I was notified today that my program is up for Level 2 Review (or something like that) because it has had low enrollment for the second year in a row. My numbers are up this year, but not by enough. Being on Level 2 means that I am now required to do a bunch of things to try to attract more students to my program. Here are the problems:
- money, money, money: every student who comes to my class instead of staying at his sending school (even if he has 5 study halls) decreases head count at the sending school. This means money comes into Portland and out of the sending school, and potentially risks staff reductions at the sending school (if lots and lots of students are coming to PATHS)
- stigma: guidance counselors still want to send us mostly the kids who are causing a real problem in the sending school. Not all counselors, but many. Some of this is related to the money problem, though. The fact is that there are lots of students who never hear about PATHS as an option. The assumption is still (despite our work to the contrary) that only kids who aren't going to college should go to PATHS. In my class, that's certainly not the case.
- graduation requirements: kids need more and more seat time at the sending school in order to graduate. So far (based on the math skills of my kids), the extra seat time is not translating into more material learned, but those are the State's requirements.
I've tried letters to guidance counselors and those haven't worked. My remaining options are: 1) catching interest of parents, and 2) catching interest of students. Since many of my students aren't the most social, the best option for recruting via student word-of-mouth is probably...MySpace? Technically illegal, since they're under 18 and thus can't technically be on MySpace, but they all are. How to appeal to parents? Mass mailing? Newspaper ads? Airplanes towing banners? Hmmmmm.
The thing that kills me is that if I ran a "class" where students came to surf the Internet every day for 2 hours and got 6 credits for it, my classes would be full. When I started teaching, I had a lot of tough kids who were just there killing time. Finally, after 3 years of revamping the program, this semester I have 2 great classes of kids who are doing real work. Just not enough of them.
The irony is that I've been lukewarm about continuing with schoolteaching due to the physical toll it takes on me and the feeling that I am not living my unparalyzed days the way I'd like (playing more violin, being outside). So "if you don't boost your enrollment, your program will be cut" is not a hugely motivating argument for me. But in this case, it's not about me...it's about the kids who could benefit from the program, whether I'm teaching it or not. What if they never get to come, though, because of money, stigma, credits, and whatever else? Maddening.