Barbara W. Winters
The Advancement Academy at Hillhouse High School is a name given to a program for students who have been provided with a special opportunity to overcome an obstacle identified in a previous grade. It is a specific program within the larger comprehensive, urban high school. The young people are the targets for system wide drop out prevention interventions. In 1998-99, most of the students placed in this group were new to the school, whether they were ninth graders or upperclassmen. These students moved from class to class. However, unlike their peers, the group of students moved to the same classrooms with a team of teachers selected for their ability to deal with the variety of problems within the classroom. Finding suitable teaching materials and innovative instructional methods posed constant challenges.
A classroom profile for this group includes the following characteristics:
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20 African American with two or three students of other ethnic groups;
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Mostly male;
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Intensively sensitive to "put downs" and other peer pressures;
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Abnormally self conscious;
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Interested in blood, sex, gore and sports;
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And mildly, or vehemently, distrustful of everyone.
Further, these students are young people with adult interests, low reading abilities, and a general lack of interest in reading and the written word. At first glance, these students might appear far more ordinary than they truly are. As you can see, there are several distinctions from the average or normal urban teen of today. They have missed instruction in academic areas, causing significant problems in terms of their progress toward graduation. They often lack interest in ordinary school activities and classes. Television and video may be the only media that capture their attention. They are usually multi problemmed, in the midst of rather constant family and/or neighborhood turmoil. The young people are unable to identify significant conclusions in their lives. They feel they are constantly in the middle of several grueling situations. Their attention span is extremely short.
Truancy is a major problem. Seventy five per cent of the class is active with at least one local social service agency. Approximately 50 per cent of the class is involved in the juvenile or adult justice system. In fact, for all of them, their urban setting puts them in frequent contact with local police officers. They express varying degrees of admiration or dislike of "cops". However, the officer of the law is an ever-present figure in their daily lives. They respond well to instruction using literature based on their perception of real life issues, issues or situations that usually involve blood, gore, sex and sports.