Michael Martins is the sort of kid who might burst into song any moment. His fascination with old movies and Broadway musicals inspired his friends to nickname him “Broadway” or “Mr. Way.” As his father put it, “Michael’s a different kind of kid. He doesn’t do what other teens do. He doesn’t get Adam Sandler [a raunchy comedian]. At his Eagle Scout presentation, Michael talked about the road less traveled.”

In short, he’s an alternative kid, an oddball. He wasn’t destined to fit in well at one of Rhode Island’s one-size-fits-all high schools, with, as Michael’s dad said, “All those jocks and kids whose criteria for success is to get the job and make a lot of money.”

After suffering through his public middle school, Michael eyed the suburban community’s only high school with anxiety. “I wasn’t too thrilled about going there. I knew I would be bullied.” Fortunately he found the BEACON Charter School for the Arts, in Woonsocket, and “Right off the bat, I was accepted.”

Michael graduated last week. In the fall he will enter Rhode Island College, where he’ll major in theater. He believes he could have toughed out the district high school to graduation, but not happily.

James Galvin, also a new graduate, had already dropped out of his district’s high school, in another Rhode Island suburb. “I just quit going because I hated it so much. But I found BEACON online. From the first day, everyone was welcoming. It’s brought back my love for visual arts.”

Not long ago I talked with a group of BEACON students, including these two, about why they chose the school. The group looked like classic art students, with unnatural hair colors and artfully torn clothes. Not surprisingly, all of them were “alternative” kids, for one reason or another. Most of them had been the arty oddball who was not thriving. Several had transferred mid-high school from an unloved school in their home district.

The kids said such things as: “My high school was like a jail. I couldn’t do anything right.”

“My high school was cutting down on art curriculum, and art was my escape from family drama.”

“As a female in [her suburb], if you’re not a whore or pencil thin, you’re not popular. I’m overweight.”

And one boy summed up the sentiments of several when he said, “During my whole school life, I was the hated one. Until I came here.”

Oddball kids are prime targets for bullying. Big, anonymous schools don’t help them out. Over and over again, the kids gratefully described BEACON as “welcoming.”

Some BEACON students have monster commutes from distant towns, but never miss school if they can help it.

In a phone conversation, Samantha Watier, this year’s valedictorian, estimated that about half of her classmates have talked to her about dropping out if they’d had to stay at their old high school.

But BEACON doesn’t win them all. Of 33 students in this class, 30 graduated. Even so, BEACON lowers other community’s drop-out rates, however modestly. So does the tiny handful of other small, alternative high schools, the Met, Textron, Laborers, Blackstone and Times{+2} — the only other available options for public school students.

Recently, Education Week reported the latest graduation rates for all states. These rates are historic, because for the first time every state used the same calculation method, making true comparisons possible. The standard is rigorous. So, for example, students who get a Graduate Equivalency Diploma (GED) are counted as dropouts, which is right. Schools shouldn’t get credit for shuttling students to less valuable programs or alienating them in the first place. (See: www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2008/06/05/index.html)

The nation’s average graduation rate is 70.6 percent. Rhode Island is right about average, at 71.1 percent. Interestingly, Massachusetts, considered to be the most educationally effective state, graduates only 74.7 percent of its students. New Jersey is the nation’s leader at 83.3 percent. Nevada brings up the rear at 45.4.

That 3.5-point difference between Massachusetts and Rhode Island might well be explained by Massachusetts’ more generous array of school options for its students. Massachusetts offers more charter and alternative schools, and in certain areas, students can attend schools outside their home districts. It stands to reason that when more kids can find a good school that fits them, their odds of graduating would increase.

Rhode Island desperately needs more school options for all kinds of students, not just the arty kids. Blackstone Academy Charter High School has 200 students on its waiting list. To my mind, that’s 200 potential dropouts looking for a better fit.

Rhode Island’s state legislature should do two things right away to increase options for families. It should encourage more charter schools by letting the moratorium on new charters expire. For years that moratorium has only protected the interests of ineffective district schools. And the legislature should allow “open enrollment,” whereby students can attend any public school in the state, if there is room at the desired school. More options won’t completely solve Rhode Island’s education problems, but they would surely help.

The state has the power to help far more kids feel welcome, and improve its graduation rate to boot. Encourage your legislators to act now.

Julia Steiny, a former member of the Providence School Board, consults for government agencies and schools; she is co-director of Information Works!, Rhode Island’s school-accountability project. She can be reached at juliasteiny@cox.net , or c/o EdWatch, The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902.