Pathways Academy Alternative School of Albuquerque

Pathways Academy of Albuquerque offers every child a unique educational pathway. The school serves students in grades one through twelve who, for any reason do not fit in to a regular classroom. Students attending Pathways Academy have learning disabilities, dyslexia, ADHD or ADD, mental illness such as bipolar or obsessive compulsive disorder, are on the autism spectrum or are simply gifted and bored. The only student who would not be accepted at Pathways Academy is the student with violent or dangerous behaviors.

The classes are small - no larger than eight students per teacher - and students work at their own pace and receive a curriculum tailored to them. Pathways Academy intentionally holds the student body to no more than 50 students. In this way every adult at the school knows every child. Teachers, staff and students are a close knit family who work together to make every child successful. The atmosphere at Pathways Academy is loving and nurturing. One parent said it was the only place his son had attended where there was positive peer pressure.

Some parents are concerned about the wide range of ages at the school but soon find that the older students take care of the younger ones. Primary students do have different breaks than the high school students and are in a self contained classroom, but everyone else studies and plays together.

Pathways Academy is a year round school with classes from 9 to 3:30 on Monday through Thursday and several two week breaks throughout the year. Limiting the length of the breaks to two weeks means that less knowledge is lost and there is less reteaching.

There is no homework at Pathways Academy. Because of the small, closely supervised classes work is completed in class and families are able to have after school time for family activities. This is a relief to many families with students at the school because previously on of the main causes of dissention within many families with a child with learning disabilities, ADHD, dyslexia or high functioning autism was homework. Some students have said that Pathways Academy gave them back their family.

The quality of education at Pathways Academy is excellent. Students work at their own pace, advance when they are ready. There are three routes to graduation. Some students are on the University preparation path. These students take Ecology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Algebra I and II and Geometry. A 2009 graduate who started at Pathways Academy as a freshman was failing everything when he entered. He took the ACT in the middle of his senior year and scored a perfect score on the reading test and in the 97^th percentile overall.

A second option is the career readiness path. These students take a basic version of the same science classes as and advance as far as possible in their individual math program. Upon graduation they attend community college or technical school. Pathways Academy is very close to the Central New Mexico College Workforce Training Center and students can have dual enrollment in both schools. Both these pathways earn a high school diploma.

Some students earn a certificate of completion, which allows them to be in a more closely supervised post-secondary environment.

Education in social skills and personal growth are just as important at Pathways Academy as academic instruction. There are daily opportunities to learn approriate social responses and to improve interpersonal skills and for students to increase their understanding of themselves.

My daughter started in Pathways Academy in third grade. She has never been teased or put down because of her speech language disability and has had a quality education. She will start high school this year in a charter school closer to our home, and we feel she is very well prepared for that experience. She is, I am sure, a different girl than she would have been if she had stayed in the D level public school program where she attended kindergarten, first and second grade. She works in the school store, runs the cash register, makes change and prepares snacks, she has learned a variety of practical and academic skills and is, overall, a very happy girl, which is a feat for any fourteen year old.