David Williams, Success Program coordinator, knows there’s a stigma regarding alternative high schools, but in Cassville, it could not be further from the truth.
Now with two active programs, the Success Lab and the Success Academy, the Success Program at Cassville aims to provide students that have fallen behind in classes, for one reason or another, the opportunity to catch up and graduate on time.
Last year, the Success Lab saw students overall pass 88 percent of their classes, with the majority of the students passing all of their classes. The Success Lab also graduated nine seniors that had previously not been on track to graduate.
This year, the Success Academy hopes for similar results with its 19 participants.
The Lab is a one-period-per-day program at the high school building where students meet one-on-one with the Success Lab teacher at least once per week to review grades, attendance, behavior and other academic or social goals.
The Academy is an expansion of the Lab, with students attending nontraditional classes in the W.I.L.D. Academy for half-days, where they utilize online learning platforms to catch up on and acquire credit in core classes.
The other half-day can be spent at classes at the traditional high school, the Scott Regional Technology Center, or participating in the FLEX program that allows students to work, volunteer or obtain certifications while also earning high school elective credit.
Williams, who pioneered similar programs in the Monett school district said Cassville Superintendent Merlyn Johnson asked him, after the first year of Success Lab, to pursue the Academy.
“Kids get identified by teachers, counselors, administrators or parents as candidates for the Success Program, and we have a committee that reviews candidates and try to determine who would benefit from the program the most,” Williams said. “They could be not on track in classwork, behind in credits, have extra anxiety about the traditional setting, or, though we don’t have one, a place for someone with a major life trauma like a parent passing away.”
Williams said alternative schools commonly are stigmatized as for the “troubled youth,” but that’s not what he has in Cassville.
“Discipline issues are not recurring for us,” he said. “There may be some low-key stuff like missing a class, but no one at the Academy now has had any large-scale discipline issues.”
Williams said what he sees in the Lab and Academy are students facing in-school and out-of- school pressures that leave them lost in the shuffle and falling behind.
“Often times, it’s the pace of a class that’s too much, or stressors from outside school factoring in,” Williams said. “Kids can get lost in the shuffle when there’s 25 in a class, and once a kid gets behind, it can start snowballing.”
In its first year, Williams said students in the Lab began to believe once they were rewarded for their efforts.
“Last year, some kids started to experience success and realized graduating was still an option,” he said. “They understand if they do the work and get caught up, they can graduate. Credit recovery is online and at your own pace, so some kids fly through it and others are a bit slower, but they all make it.”
A few factors play into that success, Williams said, including things like a comfortable, quiet environment and more oneon- one attention from staff.
“We have comfortable chairs and different seating so kids can relax and get their work done,” he said. “[Staff] also jump from student to student to assess and complete their needs, whether that’s English work, Algebra, just a check of the grades or even helping organize a student’s backpack.
“Just today, we had a kid who got an A on an assignment when that student had never had an A in English, ever. That student saw if you turn in all the work every day, this is what the results can be. As the adults in the room, we have to remind them to take smaller steps for bigger successes.”
Williams, who also has Success Academy Teacher Lance Parnell on staff, said he and Parnell operate differently than normal teachers.
“We don’t really teach,” he said. “It’s more like management of the students and advocating for them, finding what they need to be successful and going to get it. Sometimes, that is accountability, and we provide that, as well.
“Lance has done a phenomenal job with the Success Academy. He’s out with all of them by himself all day, building relationships and doing things like getting job contacts. The Academy works because of Lance — he was the perfect pick for it.”
Williams has also implemented a reward system, “Wildcat Cash,” which is based on four goals.
“We set goals for attendance, catching up from being behind and current grades, and the fourth is a goal the student gets to set,” Williams said. “For each goal reached, students are rewarded with $1 of Wildcat Cash. That can be redeemed at the incentive store for things like chips, drinks, chocolate or apparel, all of which was donated by the Cassville Community Foundation and the Barry County Soroptimist Club.
“We reward kids for doing what they are suppose to do, because that’s how it should be in real life.”
Those fitting the mold for the Success Program include learner whom exhibit one or more of the following traits: Underperforming academically, possessing learning disabilities, displaying emotional or behavioral issues, being deliberate or inadvertent victims of the behavioral problems of others, displaying a high risk or potential dropping out of school, displaying the need for individualized instruction or have an official diagnosis for social anxiety.
