The School-Community Guidance Center: Alternative Education for High-Risk Students 1988-89.

The School-Community Guidance Center (SCGC) is an Austin, Texas alternative education program for high-risk students. It employs three project specialists to work with high-risk and delinquent students at two locations, Rice secondary school and a juvenile detention center. Most of the students are referred for disciplinary reasons. Students in grades 6-12 are housed together. Awards assemblies are held at the end of each 6-week grading period. Faculty and staff are encouraged to informally "adopt" students. Homework is assigned three times a week. Evaluation of the program indicated that: (1) most Rice students were more confident about staying in school through graduation; (2) a followup of Rice students 1 year after exit showed that 40 percent had dropped out and 40 percent were attending their home schools; (3) most of the Rice students were from low income families; (4) faculty turnover at Rice was high, a situation which may be related to the lack of salary incentives and special training; (5) gang membership emerged as a problem at Rice and the juvenile detention center; (6) the student teacher ratio at the juvenile detention center was 17:1; and (7) the recidivism rate for the juvenile detention center was 71 percent entered for the first time, 21 percent for the second time, and 8 percent for the third through seventh time. (ABL)