I think we just found out what "value added" means:

[knitter4democracy]

1. That's pretty usual for alternative high schools, though.

Kids end up there because they're in danger of not graduating on time, and it often can take a couple of years for them to finally figure out what they need to do to graduate. So, those sophomores maybe didn't graduate with their class but the year after or from a different school. It's a highly mobile population, usually, as well.

I was the writing coach in our local (amazing) alternative high school for a year and a half. I think it's awesome that they graduated that many and got them into four year colleges/universities. That was one thing we talked about some was the fact that we had college prep kids in the school who needed to be pushed. The plans were, in a few years, start a school-within-a-school for the honors/college prep kids who needed a faster track or to be pushed and challenged and then helped with college applications, etc.