At the schools, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Orr, students can complete 6th, 7th and 8th grade in three years or less. The schools were established in part to relieve crowding and behavior problems at many of the district s 23 middle schools, administrators say. The schools will feature smaller classes, flexible teaching styles and a menu of social services that include both a full-time psychologist and counselor, says G. Wayne Carter, Region 6 superintendent in charge of alternative schools. District officials also hope to have county social workers on hand to assist students and their families with problems at home that may hinder progress in school. The program will address academic issues and any other social services issues they have, Carter says.
Experts applaud counseling, smaller classes and flexible teaching styles prescribed by the program.
They doubt, however, that students who complete the program in three years will be willing to face 9th grade and four years of high school at ages 16 through 18. S.C. They ll hang around until they reach the compulsory age then you ll see a high dropout rate. Ohio residents must attend school until age 18. The compulsory age in 32 states is 16. As a dropout prevention measure, Cleveland could expand the schools for overage students from de facto middle schools into programs that allow students to complete diploma requirements, says Will J. Jordan, associate director of the Center for the Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.