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uccess High School Principal Thomasine
Stewart does not give up on students, and she
doesn't allow students to give up on themselves.
"Failing a course is not an option," says Stewart. "If
they hit a road block, we don't keep proceeding.
We look at re-teaching, additional support, tutorials,
whatever they need." Students at Success High School
in Round Rock, Texas, are not allowed to fail a course
and move forward." Stewart says, "These are diferent
people, taking diferent subjects, so we re-teach in
many diferent ways."
The belief that all students learn diferently is at
the heart of the Success program. Educators and
students must collaborate to fnd an individualized
way to get to graduation—and this collaboration is
what makes the school truly unique. As the name
"alternative school" suggests, the program at Success is
an alternative to traditional teaching.
Alternative education is not a new idea, but it
has evolved. In the second half of the 20th century,
many alternative schools were designed to serve
students who had dropped out of or been expelled
from traditional schools. Today, school districts are
taking a more proactive approach as part of their
comprehensive dropout prevention programs and
the state's compensatory education program. The
focus is now on providing opportunities for students
in at-risk situations to be successful through a non-
traditional high school diploma program.
Stewart prefers to call Success a "school of choice,"
rather than an "alternative school," because the school
serves students from area high schools who choose
to apply. By design, a school of choice like Success
ofers voluntary participation, a small school size,
highly invested educators, and
personalized instruction.
More recently,
the concept of
school choice
has come to
mean a wide
range of
BY JEAN SCHLITZKUS
2017 Success High School Teacher of the Year Catherine Chang (left) says that caring administrators like
Thomasine Stewart (right) make it easier for teachers to care for students.
SUCCESS HIGH SCHOOL: STUDENTS CHOOSE A NEW PATH TO GRADUATION
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