The alternative program uses outdoor experiences to help eighth-graders make it to graduation.
By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published September 17, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - On the good days, Cortez Williams got along with everybody. On the bad days, he picked fights with anyone who crossed his path.
Most of the time, he felt lost in a sea of faces at Riviera Middle School. He didn't have much interest in studying, and he had a hard time following his teachers' directions. He couldn't imagine sticking around long enough to graduate.
Cortez, 13, knew he needed an attitude adjustment. But with a father in prison and a mother who worked long hours, he didn't know where to turn for help.
Then he received an invitation to spend his eighth-grade year at Oasis, an alternative education program that mixes academics with rugged outdoor activities. Located at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, the program is geared toward students of average to above-average ability who lack motivation or do not perform well in traditional classrooms.
Cortez thinks the program is slowly turning him into the person he wants to become.
"I was just out there," he said, recalling how he was only a short time ago. "Recently, I've looked back and wondered why. I feel like I've gotten a little bit better."
Cortez is among nearly 300 eighth-graders who have enrolled in Oasis since the Pinellas County Schools' department of dropout prevention began supporting it in 1986. The program, which is offered each year to 16 students, was created by Jim Martin, a frustrated history teacher who felt he wasn't reaching all the students in his classroom.
Martin incorporated the philosophy of Outward Bound, an adventure-education organization, with rational behavior therapy, a discipline that stresses accepting personal responsibility and taking control of one's life. The result was a formula that has been successful in keeping 93 percent of Oasis participants on track for high school graduation.
"Parents and teachers often think these kids are lazy, but they're not," program director Debbie McFarlane said. "They don't have anything that motivates them, that excites them. What we do is provide a lot of hands-on learning."
Oasis students begin their day at 8 a.m. with a class meeting. They give compliments for good behavior and apologize for anything they're not proud of from the day before. They work on academics until 2 p.m., following the districtwide curriculum prescribed for eighth-graders. Between 2 and 3 p.m., they work with tutors, concentrating on improving areas in which they are particularly weak.
Throughout the year, they take tests and do homework like students in traditional schools. And they must take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in the spring.
The extracurricular component of Oasis is what makes it special. Each year, the students take several trips to Hillsborough River State Park, where they learn real-life lessons about rivers, springs and aquifers. They also take two weekend camping trips before the ultimate adventure: a trek to the Florida Keys to explore coral reefs.
Parental involvement, which begins with monthly support meetings in the Oasis classroom, continues during the trips. Because students get extensive canoe training in Bayboro Harbor by USF St. Petersburg and parents get only about 30 minutes before launching the canoes, the trips are a role reversal for many families, McFarlane said. She calls her role in the process "canoe counseling."
"The parent is sitting in the front (of the canoe) depending on the child," she said. "The child is in the position of leadership. I get to work with the parent and the child in that moment, helping them to see their blind spots."
The program costs about $250,000 a year. The Juvenile Welfare Board provides $150,000 through a grant, and Pinellas County Schools provides a teacher, a teacher's assistant and a guidance counselor. Since 1995, when the program relocated to USF St. Petersburg at the insistence of former dean Bill Heller, USF has made an in-kind contribution in the form of free rent. The program raises at least $15,000 a year through fundraisers.
"A lot of people want to know why we put so much money into kids who don't want to be in school," McFarlane said. "I tell them, "You either put the money into intervention, or you put it in on the other end when they drop out and become dependent on the state.' "
Cortez Williams is slowly coming around to the decision that he wants to stay in school. His mother, Yolanda Jones, reports that he's much more excited about getting up in the morning. Five weeks into the program, he is beginning to look forward to attending Gibbs High School next year.
"I want to be the kind of guy who gets good grades and is popular, someone who's going somewhere in life," he said. "I think this is going to make a difference."
