Ombudsman: An Alternate Route

Sept. 27, 2007
By Michelle Giguere
Granite State News

WOLFEBORO — Each year, thousands of students around the country seek something a little different than a traditional high school education. They search for an environment that will cater to individual learning needs and special situations. The Governor Wentworth Regional School District (GWRSD) is no exception.

In an attempt to answer a growing need for an alternative program, the district contracted with Ombudsman Educational Services in 1994 to offer students a computer-assisted, off-campus option. The GWRSD School Board members made it their goal to find such a highly personalized learning environment that would help lower the dropout rate and assist the students who do not “fit the mold,” according to Steve Guyer, principal of the Region 9 Vocational-Technical Education Center and coordinator of the GWRSD Ombudsman program.

The district’s alternative school, also called Lakeside Academy, is located on Center Street in Wolfeboro and was the first Ombudsman program in New England. Students come for a variety of reasons, according to Guyer, and many remain at Lakeside because they enjoy the atmosphere and the lack of distractions.

“We’ve had a tremendous success rate,” said Guyer, explaining that there were eight students the first year and now enrollment is up to about 50 so far this year. “I never anticipated it would be as big as it is.”

Growth and success
Ombudsman Educational Services actually began in 1975 in a suburb of Chicago, Ill., explained Vice President of Operations Allison O’Neill, and has since spread to 82 locations in 16 states. She added that there are currently 2,000 students enrolled, but with the “open-enrollment policy,” she expects that number to reach 4,000 over the next couple months. Last year, in fact, Ombudsman programs served more than 6,000 students.

New Hampshire currently has four locations, including Littleton, Lancaster, Manchester and Wolfeboro. Each Ombudsman program is contracted by the region’s school district as an alternative educational route to the traditional high school.

The successes have been great at Lakeside Academy and across the nation. Ombudsman as a whole has seen a fairly steady “retention rate” of 85 percent, which means students remain in attendance, return to a district school or graduate, said O’Neill.

“To continue to grow and achieve progress like that,” she said, “we’re very proud.”
Lakeside specifically has seen an even higher percentage graduate. Although the exact number is difficult to calculate, as students come and go through their high school years, Guyer said the Lakeside graduation rate is between 94 and 96 percent.

“The kids work very hard,” said Lakeside Director Sandy MacMartin, noting that there are usually between 21 and 28 graduates each year.

The Ombudsman way
Students can be self-referred to Lakeside, “which happens a lot,” Guyer explained, or they can be referred by a parent or teacher. There is a waiting list, he added.
While the district has “tremendous input,” according to Guyer, as to which certified teachers are hired, the format of the day is based on the overarching Ombudsman program.

“Their model is to compress the day,” said Guyer. “It’s a very simple concept actually.”
Lakeside Academy offers three three-hour sessions each day, he explained, with no passing times, physical education or lunch breaks and a high ratio of adults to students. MacMartin said there are about 17 students in each session along with two full-time teachers and one part-time assistant.

An individualized learning plan is developed for each student, who then progresses at his/her own pace through the seven areas of study in Ombudsman: essential skills (reading, writing and math), science, social studies and citizenship, life management, health and recreation, aesthetics, and college and career preparation.

Students primarily use an online high school curriculum, Guyer explained, to complete the basic academic requirements. However, students do work on projects and papers, MacMartin said, as creative writing is encouraged.

O’Neill mentioned that these “extended learning activities” help students apply the knowledge from the computer courses to the real world. The curriculum itself often changes from year to year.

“We want to make sure that we’re always on the cutting edge,” said O’Neill, adding that a variety of curriculum reaches a broader range of students.

Lakeside Academy, she explained, has done a great job creating an environment where “the kids really feel like this is a community in which they belong.”

O’Neill added that Ombudsman has a great relationship with the GWRSD, and she is very excited for the relationship to continue.

“We are very proud of the students and the staff and everything accomplished,” said O’Neill.

