Owatonna Alternative Learning Center
Who are we?We are teachers and students who:
- Recognize and value the individual strengths, differences and contributions of each other
- Create, new and purposeful ways to achieve goals and meet needs
How are we accomplishing this?
- Our total program is committed to improvement through the use of score cards. This year we have developed score cards to help us move all students toward learning goals, integrate technology to improve instruction and efficiency, align curriculum and improve instruction around student needs, and create a culture that embraces change. We have set up measurable goals with plans that help us determine what we are going to do, establish timelines for our work, and identify the resources and staff needed to get the job done. The scorecards are providing us structure and accountability and a way to demonstrate in concrete data our progress as learners.
- We have implemented a data PLC to study math and reading data and review student work. Staff is also studying The Right to Literacy in Secondary Schools as a book study. We have implemented READ 180 and now have three operating RTI tiers.
- We have started developing a math RTI model for our 9-12 program. Based on our data review we have studied the serious deficiencies our students have in math. We have made curriculum changes to begin to address these needs and use NWEA scores to evaluate the progress of our students as the year progresses. We recognize that we need to align our content assessments with the MCA testing benchmarks and develop more specific math interventions for many of our students. Another issue is that we do not have a good process in place for reteaching those students who do not meet mastery of the content standards taught in math. Staff is mapping math curriculum and checking for a match with required math standards. We are also working on plans to teach more math concepts in other curriculum areas to help support our math efforts.
- Besides academic learning our students have a 45 minutes daily advisement which is used for the “Why Try” character education curriculum, service learning projects, transcript reviews, continual learning plan development and monitoring, career planning, and individual tutoring by staff. Our students also have access to parenting groups, individual counseling using our onsite social worker, and access to our chemical dependency counselor. Our Hispanic students use some of this time to meet with Centro Campesino which works to help them development graduation and post secondary plans specific to their needs.
- We have a comprehensive online curriculum to support our classroom options. This provides more variety in class selection and rigor, helping us to meet the individual needs of our students.
- Our school supports on Electrathon Car class that completes in several competitions throughout the year. This year we have two cars that our students have worked on all year. They will have fiberglass bodies when complete, operate on two car batteries and go about 40 miles per hour. This year our students are trying to improve the efficiencies of the battery by using data acquisition software to study this issue. This is a great firsthand experience in green technology for our 21 century students.
- We have a very active MAAP STARS group who serve as a student leadership group within our school. They have been in charge of many of our service learning projects like Downtown Cleanup, Raking for Senior, and Lighting of the Lights. These projects help our community and bring positive attention to our program. This spring they will host the Regional MAAP STARS competition at Riverland Community College.
- We have an active scholarship program with the local Kiwanis and the Morning Rotary. They have invited 9 or our senior students to their meetings to talk about their school experience and share their dreams for the future. They plan to support our students by presenting several students with scholarships this spring.
