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Sometimes traditional high school can prove too much for a kid.
The noise, the drama, the pace. And sometimes life gets in the way of a student’s education.
Health issues, pregnancy and problems at home can seem insurmountable and derail the education train.
“I just couldn’t focus,” said Anna Wroblewski, 18. “There were too many distractions.”
Once she fell behind in classes at Tinley Park High School, she said, “It became harder and harder to go to school every day.”
Her mom Stacy Wroblewski said, “She just wouldn’t go.”
Lakiera Nesbitt, 16, would go to school — just not to class.
“I used to hang in the hallways and walk around. I went to the lunchroom. I played. I didn’t do my work,” Lakiera, 16, said. “Hillcrest was a distraction for me. There was too much going on. I’d get dressed to go see people instead of going there to do my work.”
In her junior year, her counselor told her she likely wouldn’t graduate with her friends.
When Martez Allen’s grades started to slide, his mom, Alikepoleebola Wise, began to worry something other than academics was to blame. Her son had always been a good student.
He’d been complaining of headaches and one night, Wise said, she had a dream he was going to die. In August of 2017, he underwent emergency brain surgery.
He recovered but the crisis had taken a toll on his schoolwork and, Martez said, in his junior year counselors at his Country Club Hills school told him he wasn’t on track to graduate.
“I kind of gave up,” the 18-year-old recalled.
Tyanna Wilson, 17, said she didn’t want to give up but after she had a baby girl in December 2017 and missed three months of school, she found herself far behind her peers at Hillcrest.
“And there was a lot of drama,” she said.
There was a time when all of these kids would have considered simply dropping out of high school and, granted, there are still far too many who choose that route.
But Anna, Martez, Lakiera and Tyanna wanted another option. So did their parents.
A new program in District 228 provided one.
A different way of learning
Since enrolling in Delta & Achieve, the district’s new initiative to help at-risk students, all four teens have turned around their school records.
Delta & Achieve helps kids who “by all definitions and on paper should not be graduating on time,” said director Erin Collins.
The program began last fall on the campus of South Suburban College in Oak Forest. It replaced the district’s previous program for struggling students that was held nightly at all four of its home schools.
Artsy furniture, quiet areas, inspirational posters and even a rewards closet create an atmosphere that many of the students find less distracting and more motivating, Collins said.
In addition, the teaching is constant. The former program relied on a rotation of teachers to run the classes. Delta & Achieve has its own staff.
“This is a new opportunity, a change of pace. It’s quieter by numbers alone. Kids stay in the same classroom, so there’s a homeroom feel,” she said. “The staff-to-student ratio is much better than at the district’s home schools.”
The program also has a mental health professional on site to provide services such as group sessions and grief counseling — something that is a given at the home schools but the district wasn’t able to provide with the night school set-up.
Because of its partnership with SSC, kids have access to college classes and have been taking them, Collins said.
“So many of these kids went from not graduating to taking college classes,” she said.
Some of the students enrolled have endured extreme circumstances, some have serious health concerns, some are raising a family of their own, some need to work to support their families and themselves, she said. Others simply got caught up in the social drama of high school. Once they lose their footing, it’s hard to regain it without some help, she said.
“A lot have lost motivation and feel a little bit defeated when they first get here,” she said. “But once you get buy-in, they’re capable of everything. They’re 100% capable of doing the work.”
Academics are presented differently, as well, she said.
“A lot of learning is independent. So if anything I would argue that these kids are more capable than people might originally have given them credit for. It’s not easy to navigate online learning and project based learning on your own,” she said. “Kids who didn’t fit into the norms at their home schools are here finding success.”
Granted, she said, sometimes all they need is a change of pace to get re-centered and refocused.
Among the 149 credit deficient students currently being serviced through the new program are juniors, seniors, fifth-year seniors and even a couple sixth-year seniors, Collins said.
Already 31 have graduated and 17 more are on track to finish up by May, she said.
Turning things around
Martez is set to graduate this month.
After he enrolled in the new program, his academic performance improved and his desire to do well “just took off,” his mom said. “I’m so glad. He’s made a complete turn-around. Now he wants to graduate and be something in life again.”
Anna’s mom said her daughter’s attitude toward school “is night and day to what it was. It has been such a blessing for her. Her self-esteem is up. She wants to go to school. She’s so proud of herself.”
Stacy Wroblewski said the Delta & Achieve program reaches her daughter at a new level.
“It’s more one-on-one and I think she needs that. It’s an amazing program. Anna loves the teachers,” she said.
The nontraditional school has not only enabled Tyanna to catch up, she has become one of the program’s top achievers, Collins said.
“She is probably the first person to take work home,” Collins said. “She is very determined.”
“School’s different now because I got somebody depending on me at home,” Tyanna said.
She said Delta & Achieve has helped her “feel different about myself. More confident.”
She said she likes working independently through the project-based learning model and now has her sights set on becoming a doctor one day.
Tyanna’s mom, Kelly Hampton, said, “I asked the school to give my baby a chance and they did. Now she’s showing them what she can do.”
Hampton said she told her daughter that raising a child, who is now 16 months old, is not a reason to quit school.
“I kept pushing her, telling her ‘No matter what, you can still do this. This is not a problem. You have help. I want you to finish school, so focus,’” Hampton said.
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“They told her she was going to have to work hard. She came home every day and said, ‘Mom I’ve got homework.’ I was so happy to hear that,” Hampton said. “She did what she had to do, and I am very proud of her.”
Lakiera’s mom, Carrie Morris, said, “I am so glad this district offered Delta to her because she has turned things around. I am so proud of her.”
“It’s still school,” Lakiera said, “but I come here way more than I used to go to Hillcrest. The more you go to school the faster your work gets done and the faster you’ll get out of high school.”
Though most mornings she still battles an inner voice that tells her not to go, she said, “I know it’s important to graduate. You don’t want to see your parents hurt and crying. I don’t want to be a family disappointment.”
Just as worrisome, she said, was picturing her friends walking across the graduation stage without her.