Multiple Pathways to Meeting a Promise: Creating Coherence So All Students Can Remain, Recuperate, and Recover

Abstract

When a district creates a “no wrong door” policy that provides that provides options and second or more chances at a diploma, students and families win.” To effect systems-level change, what can be learned from alternative schools and how they provide alternate points of entry for students? What might be understood from the rejection of established ideas, as educators attempt to establish new ways of supporting and responding to students’ increasingly diverse needs? How might systems provide coherent, equitable, and diverse opportunities for students to remain on-track to graduation and success, as well as support them with options when they fall off-track or disconnect completely? I came to Oceanside Unified School District (OUSD) as the Innovative Education Specialist to rethink alternative education, examining how the personalized and intervention-driven approach in the alternative model that is good for the most vulnerable students is good for all. My capstone illustrates this claim through a “Multiple Pathways to Graduation” framework to explore the Oceanside Unified School District’s (OUSD) responsiveness to support options for students to remain, recuperate, and recover. In leading district efforts to articulate a coherent model and plan, I imagine how to better ensure students remain on-track to graduation and future success, have accessible and diverse options for recuperation when they fall off-track, and have options for recovery and reconnection when they disconnect from school completely.