FORT WAYNE—While the debate rages between seemingly countless public, private and citizen groups about what to do improve education around the nation, for students considered at risk, an Indiana group has found a working solution— and wants to bring that solution to Fort Wayne.
Billed as an “accredited alternative school,” Crossing Educational Center, aka The Crossing, is devoted to helping middle and high school students who have not fared well in standard educational environments— those who have dropped out or been expelled from traditional schools. Rather than allowing those students to be left by the wayside, The Crossing offers those students—students who have been discarded by the system— an opportunity to complete their high school education in a setting more conducive to their particular needs.
“It’s a second chance education program. We are here to offer a second chance to kids to kids who have been through the traditional school setting and have not been successful,” said Rob Staley, executive director of the Crossing.
Contrary to what one might think, he said the need for an alternative learning environment isn’t limited to young people with perceived behavioral problems.
“It isn’t always troubled kids,” he said. “Some kids just struggle with school.”
The genesis of The Crossing lies in Staley’s first hand experience as an educator and administrator.
“We started in Goshen, December 2003. I was a high school principal and administrator at Concord High School in Elkhart for 20 years,” said Staley.
Troubled by increasing percentages of student expulsions as the years went by, he said he realized something was wrong and decided to do something about it.
“We created a different school model,” explained Staley.
That different model is The Crossing, which he said offers a nurturing and understanding learning environment to both groups—troubled youth and those who have a hard time learning in traditional classroom settings. Providing a viable alternative to those students is based on the program’s central values.
“Our school is based on four core pillars: Academics, character, leadership, careers,” he said. In each of those four areas we have administrators.”
The Crossing officials say the program recognizes that a lot of young people have not been successful in a traditional environment and that to successfully educate them, special attention must be paid to their individual learning styles and learning abilities. From the curriculum standpoint, the Crossing accomplishes that through a system in which young people work at their own optimal speed to learn.
“It’s a self-paced educational model where kids are spending 70 percent of their time logged into a computer base aligned with the Indiana Academic Standards— Apex,” said Staley.
In addition to providing an academic curriculum geared to the individual needs of students, The Crossing provides another resource designed to help young people needing an alternative and second chance in education.
“The school is built upon relationships,” said Staley. “I specifically hire teachers that understand struggling kids and value close relationships with their students because the way you motivate a struggling kid is through a relationship.”
The school, which operates on a year-round, “balanced calendar” of 45 days in, 15 days off sessions, also offers other life experiences— including trips to places such as South Africa and Haiti, kayaking and other adventure activities. Community involvement projects are also part of the curriculum.
While The Crossing offers resources designed to help young people do better academically, test scores aren’t necessarily the indicator that Staley and his staff look at when measuring the impact of what they do.
“One of the ways we measure success is, we save lives,” he explained. “Our kids are dying on the streets every day. We say in our school we do life first and school second.”
Staley and Cory Martin, who heads up community development for the Crossing, said the school has a staff very well trained to deal with various life issues. In addition to having certified teachers, the staff includes people with psychology, sociology and juvenile justice degrees. Often, issues in those areas must be addressed before a student can be expected to excel academically, he said.
“If you’re having problems with life issues, you’re not going to do well in school. We do life with kids—we do life together,” said Staley.
Staley said the approach is working.
“Seventy percent of the kids who said they were part of a gang have faded out of gangs because they have a new identity—they are a part of something else. Seventy- one percent say they are involved in less crime,” said Staley.
But, the academic benefits are there too.
“Ninety percent who stay with us are passing both math and English,” he added.
Another key aspect of building relationships and helping youth to have more positive perspectives on life is through daily discussion. The Crossing is a faith-based program and while organizers are not shy about explaining that, they don’t classify themselves as a religious school.
“Thirty minutes a day, we sit on couches and talk about life. Often, the topic of God comes up. Everybody is trying to figure out about God. We don’t call ourselves a Christian school. We’re a school run by Christian people,” explained Staley. “We don’t play church, we don’t have big Bible studies—we talk about how biblical principals apply to life.
“We try to create a true base where we’re trying to create a moral compass for your life based on biblical concepts. We’re demonstrating rather than teaching religion. We want to make biblical concepts practical,” he said.
And, they don’t take a heavyhanded, mandatory approach to that aspect of the program.
“Our kids can leave that discussion anytime they want to,” said Staley.
The school also is big on providing career opportunities for students.
“We have all our kids, who are placed in internships,” said Staley.
There’s also an incentive for those who have benefited by graduating from the program to give back to the community.
“If you get a four year degree and come back to us, we guarantee you a job. We believe in them,” he said.
The Crossing currently works with 20 school corporations and operates nine campuses around the state. The systems contract with the Crossing to provide alternative educational opportunities.
“Our organization is focused on the 22,000 dropouts a year we have in Indiana. At the end of four years we’re going to have almost 100,000 kids, who have dropped out of school. Think of the impact that will have on society. How many will it take for this to become a dysfunctional society? The end result is this is going to be a disaster,” said Staley.
The Crossing is designed to change that.
While The Crossing has yet to form a partnership with Fort Wayne Community School, it does has an agreement with East Allen County Schools and operates a campus in the New Haven. That site will soon change said officials.
“We’re moving the New Haven campus to the southeast side of the city because that where are kids are,” he explained.
Staley said The Crossing is looking for a facility in southeast Fort Wayne with 3,000 to 5,000 square feet of open space. He said the organization is looking at a number of possible sites but welcomes the opportunity to investigate more.
The Crossing is scheduled to conduct and open house and a number of information sessions in Fort Wayne to explain the importance of offering educational opportunities to young people who are not doing well in traditional educational systems.
Sessions are scheduled for:
* 6 p.m to 8 pm, June 6—Open House informational meeting for students and families at New Life Church of God, 1201 McKee Street.
* 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., June 15— Town Hall Meeting for social service agencies, non-profits, law enforcement, churches and community leaders for the purpose of helping to recruit students, place TBD.
* 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., June 21— Open House informational meeting for students and families, place TBD.
For more information, call (574) 226-0671 or vist www.crosingcec. com online.
Intent to Enroll cards also can be picked up at Unity Barbershop, 921 E. Pontiac St., and Frost Illustrated, 3121 S. Calhoun St.
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