The Linworth Alternative Program opened in the fall of 1973 as an option for high school students in the Worthington City Schools. The purpose of the program is to more fully engage students in their educations by creating choices and having students make choices, placing the students in situations requiring higher levels of responsibility and having students learn and apply what they have learned through experiential education.

Choices
The scheduling process provides an excellent example of both the flexibility and the options provided to students at Linworth. While our students must meet the graduation requirements established by the state and the district, we nevertheless attempt to create options for students in courses that will lead them to these requirements. Students may have five or six options to choose from in a school year. Students are provided some flexibility in scheduling here. They need to pass two semesters of physical education, which are scheduled during the freshman and junior years at the home schools. They are counseled to schedule these classes early at Linworth, but may put them off until their junior year if their chosen courses of study call for that action. Students also actively help form and build the master schedule each semester through the choices they make.

Each semester, students and faculty come together and build Linworth's course schedule based on student needs and interests. Classes typically meet every other day (we call the alternating days Orange or Blue days). To learn more about scheduling at Linworth, click here.

Responsibility
Responsibility is required to be successful at Linworth, and we provide students with ample opportunities to demonstrate responsibility. We do not have study halls. Time not scheduled in class is considered to be the students' time, which we expect to be used wisely and well. The staff judges this by three questions:

Is the student doing all the work for all classes?
Is the student performing at least at the level expected?
Is the student making some other contribution to the program?

If the answer to each of these is correct, the staff feels the academic and social commitment is being met. Town Meeting (our school government), social responsibility to Linworth, the larger community and the proper use of Sign Out are examples of student responsibility expected of those attending Linworth.

Town meetings are held in the "Big Room" - a gathering place at Linworth. Students and faculty vote on school policies and discipline arrangements for the school year. Policies of the school are enforced by Fairness Committee - a judicial system that students and staff can use to settle conflicts between any two parties. Click here to learn more about Fairness Committee.

Experiential Education
Experiential Education allows students to test what they have learned in real settings and to learn how to learn from the experiences they have. Students are expected to perform 20 hours of community service each year they are at Linworth. These hours can be in the school or in the larger community in programs that currently exist or opportunities created by the students. Interim is a week-long, pre approved independent study for our freshmen, sophomores and juniors. Students use Interim to explore careers, interests or academic pursuits in ways that they could not work in a normal classroom setting. Walkabout, for our second semester seniors, consists of two nine-week placements where students complete their high school education in real world settings. While not funded by the district, students may go out of town, out of state or out of the country for Walkabout if suitable placements and housing can be found. Walkabout calls on students to reflect on what they know, what they are learning, and what they need to know to move forward after high school. In addition to the time at the placement site, it requires extensive journal writing and a weekly seminar for those students in central Ohio.

As a program available to students of Thomas Worthington and Worthington Kilbourne High Schools, we are not a separately chartered program and therefore do not grant diplomas. Students attending Linworth effectively have dual citizenship; they are students of Linworth and also students of their home schools. In addition to all opportunities we create at the AP, students also are eligible to participate in all co-curricular activities at their home schools, including all athletic teams, music and theater programs and student government.

The curriculum at Linworth includes course work in the areas of English, math, science, social studies, health, and physical education. For courses outside these subject areas and for specific classes not offered in these subject areas, students are scheduled into classes at their home schools. The district provides transportation for these classes.