Academic performance in Alameda County's alternative schools scored the biggest improvement of any comparable county during 2004-2005, according to figures released March 26 by the State Department of Education.

Scores on the Academic Performance Indicator (API) for the county's court and community schools, operated directly by the Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE), improved 163 points during the latest measuring period. Only two other comparable counties showed improvement during the same period. Scores in six other counties with similar alternative school enrollment figures declined (see table, below).

The newly released figures place Alameda's county school API in the top third of comparable counties. Alameda's score is on a par with Santa Clara County, and above five other counties with comparable alternative enrollment numbers: Stanislaus, Sonoma, San Joaquin, and Ventura. Only San Mateo and Kern, in this enrollment bracket, scored higher.

Alameda County Schools Superintendent Sheila Jordan said she was not surprised by the figures. "We have made substantial investments in these schools over the years, and the results are beginning to show," she said.

The County Office spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars last year on textbooks, library books, and other curriculum materials for the court and community schools, according to John R. Flores, Ph.D., the ACOE Assistant Superintendent in charge of the alternative schools. Each of the court and community schools now has its own library, Flores explained.

In addition, the Write to Read program begun by Jordan brings in books from the Alameda County Library. It also brings in authors to talk about their work. Civil rights leader Dolores Huerta (photo right, between teacher Annie Green and Sheila Jordan) spent a day with the Juvenile Hall students last fall as a visiting author.

The county has spent more than $100,000 teaching English language arts through the Character-Based Literacy Project, Flores said. All of the math teachers in the alternative schools have also received materials and instruction in the use of the Numeracy Project, a math teaching tool designed to help students pass the High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).

A dramatic turnaround in student attitudes toward reading and in the availability of books has taken place at Juvenile Hall, according to Amy Cheney, the school's librarian. "We did a survey of the youth in 2001 and 2004," she reported.

"Seventy-five per cent of the youth say they read more when they are incarcerated than when they are not. In 2001, 68% of the boys said that there aren't any good books to read at the Hall. In 2004, 5% said so. In 2001, 33% of the boys said that they didn't like to read and in 2004, 3% said they didn't like to read. In 2001, 87.5% of youth said that it isn't easy to get books to read at the Hall. In 2004, 6% said so," Cheney reported.

All of the alternative schools have working computers for the students to use, Flores stated. The county's court schools have one computer for four students, about the same as in the average regular high school in the county, and better than the statewide average of more than five students per computer in court schools.

The County Office is in the process of purchasing five mobile computer labs with 15 computers each to boost computer use in the community schools, Flores added. The County Office's Educational Technology department repairs the machines when needed.

The County Office will be purchasing all new computers for the new Juvenile Hall that is due to open in January, 2007, Flores indicated.

While she was pleased with the dramatically improved API  results, Jordan cautioned that the total number of students on which the figures in each county are based is small. Although the county handled 2,157 students in its two court schools during the 2005 school year, the students stayed only an average of 10 days in one school (Buena Vista) and 23 days in the other (Camp Sweeney). The API scores reflect the much smaller sample of students who happened to be present on the day the standardized statewide test was administered. Students spend similarly short periods in the community schools, ranging from 28 days at Rock LaFleche to 42 days at the Thunder Road Group Home.

"Although the time the students spend with us is short," Jordan emphasized, "we try to make this a turnaround experience for them. We impress on them that this is a window of opportunity for them to start a new chapter of their lives." Jordan praised the teaching staff at the alternative schools for their outstanding effort with these challenging children and youths. "These are the children that nobody wants," Jordan said. "We try to show them that somebody cares about them, somebody believes in them. Sometimes that's all it takes."

The new API scores were released by the State Department of Education on its website, http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ap/index.asp   The table below presents a summary of the data.

Read more about the County's alternative schools:

• The Last Shall Be the First
• Dolores Huerta Visits Juvenile Hall
• ACOE website: Student Programs and Services Division

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