An article by College of Charleston teacher education professor Christine Finnan and graduate student Dennis Kombe was recently featured in The Middle School Journal, the official publication of the National Middle School Association. The article analyzed the Accelerated Program that was implemented by the College of Charleston School of Education, Health, and Human Performance and the Charleston County School District from 2006-2008 as a drop out prevention effort.

The Accelerated Program provided an alternative learning environment for seventh grade students who were overage for their grade. Research is clear that overage students are much more likely to drop out of school than their peers, so the program, located at James Island Middle School, sought to condense the seventh and eighth grade curriculum into one year so the students could catch up with their age peers.

“By helping students develop a more positive sense of accomplishment, belonging, and engagement, the Accelerated Program provided an excellent example of a program that is developmentally responsive, challenging, empowering, and equitable,” Finnan and Kombe write. “It helped these struggling students stay on the path to graduation by making them want to attend school; by redirecting their beliefs, behavior, and attitudes to support school success; and by providing instruction that engaged and challenged students while offering necessary support to address individual learning needs.”

Nearly all of the students successfully completed the program, improving their academic performance, behavior, and attitude toward school. About half of the students in the program remained academically on track two years later and nearly 80-percent had no behavioral problems following the Accelerated Program. Finnan and Combe interviewed students at least twice during their year in the program as well as following their completion.

One boy from the 2007-2008 class said in a follow up interview, “I just want to rewind to AP and keep doing it over and over.” Although this boy is doing well in tenth grade, he looks back on his year in the Accelerated Program as the best year of his life.

The article, entitled “Accelerating Struggling Students’ Learning Through Identity Re-Development” was published in the March 2011 issue.

Christine Finnan can be reached at finnanc@cofc.edu.