Schools & afterschool
Alternative School
Boosts engagement & attendance through hands-on STEAM; produces a music video usable for recruitment & funder reports; strengthens SEL & school climate; gives students access to celebrity producers.
Attendance/chronic-absenteeism improvement, PBIS, MTSS Tier 1 SEL, positive school climate, arts/STEAM access
FAQs
Straight answers.
Usually the engagement piece. A high school dropout prevention program tends to be strong on identification and thin on what students are actually offered once identified.
Counselors looking for dropout prevention recommendations for school counselors, or for programs to prevent high school dropouts, generally have the early warning data. Research identifies attendance, behavior, and course performance as the strongest predictors of completion, and attendance is the one most responsive to programming students want to attend.
We are the offering, not the identification system.
It sits in the behavioral and social-emotional side rather than the academic one. RTI for high school students is usually built around reading and math intervention; our material addresses the engagement and self-management side that determines whether a student shows up for either.
Programs running RTI for high school alongside MTSS use it at tier one and tier two.
Yes, as the reason to attend. Attendance is the early warning indicator most responsive to engagement, and alternative settings are where chronic absenteeism is most entrenched.
Programs building an attendance success plan or a student attendance improvement plan usually have the outreach side handled. Attendance interventions for high school students fail when there is nothing at the other end worth arriving for. We thrive with helping students understand why getting an education is vital using the power of music.
Yes. The Psychological Effects of Music Interactive Social Emotional Learning School Assembly works as a site-wide event an end-of-session showcase, or a family engagement event teaching students and/or parents who music effects their behavior, self-regulation and how music can be used as a tool to manage behavior, emotions and stress management.
For sites running enrichment across several campuses, we can do a SEL school tour providing morning and afternoon assemblies at multiple sites within a drive-able radius.Yes, as the engagement component. Attendance is the indicator most responsive to programming students actually want to attend, which is why a school attendance improvement plan built only on notification and consequence tends to stall. Our interactive music school assemblies and Psychological Effects of Music assemblies supplemental books encourage the need for education with increased attendance being the consequence.
Sites also fold it into school climate work, since the two are usually the same effort under different names.
Three things: the Psychological Effects of Music Supplemental Instructional Books, music recording and video production programming, and SEL assembly or keynote sessions. Programs use them separately or together. We are most proud of the fact that we actually get through to what some have named the "worst student". You can hear a pin drop as our assembly delivers aha moments that they haven't thought about before. The Psychological Effects of Music Assembly and books have been called TRANSFORMATIONAL.
Youth prevention programs and alternative education settings typically start with the books or aseembly and add the recording STEM programming once staff have seen how students respond.
Yes. The Psychological Effects of Music interactive School Assembly works in alternative settings, and smaller student bodies are an advantage — the session is participatory, and it lands harder in a room of 60 than a room of 600.
Remember the movie “Lean On Me?” We spoke here and you could hear a pin drop.
Programs searching for motivational speakers for at risk youth usually want someone students will not tune out in the first two minutes. Music does that work before anyone has to say anything.
For students who have been disengaged from school events, an assembly built on music rather than a speaker at a podium is a different proposition.
Yes. We are based in metro Atlanta, so at risk youth programs in Georgia and at risk youth programs Atlanta specifically can get on-site programming without travel costs in the quote.
Outside Georgia we have staff all over the US, so on-site programming is often available without long-distance travel in the quote. Tell us your location.
The SEL Psychological Effects of Music Supplemental Instructional Books, SEL Assemblies, and recording Programs, used as Tier 1 and Tier 2 engagement.
Staff searching for intervention programs for at risk youth, at risk youth interventions, or at risk youth prevention programs are usually looking for something a disengaged student will show up for. We are most proud of the fact that we actually get through to what some have named the "worst student". You can hear a pin drop as our assembly delivers aha moments that they haven't thought about before. The Psychological Effects of Music Assembly and books have been called TRANSFORMATIONAL. At risk youth activities that produce a finished piece hold participation better than discussion-based sessions.
These are engagement Programs. They do not replace case management, counseling, or Tier 3 intervention. We are supplemental in nature.
The teen advanced edition is the piece most alternative programs use. Staff searching for curriculum for at risk youth, at risk youth activities, or at risk youth program ideas usually run into material that is either at the right reading level with juvenile content, or age-appropriate but inaccessible. The teen edition is written to avoid both. We are most proud of the fact that we actually get through to what some have named the "worst student". You can hear a pin drop as our assembly delivers aha moments that they haven't thought about before. The Psychological Effects of Music SEL Assembly and books have been called TRANSFORMATIONAL.
Recording and video production STEM programming is the other half — youth engagement activities ideas that produce something the student owns tend to hold participation better than discussion-based sessions.
Yes. Alternative settings run PBIS harder than most, and culturally responsive PBIS is where the framework meets the actual students in the room.
Ours is the Tier 1 and Tier 2 engagement piece — the part students choose. It does not replace your behavior framework, your matrix, or your data system.
Yes, as the engagement component. A workable dropout prevention plan generally has five parts: indicator thresholds you will act on, a review cadence and team, a tiered response, engagement programming, and measurement. The fourth part is where most plans are thinnest — identification systems are well developed, while the question of what students are actually offered is usually left vague.
