A Successful Alternative to Traditional Education: Seattle Middle College High School at Seattle Central Community College

Abstract

It is the summer of 1991; the time: 9:45 A.M.; the place: Broadway Avenue, Seattle, Washington. An African American high school student, formerly a dropout, is rapidly walking toward Seattle Central Community College. He has a college-level class that begins at 10 A.M. In response to greetings from his friends, he smiles broadly, waves, and, never missing a step, proceeds on his way to class. What brought him to this moment? By his own admission, he was once an active gang member who did not study and attended school only sporadically. Yet, he is now considered bright, articulate, well-mannered, jovial with fellow students, and presently holds his teachers and counselor in high esteem. What happened to this student? He attends the Seattle Public Schools' Middle College High School (MCHS), a cooperative venture between the school system, Seattle Central Community College, the Seattle Housing Authority, and Citicorp. An average of 3,000 students per day become dropouts in schools in the United States (Henry, 1991). This translates into 800,000 to 1 million dropouts per year. We are losing far too many students. Kearns and Doyle (1988) reported that for every 700,000 functionally illiterate students who graduate every year, another 700,000 drop out. From 1984 to 1988, the average dropout rate for regular high schools in Seattle was 23.7%. Although this was less than the national average of 26% and that of other large urban districts such as New York City (reportedly more than 45%), it certainly did not give Seattle cause to celebrate. During 1987, 2,210 of Seattle's 43,765 public high school students dropped out. By 1990 over 1,766 dropouts were listed out of the 42,015 students enrolled in the city's public schools (District Office of Student Information Services, 1991).