Program May Be The Missing Link For Freshman Success Ferris Borrows New Method Of Tracking Students In First Year Of High School

A new program at Ferris High School promises to calm the butterflies in freshman stomachs today and help ease their transition through the next year.

The program, called Link Crew, is mandatory for all 490 freshmen. Groups, or crews, of seven to nine freshmen are matched with two upperclassmen who are responsible for helping their crew adjust to Ferris life.

“The cornerstone of Link Crew is to break down all barriers,” said Principal Jon Bentz, “and to make students feel comfortable, feel that they are a part of the program, that they have a sense of ownership of the school.”

The Link Crew program actually started well before the first day of school. Crew leaders called their freshmen a week before orientation to invite them and tell them what to expect.

At Monday’s orientation, crews attended together and student leaders were in charge much of the day. Principal and teacher rah-rah speeches were kept to a minimum - students find this boring, they say - in favor of a variety of fun activities that got students acquainted with the school, teachers and each other.

The crews will meet at least once a week for the rest of the year.

“It’s a good start,” said Nancy Hough, Ferris teacher and Link Crew coordinator.

Many at the school, from administrators and teachers to students, say that the climate at the school isn’t too bad. New students are for the most part welcome and rarely picked on. But with the traditional model of orientation that Ferris has used, new students do not have a chance to connect with older student and teachers. They can feel isolated and lonely, students and teachers say.

Hough and the other two coordinators - teachers Shawn Mitchell and Todd Bender - say more than 200 students volunteered last year to be leaders. Out of those, they selected 130.

“It’s a program that we should have started forever ago,” said Alison Yake, a senior. Yake is part of the program’s Alert team, seniors who work with freshman and Link leaders to deal with minor infractions of school policy, such as inappropriate language, forgetting books or not doing homework.

She said that as a freshman she transitioned well into Ferris, but the Link Crew program would have helped her make the transition quicker.

“If freshmen are guided through school, it will be easier for them,” she said.

Yake and the other upperclassmen benefit, too, said Bender, by gaining mentoring and leadership experience.

The Link Crew concept was developed by Phil Boyte in 1988. An education consultant living in California, Boyte conducts seminars throughout the country. He says that over 40 schools in Washington, and 300 total in the U.S. and Canada, use his program.

Boyte said that the fundamental concept of Link Crew, creating a culture of inclusiveness, is key to alleviating many of the problems poor students have - bad grades, tardiness, absenteeism or dropping out.

“The average drop out decides in the first two weeks that, `Hey, this place is not for me,”’ he said.

By creating an accepting and positive culture at school, those kids are more likely to stay and do well, he said.

In fact, Columbine High School - where two disenfranchised students killed 13 people last spring - is using the program for the first time this year.

The program has been extensively adopted in California, where educators report tremendous success.

Ferris principal Bentz is both optimistic and realistic about what Link Crew can do.

“We know it’s in its infancy. We will have to mold and massage as we go,” he said.

The expectation, too, is that the program won’t change the school climate overnight. It could take more than two years to see significant statistical improvements in grades and other areas, Boyte said. However, the program will have immediate effects on how students feel about their school, he said.