Programs searching for dropout prevention programs, dropout prevention strategies, or a dropout prevention plan are almost always trying to fill that gap. Our materials are the engagement offering, not the identification system.
We are a publisher and programming provider rather than one of the dropout prevention organizations that offer case management or wraparound services. If you need those, you need a different partner — we work alongside them.
The teen advanced edition is written for middle and high school interest level without assuming grade-level reading fluency. Programs looking for at risk youth books or books for at risk youth often run into the opposite problem — material at the right reading level that reads as juvenile. The teen edition is built to avoid that.
Tier 1 and Tier 2. It is engagement and skill-building programming, not a substitute for Tier 3 individualized intervention with a student in crisis, and a plan that positions it that way will not hold up under review.
Alternative education enrolls disproportionately Black, Latino, and low-income students, and staff in these settings have usually watched generic material fail in the room. Programs looking for culturally relevant social emotional learning, social emotional learning for black students, or empowering books for black males are responding to something real.
Request a sample and put it in front of two or three of your students. That answers the question better than anything we could assert here — and if it does not land with them, we would rather you know before you order.
Title I, Title IV-A, 21st CCLC, Boost, Supplemental Grants, Arts Funding, SEL grants, SAMHSA grants, county office alternative education funds, and juvenile justice or foster youth allocations, depending on the setting. Each has different allowability rules — confirm the expense fits your specific stream's approved plan.
Yes, and in alternative settings it is often the stronger entry point. Recording and video production connects to identifiable careers in audio engineering, production, and media, which is exactly the engagement recommendation in the What Works Clearinghouse guide on preventing dropout — curricula that connect schoolwork with college and career success while building capacity to manage challenges.
Programs searching for alternative school curriculum materials or dropout prevention programs generally need something a disengaged student will show up for. Studio work is that, and it produces a finished piece the student owns.
Yes and No. We are supplemental and a support to the evidence based work you are already implementing. Not in the registry sense, and it matters that we say so. Administrators looking for a list of evidence based programs for youth are usually working against a funding requirement that names specific registries. We are not on one.
Attendance is the early warning indicator most responsive to engagement, because a student who wants to be somewhere shows up. Research identifies attendance, behavior, and course performance — the ABCs — as the strongest predictors of high school completion, more predictive than demographics or socioeconomic status.
Programming students choose to attend addresses the attendance indicator directly rather than through an intermediate step.
The What Works Clearinghouse practice guide Preventing Dropout in Secondary Schools recommends engaging students by offering curricula and programs that connect schoolwork with college and career success and that improve students' capacity to manage challenges in and out of school.
Music and media production programming addresses both halves of that recommendation: it connects to identifiable careers in audio engineering, production, and media, while the work itself requires collaboration, persistence through revision, and managing frustration.
That is a rationale for including arts programming in an engagement strategy. It is not a claim that any particular program reduces dropout rates.
What we can point to is alignment: the What Works Clearinghouse practice guide on preventing dropout recommends engaging students with curricula that connect schoolwork to college and career success and build capacity to manage challenges. That is a framework alignment, not an efficacy finding. If your funder requires a registry-listed program, we are not it.
No. We send our own staff to run the programming. We do not train your staff to run it.
Recording and production is a skill set, not a procedure. Trying to hand it off in a few hours would be like teaching a doctor to perform surgery in an afternoon — you would get a session that technically happened and a result nobody wants to hear.
Your staff know your students far better than we do, which is why they stay in the room. The technical side is ours.
No. We are supplemental. We do not replace your SEL curriculum, your trauma-informed practice, or any program you already have in place.
If you run a core SEL program, keep it — ours adds a music-based component alongside it. If you have trauma-informed protocols, training, and referral pathways, those stay in force exactly as they are. Nothing in our material substitutes for them, and our facilitators are not a substitute for your clinical, counseling, or behavioral staff.
Your tiered supports, behavior systems, and counseling stay exactly as they are. This is Tier 1 and Tier 2 engagement programming added to them.
45 minutes to 2 hours. Most schools book a class period or 90 minutes.
The 90-minute format is the one we recommend when you have the room. 45 minutes works for a single class period or a tight bell schedule, and 2 hours suits a half-day event, a grade-level rally, or a Black History Month or Red Ribbon Week program.
Tell us your bell schedule and we will fit the session to it rather than asking you to build around us.
How this program runs
Same SIWM work. Built for Alternative School.
Start with the social emotional learning books. Add a keynote. Bring a recording program when you want participants writing and performing — we produce the song and video.
Aligned with objectives and applicable state and local standards, including CASEL’s five SEL competencies; National Core Arts Standards in Music and Media Arts; state ELA writing, speaking, listening and presentation standards; state mathematics standards; state science and engineering standards through the study of sound waves, frequency, amplitude and acoustics; CTE Arts, A/V Technology and Communications; digital and media literacy; STEM/STEAM practices; and college, career and employability skills.
Send a request and tell us this is a Alternative School site.
The Psychological Effects of Music
SEL books & curriculum
SEL books by Ava Johnson plus keynotes for the same rooms.
Ava the Aviator
Keynotes & assemblies
Interactive talks on the science of sound and the psychology of music.
The studio
Recording & music video program
Participants write and perform. We record, produce, and film.