RAM FLEX
What is RAM Flex?
Ram Flex is an alternative program(1) to the traditional educational setting that works to help students(2) achieve grade-level standards(3) and to provide a different means of meeting students' needs(4).
While this is a good definition of what this program is about, unfortunately this answer raises more questions and specifically does not the answer the question, "is this a good fit for your student?". So let's break it down more.
- What's an "Alternative" Program/ School?
"Alternative schools tend to have smaller class sizes, significantly less red tape, and a mission to care for the whole child. In an alternative school, meeting standards matters, but teachers have the freedom to get students there in a way that works for individual learners."
--Maureen O’Shaughnessy, EdD (Founder; Education Evolution)
2. Why do some students chose an alternative school or program?
It's in the perspecitve...
"The main and most obvious goal of alternative education is to help an at-risk student to overcome those factors that put them in their current situation. It is our desire that our students stay with us for a short time, overcome the factors that put them here, and return to their home school and grow. However, some of the factors that placed a student in this situation cannot be overcome. Instead the goal then becomes to help our student’s learn to cope and live with the situation life has dealt them."
W. Stephen Parker (Middle/High School Principal; MA in Educational Leadership)
Alternative Program/Education is just that...an alternative. It's different: not better, not worse, just different. Sometimes that difference is exactly what a student needs to find success and sometimes it's another level of frustration. Understanding the pros and cons, understanding the "frames of reference" and understanding the definition of success for each individual is paramount in knowing whether or not an alternative program is going to work for your student.
**Some students will find the "alternative" more difficult than the traditional and some will find it easier, but this isn't about the work being tougher or easier...this is about the learning.
Pros to an alternative Education
Cons to an Alternative Education
3. What are the "standards" that have to be met?
As teachers we are trained to focus on the Self-fulfillment/Self Actualization needs for students; that what ever it is we were teaching would help students better understand and fulfill their potential. Even in the years prior to COVID as teachers we were beginning to understand that this was not the truth and our job expectations were growing and expanding to include meeting the phycological and basic needs of our students regardless of our training, cultural understanding, or our own needs being met.
4. So how do we meet students needs?
We put in the WORK...
We CREATE a place where students are seen, heard, and where they matter.
We ENSURE students have a safe place to gain academic knowledge, technical competencies, and professional skills which will offer them the freedom to see current and possible future opportunities, and allow them to be better prepared in choosing their paths forward.
We EMPOWER students to take ownership of their own learning and life goals in order to positively impact our world.
It will take TIME. There is no magic "fix-it" in education, and there in not now, nor has there ever been a "one size fit's all" program in education. Education, is just that...learning, growing, changing, and none of that is EVER comfortable.
WVHS Ram Flex
Course Outline
Coming Soon