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 Oakwood Yesterday
Cobb County
School District opened its alternative program school in 1978 when Kenwood High
School was formed with the philosophy of helping students mature into adulthood.
Starting with a modest five teachers and approximately forty students,
the program was created to provide an optional learning environment for students
who were on the verge of dropping out of high school.
The concept grew and in March 1985 the school was renamed Oakwood High
School and relocated to the campus of the original Osborne High School on Joyner
Avenue in Marietta.
From 1985 to 2010, Oakwood High School was
committed to being the “First Choice for Second Chances” to the students of Cobb
County. Over that time period, the school
offered traditional instruction in an open campus alternative setting to
thousands of Cobb students who found “home” on a smaller and more intimate
campus. Staying true to the original
mission of Kenwood, Oakwood grew to the point that it served up to 500 students
at a time and assisted approximately 180 students in earning their diploma each
year.
 Oakwood Today
In the fall
of 2010, Oakwood High School campus made another significant transition when it
was transformed into Oakwood High School:
Digital Academy. While the
goal of giving students a choice of an alternative setting remains the same, the
conversion to the Digital Academy provided a true alternative in instructional
format by creating a blended learning environment that allows students to work
at their own pace. The
instructional format blends on-line learning with small group instruction and
one-to-one tutoring allowing the teachers at the Digital Academy to create
Learning Plans that are customize to the specific needs of each learner.
In addition
to the Digital Academy, the Oakwood campus also houses the Cobb Performance
Learning Center (PLC), a program that combines service to a blended learning
environment. Together, the Digital
Academy and PLC provide instruction in an alternative setting and format to
approximately 300 Cobb County high school students each day.
There are currently two other Cobb County programs that operate on the
Oakwood campus, making it a truly multi-purpose campus.
Oakwood is the home base to the International Welcome Center which serves
the district’s families whose first language is not English.
The campus also houses two computer labs that are used for the Cobb
Virtual Academy, which provides students opportunities to earn credit on-line
while remaining enrolled at their home school.
If the past is any predictor of the future, it is
clear that the Oakwood campus will continue to reinvent itself as necessary to
meet the needs of Cobb County students.
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