Posted 12:43 am Sunday, November 15, 2009
Plyler Alternative School Program Makes A Difference
By MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer
Monique Krouse has taught at Plyler Alternative School for four years -- and despite what some may think about the school where students are sent because they've had discipline problems, she said she loves it.
Staff Writer
Monique Krouse has taught at Plyler Alternative School for four years -- and despite what some may think about the school where students are sent because they've had discipline problems, she said she loves it.
Ms. Krouse, who has also taught at other TISD campuses, called the experience "really rewarding."
Student-teacher ratios are much smaller in the Discipline Alternative Education Program (DAEP) at Plyler than at regular campuses, making that one-on-one attention easier to give, she said.
"I think it's that immediate knowledge that you've helped somebody," Ms. Krouse, a high school science teacher, said of what she enjoys about it. "A lot of times you get to see results a lot faster than you would on the regular campus because you can see a student's grades improve very quickly from working one-on-one. You can see behavior change very quickly by (them) getting that personal attention."
Officials said the purpose of Tyler ISD's DAEP is to provide an alternative education setting for students who are having behavior problems on campus.
Students who violate the district's Student Code of Conduct are sent to the program for a minimum of 30 days if they are a secondary student (middle school or high school) and a minimum of 15 days if they are an elementary student.
But it's no "cake walk," officials said.
While at Plyler, students lose the freedoms they enjoyed on their regular campuses and have to follow strict rules to earn their way back through a level system. But, they also gain an opportunity to bring their grades up and turn around their behavior in a very controlled setting.
While at Plyler, students lose the freedoms they enjoyed on their regular campuses and have to follow strict rules to earn their way back through a level system. But, they also gain an opportunity to bring their grades up and turn around their behavior in a very controlled setting.
STRICT RULES: Plyler students are required to wear different colored pinnies, depending on what level they are in the alternative program.
"It's a sound, structured environment that allows the student to have more focused attention, academically and behaviorally, from the teacher," Jeff Collum, executive director of student services for TISD, said.
STRUCTURE
The success of TISD's DAEP is tied in large part to its structure, Plyler Principal Vanessa Choice said.
There's never a time on the Plyler campus that an adult is not with a child, Ms. Choice said.
"The very first thing we tell them is, 'You've pretty much lost your freedom as far as being able to walk around your campus,'" she said. "You can't raise your hand and say, 'May I go to the restroom or may I go get water.' You don't have the freedom to get up and go to the trash can, go sharpen your pencil without permission."
The school's structure includes a level system where students earn points to advance to the next level.
All students who enter the DAEP come in at a Level 3 and can move up to Levels 4 and 5 or move down to Levels 2 and 1, based on behavior and other factors.
"Every behavior you have on campus is accounted for," Collum said. "Good, bad or indifferent, you're being marked every day for how your behavior is. In DAEP, you must follow this point system, or you will not progress."
Students wear color-specific mesh pinnies, indicating which level they are in the system. One of the privileges of moving up to Level 5 is not having to wear one.
DAEP students can earn points to move up levels based on several factors such as complying with the dress code, remaining on task, being respectful and following classroom rules, among others. Moving up levels means being granted privileges such as being first in line for the cafeteria, getting a snack or, if they are old enough, getting to drive themselves to school, which otherwise is not allowed at Plyler.
"They're in the middle (when they enter) and they can easily work their way up if they follow the rules, which are very simple," Ms. Choice said. "So far we've had a lot of success with kids being able to follow the rules and get back to their home campuses."
Officials said students work hard toward moving up in the system and often are anxious about their status.
"They want to know every day, after every class period, 'Did I earn my points, did I earn my points,'" Ms. Choice said. "Sometimes that's motivation to get through the day."
Not many students are on Levels 1 and 2, officials said.
"They want to go back to their home campus," Ms. Choice said. "They'll tell us, 'I don't see how kids can stay here all year. I can't take this.'"
Only about four students currently are on Level 1, officials said. On Level 1, students are in isolation and have no contact with other students. At Levels 2 and 1, students also may have extra days added to their stay at Plyler, parent conferences and possible suspension.
Based on student history or their success at DAEP, students may have to stay longer than 30 days. The district can determine the minimal length of a student's stay, but after a student has spent 120 days in DAEP, a review of the student's progress has to take place, Collum said.
Parental involvement is a significant piece of the program as well.
Parents must attend an orientation session, where rules and expectations are explained.
"So far they are very supportive this year, from what I've seen," said Ms. Choice, who is in her first year as principal of Plyler.
During the intake process each morning at Plyler, parents or a legal guardian, must come in and sign each child in.
"So we get a chance to meet parents every day," Ms. Choice said. "Every teacher is part of our intake process. They talk to parents and if there's a problem, a question ... they can have that conversation every morning."
And in the afternoons, students are walked to cars and teachers talk with parents "so they know first hand how the day went."
"I think that's a key element to the success of the program," Ms. Choice said.
Last year, six students returned to Plyler after stints there, the principal said. Ms. Choice said so far this school year, none have returned.
Plyler is not a "fix all" for students who misbehave, administrators said.
