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Alternative Accountability: Best Practices for Dropout Recovery

• Rubric-based approach to grading, measuring student progression in each standard
• Wide range of student support services
• Blended learning for personalized instruction
• Competency-based instruction for flexibility
• Open entry/open exit enrollment
• Academic, behavioral, and qualitative measures of student growth and achievement

For specifics on these practices, read more from the Alternative Accountability Policy Forum and watch for upcoming RAPSA programs.

RAPSA would like to thank the following organizations for their generous sponsorships of the SIATech/RAPSA Policy Forum in November, 2012.

Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff & Holtz

Charter School Capital

Procopio

Renaissance Learning

School Services of California

Shifting at the Core

What the New Common Core Math Standards Mean for our At-Promise Students

By Alex Kajitani

As teachers of at-promise students, we’ve often had an “upside down” view when looking at standards.

Teachers in affluent neighborhoods, where students are generally performing at grade level, tend to view state standards as the floor, or minimum level of knowledge to be achieved by the end of the school year. They aim much higher.

However, for us teachers of at-promise students, state standards are often seen as the ceiling. When our students come in a year or more behind, with low levels of literacy and a history of low academic performance, getting them to perform “at grade level” can be a daunting task, and achieving it a great accomplishment.

So, with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) now adopted in all but a few states, does our view get bleaker or brighter for our at-promise students?

Will CCSSM Make Things Worse for our At-Promise Students?

RAPSA Professional Development Events

Dropout Recovery Outcomes Collabinar

Positive experiences for reengaged students

Thursday, June 13, 2013 11:00-12:00 Pacific Standard Time

The purpose of high school is gaining a diploma, right? For 75% of dropouts who reengage in high school, that diploma won't be completed. So how do we develop meaningful accountability policies for these schools?

Join a conversation about academic gains, functional literacy and noncognitive skills for the hardest-to-serve populations. If you work with high schools that serve dropouts or prevent dropouts, you should participate in this RAPSA Collabinar.

The panel for this topic includes experts who are struggling with this conundrum - how to best serve reengaged dropouts who might not earn a diploma. Hear about alternative accountability benchmark research and other cutting-edge topics. This is an exciting area of em ...

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