Educational Guide to Navigating Alternative Systems for At-Promise Youth by Dr. Milisav Ilic

A review

This is a special book review that I am able and honored to write for a friend and colleague. In the world of #alted, if you do not have a community to call on for ed code or crazy days, you will get lost.

I am lucky enough to have had Milisav (Mike) as a person in my #alted community and have been able to learn from and with Mike. The past ten years of #alted in California have had more change than the first 100 years of #alted. What we have seen previously was stagnant growth in isolation. These past ten years, led by the work of Dr. Jorge Ruiz de la Velasco and Dr. Milbrey McLaughlin from the Gardner Center out of Stanford, alternative schools in California have really made a lot of progress.

Mike has been part of that journey from the beginning. The story I tell myself is that he brought his excited energy and hopefulness to all of the meetings that took place to get to the root of success in alternative schools and ultimately created a federal accountability program for alternative schools in the state of California. This work started prior to 2008, with the first published paper on continuation schools in 2008.

Mike is the quintessential #altedchampion. He continues to relentlessly advocate for students, fighting for what is fair in education and calling out inequities in education systems.

In his book, Mike passes down his extensive years of experience in a concise and easy-to-read book. This book is a must-read for any educator new to the #alted arena. It is a gift to all California educators, especially those who work in continuation schools.

Mike’s hopefulness and optimism shine as he discusses the realities of education: “I have heard from many people that our education system is broken. I completely disagree. The problem with our education system is that it simply has not evolved from the way it was conceived and built.” He reminds us that society has changed too quickly, and education systems have stayed the same. He challenges traditional schools to put alternative schools out of business, however, he acknowledges there is a long way to go to ensure all student’s needs are met in traditional schools. But who is to say what the future brings?

In the book Mike outlines the over 100 year history of continuation schools and his experience with the CA school dashboard (DASS).

He then goes on to describe the ed code, and we see the evolution of continuation schools unfold. You will notice that there is ed code for many aspects of continuation schools, but it is scattered and noted all over the place. Keeping track of this is a full time job that Mike made much easier with his book. This book saves you hours of internet research!

When I discuss the Continuation School ed code, I often refer to it as living in the gray. So much of it is you do this when this happens, BUT if this happens, you do this, and so on. Quite frankly, it can be very confusing. It is like the ed code is band aids upon band aids in some scenarios. This educational guide is truly a guide that makes sense of the ed code. It goes into detail about voluntary transfers, involuntary transfers, teacher credentialing, instructional configuration, instructional practices, credits, special populations, student discipline, some on independent study, accreditation, and model continuation school processes. Mark and highlight these chapters for your school board and district office. You can refer to these chapters often.

In another chapter, he goes over Leadership in continuation schools. I have long maintained that students who need the most deserve the best. In this chapter, he reiterates: “If you are a black-and-white thinker, please do not read any further. Unless you can think and float in the gray, you will most likely not be successful as a Continuation School or any alternative education administrator…” Needless to say great leadership in any school is necessary; in an alternative school, it is beyond necessary; it is essential, a non-negotiable.

As an aside, I have connected with alternative school educators for many years on Facebook, my various blogs (Altedfrommybed and Teaching Alternatively), and Instagram. It hurts me every time I hear that a teacher is burned out and quits. I have seen this job eat away at people. I take it personally. We can no longer lose great teachers due to mediocre leadership. Great leadership is a non-negotiable for me in alternative schools. The stakes are too high. This job has too much compassion fatigue and secondary trauma not to have the best leadership. Mike gives the foundation for creating great leadership in alternative schools.

The next chapter gives advice from the field from some phenomenal leaders in the alted space.

Last, in the appendix, is the ultimate gift! A complete guide to all education code that is related to continuation schools. It is over 75 pages of ed code specific to continuation schools! Highlight this chapter, bookmark it, and sticky note it. Save it to defend your good work in schools. Your work that puts students first.

I often write book reviews, but this is the book that so many of us have manifested and hoped would be published, and it is finally here!

This is the perfect gift for a new superintendent, Student Services Specialist, Board member who wants to know more about your schools, and any educator new to the alternative education space. It was a pleasure to read and has stayed on my desk as a reference book since I have gotten my hands on it.

Congrats on your book Dr. Ilic!

Mikes book can be found on Amazon with pre-sales until Dec. 15th 2023