Valley Pathways to host ANSEP accelerated high school

WASILLA — Valley Pathways Alternative High School will soon become the first year-round home for a well-known Alaska Native education program.

Pathways is one of two alternative high schools in the Mat-Su Borough School District. District officials say that starting this fall, the school — which has struggled with filling classrooms since it opened in 2014 — will admit applicants to a full alternative high school program run by the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP).

The high school is a step toward a year-round program for two-week summer courses usually held for middle and high school students on the University of Alaska Anchorage. Officials from both the Mat-Su Borough schools and ANSEP anticipate the school’s maximum capacity will be about 100 students. The costs of operating the new school will be split between the borough and ANSEP.

The project is referred to on the ANSEP website as “Acceleration High School.”

ANSEP Chief Operations Officer Michael Bourdukofsky said officials consider the new high school an extension of the school’s previous offerings.

“The Acceleration High School curriculum won’t be any different that what our students are doing during the summers, other than the classes will run during the normal academic year, from August until December,” he wrote in an email to the Frontiersman. “There will also be more class options in language arts, humanities and social sciences, in addition to the math and science courses.”

The program is designed to allow students — both Alaska Natives and non-Natives — to take college-level courses in numerous disciplines, including education, business management, biological sciences, civil engineering, psychology, liberal studies, and others. For now, officials are focused on recruiting Mat-Su students who have attended the ANSEP Middle School Academy, but all students are welcome to apply, Bourdukofsky wrote.

ANSEP had originally hoped to take over the state’s traditionally Native boarding high school, Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka. However, opposition to the plan from Mt. Edgecumbe officials stymied those plans. That’s when Mat-Su borough school officials made an offer.

“Mat-Su approached ANSEP with an alternative within their district,” Bourdukofsky said.

About 95 percent of students who participate in ANSEP summer programs later enroll in science or engineering college programs, according to ANSEP–provided figures. About 75 percent of ANSEP students are enrolled in or complete undergraduate degrees, and roughly 37 percent go on to enroll in graduate programs. About 12 percent of ANSEP students eventually complete a graduate degree, according to an ANSEP review. That compares with eight percent of the national population that holds a graduate degree, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The Mat-Su Borough School District’s incoming superintendent, Gene Stone, said Thursday 54 local students had already attended the accelerated summer academies offered in the borough, and an optimistic first-year enrollment would likely be between 40 and 50 students. The primary goal for the middle school academies is to get students to complete algebra courses in the eighth grade, thus allowing them to take higher-level math courses over the course of their high school careers, Stone said.

While Alaska Native students comprise 17 percent students in the Mat-Su, that still amounts to about 3,500 students, Stone said.

“Population-wise, we’re a huge melting pot,” he said.

The school system has drawn some criticism in the past over rumors that admissions criteria for the alternative high schools could potentially change, and some students at Valley Pathways have expressed concern that introducing additional students to the facility could affect the school’s unique environment. Officials are still mulling changes to the admissions criteria for Burchell (the Valley’s other alternative high school) and Valley Pathways, though discussions have focused on redirecting the two alternative high schools toward sophomore, junior and senior students.

Interaction between Valley Pathways students and Acceleration High School students would likely be limited to shared electives, like physical education, and lunch periods, Stone said.

Precedent exists for pairing advanced and struggling students in alternative high schools — Burchell High pairs advanced and struggling students, Stone said, and alternative schools shouldn’t simply focus on “credit recovery.” That’s education slang for filler courses designed to help meet graduation requirements, instead of courses designed with educational goals in mind, Stone said.

“That ANSEP model is truly what’s alternative,” he said. “Just putting kids in a seat and getting credit recovery, that’s not alternative.”

Students would eventually adjust to the new changes, and some students might benefit from exposure to high-level coursework, Stone said.

“I think any time you introduce high standards and a program that has been very successful, it raises the bar for everybody else,” he said.

The deadline to apply for the accelerated high school is June 3. Visit ansep.net for more information.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.