Case Study
3/30/06

Urban High School Uses
Success Highways to Help Students

Discover the Road to Success Through Education
As children progress from play dates to elementary school to high school, they are called upon to move from familiar environments to new, untried situations. While this is understood to be a scary proposition for youngsters, older kids are no less susceptible to the reluctance and fear of new places and challenges, especially if they have not been taught how to weather transitions and stay focused on a goal. The transition to high school is acknowledged to be one of the most difficult, and for students who are part of an at-risk population, that is the time when they make choices that can affect the course of their adult lives.

Choosing a New Direction for a Challenged School
South Division High School in Milwaukee serves just such an at-risk population. The students there are from widely diverse cultural backgrounds; many live in poverty, high crime areas or without parental support and encouragement. The school has a 50 percent mobility rate; half of incoming students will leave during the school year, to be replaced by new students moving into the district.

In 1999, concerned about increasing problems with student attendance, retention and achievement, South Division's administration sought a solution. Working with V. Scott Solberg, Ph.D., from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), the high school became the first pilot program for Success Highways, an innovative, teacher-driven curriculum designed to put at-risk students on the right track for academic success. According to Charles Siebert, principal at South Division, Success Highways represented a whole new way of thinking about the student. "One of the things we as educators always look at is the cognitive domain, what they're learning," he said. "What schools really need to look at it is the affective domain, how kids feel. If kids aren't ready to learn they won't. You could have the best curriculum in the world but it won't matter. Success Highways helps to fill that void."

South Division uses the curriculum with ninth and tenth grade students. "You lose kids in ninth grade," said Siebert. "If we hook them then, and again in tenth, by the time they're juniors they're less likely to drop out."

Dr. Solberg said one of the keys to the program's success is its focus on individual students at that time in their lives. "In ninth grade, students are at a period of transition," he noted. "We know that at that point in time they're capable of making tremendous change. By reaching out to students then and giving them skills, we're giving them a template that will make them successful with future transitions."

"What schools really need to look at it is the affective domain, how kids feel. If kids aren’t ready to learn they won’t. You could have the best curriculum in the world but it won’t matter. Success Highways helps to fill that void."

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