstream
English literature classes, and I know them very
well. From talking to and working closely with many
of them, I have discovered that most of these students
have long histories of very poor or very inconsistent
attendance, and repeated failures of the same classes
over and over again. I watch them wander the hallways,
fight sleep, cut class, and give up. At the end
of each marking period, I watch them grapple sadly
for just enough points to pass, and so often I watch
them walk out our door and vanish as though they
were never here.
These
students have become very important to me over the
course of my three years at my school. They are
considered “minorities” even within our public school,
and they are spoken of and to in a group. They are
often dismissed for reasons some associate with
race and background, and their talents and worries
go largely unnoticed. These are, of course, individual
students with individual issues who, in the end,
do not get what they need: An adult at our school
to know them, and to use that knowledge to help
them succeed.
The
Study
This year, with the support of my administration,
I created a small pilot advisory program to try
to reach some of the most academically “at risk”
students falling in this 20%. In exploring the advantages
of advisory programs documented by countless educational
publications, school mission statements, pedagogies,
and fellow educators, I wondered if such a program
might help some of these students graduate. I thought
that perhaps regular meetings of small groups of
students, led by trained staff members might help
identify and address some of the obstacles these
students face, which might lead to graduation.
To
the full paper.
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