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Women In History: Virginia Roth – Innovative Educator, Barbara Shousha

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

“There has to be a better way.” In 1964, Virginia Roth, then known as Sr. Pacis principal at Ryan High School in Omaha, Nebraska, set out to devise a new system of education. Her goal, as expressed in her essay, “A Model for an Alternate High School” was to, “realize those objectives we defined as essential for education.” The “we” referred to the School Sisters of St. Francis, the religious order to which she belonged at that time. Roth described the period from 1964 to 1966 as a “two year experimentation program of brainstorming, trying new methods, committee work for …