School Spotlight: Alexander Learning Center
By: Leslie Draffin
Updated: March 6, 2012
Alexander Learning Center isn't your average school.
"We're probably the best kept secret in Caddo Parish," says principal Dawn Tyson.
This is where overage students who are behind in class, get the chance to accelerate their studies. Some make up as many as two grade levels in under a year. "We're taking students that are overage and struggling and giving them a second chance," Tyson says.
The A-L-C is also home to kids with emotional and social problems who can't function in a normal classroom. As well as students with severe physical and mental handicaps. Tyson says it's a tough job, but she loves it. "You gotta have a heart for these students because they're hard, they can be very trying but everyday's a new day. I try to keep them pumped up, positive and we're just fortunate to have what we have here."
And while the school sometimes gets a bad reputation, Tyson says its also known for turning lives around, "parents come through here and say if it wasn't for this place I don't know where my child would be."
A school helping students write a new future for themselves and one that believes everyone deserves a second chance. "Once they have the taste of success it changes, it realy provides motivation for them. Once they get here they see they can learn, they can succeed and achieve and that's what we're all about," Tyson says.
About 150 elementary age students attend the A-L-C. Administrators say its the only one like it in this part of the state.
"We're probably the best kept secret in Caddo Parish," says principal Dawn Tyson.
This is where overage students who are behind in class, get the chance to accelerate their studies. Some make up as many as two grade levels in under a year. "We're taking students that are overage and struggling and giving them a second chance," Tyson says.
The A-L-C is also home to kids with emotional and social problems who can't function in a normal classroom. As well as students with severe physical and mental handicaps. Tyson says it's a tough job, but she loves it. "You gotta have a heart for these students because they're hard, they can be very trying but everyday's a new day. I try to keep them pumped up, positive and we're just fortunate to have what we have here."
And while the school sometimes gets a bad reputation, Tyson says its also known for turning lives around, "parents come through here and say if it wasn't for this place I don't know where my child would be."
A school helping students write a new future for themselves and one that believes everyone deserves a second chance. "Once they have the taste of success it changes, it realy provides motivation for them. Once they get here they see they can learn, they can succeed and achieve and that's what we're all about," Tyson says.
About 150 elementary age students attend the A-L-C. Administrators say its the only one like it in this part of the state.
