I was perusing the presentation offerings for the NSDC Conference in Denver this summer and it made me think about a couple of things. First of all, once one gets past the data-driven models and professional learning community offerings I noticed a couple of sessions that focused on the at-risk learner. The at-risk learner is something we at Phoenix Academy have some knowledge of. All of our learners are at-risk, that being the purpose of our school.

Recent discussions at Phoenix have centered around the following concern. In our environment of relationship-based learning, where struggling (we call them striving learners) students can become successful with the right supports, what happens to them when they are "pushed from the nest" to a traditional high school without these supports? How do we react to this concern? Do we continue our supports, hoping students will eventually mature, build off of their recent achievements, and find their way in high school or do we pull the supports and go "sink or swim". Tough love you might say. Is there a middle ground that might do the trick?

Well, we have tried it all and the truth of the matter is every student has their threshhold of supports that they need to be successful. And while we get many of these "striving learners" on track at Phoenix Academy, some of them will fail in high school when their security blanket is no longer in place. You see, in its current form, the traditional high school cannot possibly provide the levels of support we do. 40:1 guidance ratios, 16-20:1 student teacher ratios, and use of high impact technology in every classroom is just not in the realm of the typical high school.

We are in the midst of a study to find what our students need to be successful at the traditional high school. Part of the study will focus on the supports that are in place for our students and the supports that need to be added. We are going to ask our former students what it is they need to be successful in high school. I will revisit this topic on this blog when we get the results of our study and perhaps we will have some ideas to share with others. In the interim, any insights one might have to offer into the topic of supports and at-risk learners please post.