Numbers don’t lie
Part of Ombudsman’s mission is to help school districts achieve their goals, O’Neill explained, while also offering a program that is valuable to the individual.

Students take a Basic Achievement Skills Inventory (BASI) test at the beginning and end of their time with their respective Ombudsman program. This test is a way of tracking their progress and assessing their achievement of specific objectives. O’Neill said that Ombudsman’s goal is to help every student accelerate his or her learning and “get back on track” with academics.

Ombudsman recently announced that based on the BASI test results during the 2006-07 year, New Hampshire students increased by 2.5 grade levels in math application, 2.4 in reading comprehension, 2.3 in math computation, 2.0 in language mechanics, 1.9 in spelling and 1.4 in vocabulary. The national results are very similar, O’Neill noted.
“It is something that we’re very proud of,” she said.

Lowering the dropout rate
Since Gov. John Lynch recently signed a law to raise the dropout age from 16 to 18, Lakeside will become an even greater asset to the GWRSD as it might help those students who would want to leave school continue until graduation. In fact, the district originally looked into Ombudsman over 10 years ago as a way to help lower this dropout number, Guyer explained. Now the district has one of the lowest dropout rates in Class I, which contains high schools with 500 to 1,000 students.

“It’s unbelievably successful,” said Guyer of Lakeside, adding that he does not think the district will be satisfied “until we’re at zero” for the dropout rate.

He noted that KRHS used to have a grant-funded JAG program (Jobs for America’s Graduates), which was an “in-house, one-on-one program” for students who wanted to pursue career interests. The program was a great success, Guyer said, but the GWRSD lost the grant. Guyer hopes to get the program back.

By addressing four areas, he explained, an outside program like Ombudsman, an in-school program like JAG, adult classes and a GED program, the district hopes to achieve a dropout rate of zero.

“You don’t stop trying,” said Guyer.

Lakeside provides the one-on-one interaction that gives students the encouragement to not give up. According to Guyer, one caring adult that believes in a student is the single most effective motivator for a student to finish his or her education.

“I think that’s what Ombudsman does to a certain extent,” he said.

Guyer sees students who do not think they can get through school, “and then they make it,” which is the best part of the program for him. Lakeside graduates, including students from Alton, Barnstead, Wakefield and Laconia occasionally, have gone on to college and successful jobs.

For MacMartin the most beneficial aspect of Lakeside Academy is “not letting kids slip through the cracks.” Lakeside gives the students an alternative route “so they can still get the education they want to get,” she said.

Always part of the district
Contracting Ombudsman to create Lakeside Academy took a vote from the GWRSD residents, who saw the benefit of giving students a different learning environment where they could be more successful, said Guyer.

However, whether a student attends Kingswood Regional High School or Lakeside Academy, s/he has the same opportunities for sports, Vocational Center courses, prom, etc. As long as students keep their grades up, they can participate in the standard high school activities.

“We don’t try to isolate them,” said Guyer. “They’re part of the district. They’re our kids.”

Lakeside students also have the opportunity to graduate with a 19-credit Ombudsman diploma, which is accepted virtually everywhere – including the military – as a high school diploma. Or students can opt for a 20-credit Lakeside diploma. If some of the earned credits were from KRHS, then the student may walk at the Kingswood graduation. However, Lakeside has its own graduation to celebrate and recognize the students’ accomplishments.

MacMartin explained that Lakeside is a “choice program,” as the students choose to be there and do the work. Although she sees great things happening everyday through their hard work, it is at graduation when she feels the most satisfaction.

“You know exactly why you do it,” MacMartin said of teaching.

Students often return to visit after they have graduated, she added, because they want to let their former teachers know about life after Lakeside.

“We become a part of their lives,” said MacMartin.

To learn more about the Ombudsman Educational Services, visit www.ombudsman.com. Contact Guyer at the Vocational Center, 569-4361, for additional information about Lakeside Academy.