How hands-on high school transformed attendance and graduation

transformative learning – In Fall River, Massachusetts, a former teacher turned school leader says students weren’t disengaged by ability—they were disengaged by a failing model. After shifting to transformative, project-based units known as TLEs, the school reported attendance rising

When students stopped coming to school, the reason didn’t feel like laziness or lack of effort. It felt like a mismatch—like something fundamental was being missed.

Janet Schweizer. director of Evolve Academy in Fall River. Massachusetts. writes about a moment that pushed her to rethink high school entirely. As a former teacher and now school leader. she says she came to believe that “nothing is worse” than missing the mark with students and failing to provide the tools they need to drive their own learning.

That realization led her team to examine what their alternative public high school was doing differently—and in 2017. they turned to the model itself. Staff and Schweizer reviewed the alternative school’s model and curriculum to understand why a significant number of students were failing to graduate or to engage in further learning afterward.

What they found was not, in their view, a simple problem of student motivation. Schweizer says the staff discovered it wasn’t necessarily students who were failing. It was the model failing them. She adds that students were actually asking for more rigorous and relevant lessons.

So they listened. The school shifted toward project-based, real-world learning that mattered to students. In Schweizer’s account, learners became immersed in “figuring out” rather than “finding out” the answers—an approach she says can alienate students in traditional courses.

The change was not a vague promise. Evolve Academy redesigned and opened a different alternative school model centered on experiential, project-based units built around real-world scenarios. These units are known as TLEs, or transformative learning experiences.

Schweizer says the TLEs ground students in the question of “why this matters” so engagement happens naturally. The units are designed to challenge students to think critically and to shift perspectives about issues and dilemmas in their own lives and communities.

With the support of technical partner Springpoint, the school now offers 25 TLE units. One students particularly love is called “Does College Make Cents?” where they use math to evaluate what type of postsecondary learning might best support their future goals.

For students who never imagined themselves graduating from high school, Schweizer reports they gained a clearer image of a path forward—backed by research they conducted themselves. Many came to believe that a two- or four-year college was the most prudent and accessible option.

Others, she says, discovered technical apprenticeships that fit their talents and interests. Schweizer describes it as both affirming and powerful to hear students explain how their school experience had changed their belief systems.

Now in its eighth year using the curriculum, Schweizer says the approach is not only a different way to do high school, but one that better serves all students and particularly reengages students who had previously been off-track.

The school points to internal data. Attendance rose from 50 percent to 85 percent. Graduation increased from 60 to 84 percent.

In a student focus group, Schweizer writes that newly engaged students raved about their relationships with teachers. They credited their learning experiences with giving them purpose and helping them reimagine and alter their trajectories for the future. They told the school they love learning again, “just like they did when they were in elementary school.”.

Springpoint’s data across partner schools is also part of the picture. Schweizer says Springpoint has collected data showing that 92 percent of students make connections between what they learn in TLEs and their lives.

She argues that transformation becomes possible when students are given more choice in how they learn and more opportunities to showcase critical thinking. The school, she adds, looks for teachers who want to uplift student voices and who see their roles as facilitators of rich academic discourse.

Schweizer’s message carries urgency beyond her own campus. She writes that in the U.S., too many high school students are “getting across the finish line” to graduation. Her school’s approach. she says. challenges students to see graduation as the “starting line”—and to ignite their passions and interests for future learning and meaningful careers.

She offers practical advice shaped by experience: start small, incubate success, and orchestrate larger-scale change through transformative learning experiences. Schweizer says she has seen this work in Massachusetts and believes it can work everywhere.

Schweizer ends with a policy-facing plea: if school leaders and policymakers want lasting impact. students must be placed at the center of the shift. She writes that the work placed in front of students reflects beliefs about them—and calls for frameworks that support freedom in the classroom to explore locally and engage critically.

In her view, the classroom should do more than deliver lessons. It should create a curriculum that empowers, uplifts, and transforms—one that gives students a chance to reach their fullest potential and align learning with their postsecondary goals.

transformative learning experiences TLEs project-based learning alternative high school attendance graduation Springpoint Fall River Massachusetts Evolve Academy