"They're not waving magic wands over (the students)," Collum said. "There may be times when a kid leaves DAEP and goes back to his home campus and he's not successful. You can't truly fix every kid just because they went to DAEP. They have an opportunity. It still lies with what kinds of choices is (the student) going to make."
DAEP PLACEMENT
Elementary through high school students may be placed at Plyler. Elementary and secondary students are kept separate -- as are middle and high school students.
Students are assigned to the program as a discretionary placement or a mandatory placement.
According the Student Code of Conduct, a discretionary placement could be for anything from selling or possessing drugs to persistent misbehavior, among many other reasons.
A student must be placed in a DAEP, according to the code, as a mandatory placement if he or she engages in certain conduct on or within 300 feet of school property, such as committing a felony, selling, delivering, possessing or using marijuana, a controlled substance or alcohol, using or possessing a look-alike weapon and other conduct.
Students between 6 and 9 years of age who commit expellable offenses must also be placed in a DAEP.
Officials said about 67 to 70 students were at Plyler this past week. The numbers grow and shrink based on what's happening at the campuses. Discretionary placements typically increase around late fall and mid to late spring. In October after the fatal stabbing of a John Tyler High School teacher in his classroom, allegedly by a student, Tyler ISD trustees approved money for a portable building to add to the Plyler campus to help expand the program as part of an effort to address safety and security in the district.
The administration determined there was a need to increase the capacity at the DAEP to allow for longer-term placements for habitual offenders and repeat violent offenders, according to TISD.
"We believe that this is one way we can help not only the situation at John Tyler, but at all of our campuses when we have students who clearly show that they need more than just a short stint at an alternative program to turn around their behavior and their attitudes," TISD Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid said at that meeting. "We think it will be a significant deterrent."
With the additional portable building at Plyler, the district can create around 40 extra seats for the program.
The board also approved money for personnel and instructional materials for the expansion.
Collum said the addition of the portable classrooms will offer a place for students to go who are not successful in DAEP, which will help the DAEP continue to function successfully.
The extra space also allows for longer stays, helping make campus operations and DAEP operations more effective, Collum said.
Collum expects the expanded piece of the program to be operational within about four to six weeks.
Contrary to what some might think, administrators said that while some DAEP students may have been in fights, usually over boyfriends or girlfriends, most are not violent kids.
"Do we have some kids who are disruptive? Yes. Do we have some kids who get in fights? Yes. Nobody's trying to say that doesn't happen," Collum said. "But to say we have this huge number of violent kids, or even nominal number of violent kids we're having to deal with -- no."
IN THE CLASSROOM
There are four high school teachers, four middle school teachers, one elementary and one special education teacher at Plyler, as well as instructional aides, a counselor, cafeteria manager, nurse and custodians.
A school resource officer is also at Plyler. He can serve as security, but it is not his primary function, officials said.
Class sizes differ, but usually there is not more than 15 students per teacher.
While at the DAEP, students take their four core subjects as well as a life skills class. Students use the Plato software program on computers, which are in every classroom, and teachers also provide class instruction, the principal said.
"It's not unusual for a science teacher to have biology, physics, chemistry all going on at the same time in the classroom," Ms. Choice said. "The teachers are very flexible, very knowledgeable. (Students) get to ask those questions they wouldn't normally ask in a regular classroom with 30 other kids in there."
The Plato program is aligned with the district's curriculum so when students return to home campuses, "they haven't lost any ground," the principal said.
"It's a chance for them to bring their grades up because the distractions are not there," Ms. Choice said.
To be a teacher in the DAEP program, Ms. Krouse said you have to be structured and organized.
"You can't let students push your buttons. You've got to be flexible," she said, adding, though, she's not sure that she considers herself a "disciplinarian."
Ms. Krouse emphasized, though, she has high expectations for the students.
"It doesn't matter why they came over here. A lot of times we don't even know what they've done," she said. "We treat them all the same when they come in -- whether it's persistent misbehavior, whether it's been mandatory placement. I don't see that in a student. You're just a new student who's come in and this is what I expect of you. You have to have high expectations."
And the high expectations sometimes surprises students, she said.
"They're kind of shocked sometimes when you tell them, 'We care about whether you succeed or not. It bothers us when you don't do well,'" she said.
Ms. Choice and Collum praised the teachers and staff at the DAEP.
"The staff there is very dedicated to working with kids that are challenging," Collum said. "Those teachers aren't just sitting there going, 'you only have 28 more days and then I don't have to look at you.' They're going, 'how can I help you in 30 days make progress in this system and even back on your own campus?' They embrace those kids to try and make a difference - and that's key."
That personal attention, in return, seems to also impact some students' discipline.
"They try harder," Ms. Choice said.
"A lot of our kids need that encouragement so bad," she said. "Our teachers understand that and realize that. That's why these teachers are unique. You have to want to work here to be successful, and I see that in every teacher here."
"A lot of our kids need that encouragement so bad," she said. "Our teachers understand that and realize that. That's why these teachers are unique. You have to want to work here to be successful, and I see that in every teacher here."
Ms. Krouse said there's not a lot of turnover among teachers at the school. For her, she said, "They'll have to kick me out before I get out of here."
"We have a very small family here," she said of the Plyler staff. "We work together to see that the students succeed."
