
Who attends Lincoln Street Alternative?
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Lincoln Street provides a smaller "school within a school" alternative environment for Groves and Seaholm students who have unique learning styles and might have struggled to find their place and/or success in the traditional high school setting. We have a staff that consists of our principal, four core academic teachers, and two paraprofessionals.
Students may struggle with high school for a wide variety of reasons and we do our best to help students get back on the right track and discover the unique gifts and talents they bring to school. Some of the most common reasons we service students are:
- Anxiety caused in a larger school setting
- Attendance issues caused by school avoidance/anxiety
- Credit recovery is needed and has become too significant to overcome in the traditional high school setting
- Homework does not get turned in consistently
- Unique learning needs that require more individualized support
We find that most of these reasons students struggle in high school actually intertwine and there is typically more complexity as to why a student may need a smaller and more individualized schooling environment. We pride ourselves on the positive culture and climate that we have built over the years here at LSA. In a recent culture and climate survey given annually to students, we found that over 90% of our students report positive relationships between teachers and students. When asked how "positive or negative the energy" is at LSA, 100% of our students reported favorably about the positive energy that we have here. It's rare for high school students to feel this valued and connected to their school. We strongly believe that through positive relationships, unwavering individualized support, and high expectations, all of our students can succeed and thrive with whatever path they choose in life.
Lincoln Street students have the exact same graduation requirements as Groves and Seaholm. While some alternative programs offer a GED pathway or certificate of completion, our LSA students are working towards earning their diploma from Groves and Seaholm. We also follow the exact same daily bell schedule as Groves and Seaholm. If students are on track with graduation credits and have good school attendance, they would also be candidates for OSTC (Oakland Schools Technical Campus) programs that have availability. We are also expanding our programming and availability for Business Internships (Co-Op) for students working a minimum of 10 hours a week.
LSA serves as the credit recovery program for the district. Not all of our students are credit deficient, but we do service our students in need of credit recovery. When students fail a class or multiple classes at Groves or Seaholm, they also do not earn credit and must find a way to recover those credits in order to graduate high school on time. Therefore, we do not assign additional homework to our students at LSA. Their homework is their credit recovery work and it can be completed both at home and during school hours. We schedule our students in need of credit recovery in Academic Labs or Learning Strategies courses so they have time during their school day to catch up on these old classes. Additionally, we intentionally teach and build up our students' executive functioning skills in our Learning Strategies courses.
There are many reasons that often overlap for students who are not finding success in the traditional high school setting. We provide a service and welcome ALL students in need of a smaller and more individualized schooling environment.