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Introduction

Rural or urban, rich or poor, culturally diverse or homogeneous, all public schools and districts face the challenge of trying to educate students who for one reason or another don't thrive in the usual school environment. School psychologists or counselors may be called in to evaluate the situation, conferences with the parents sought, behavior management contracts drawn up, all to no avail—the student is at risk of failing. With many other options exhausted, this is a common scenario under which the school, parents, or students themselves may seek placement in an alternative school.

Alternative school is a term with many definitions in today's education literature. Some definitions are broad: "About all that alternative schools have in common is that their programs are somehow different from the curriculum followed by the large majority of the community's students," (Gold & Mann, 1984) or "[A]n alternative school simply is a school accessible by choice, not assignment" (Gold & Mann, 1984 quoting Daniel Duke, 1978). Alternative schools in a broad sense are an integral part of the way the education system has evolved in the United States: "Early in our history we recognized that the needs of a few often mirror the needs of the many. From the establishment of Harvard College in 1636 [originally intended for the education of Puritan ministers] to the magnet schools of today, American education is the collective result of countless alternative school programs" (Garrison, 1987). In our very diverse society, having numerous alternatives appears to be essential to the health of our education system.

For the purpose of this booklet, the term alternative school is used in a more narrow way to denote schools or programs targeting students who are unsuccessful in the traditional school environment (Knutson, 1995-96, and Education Week Glossary of Terms on the Web). The schools discussed here often see their mission as dropout prevention. Their students may have been behind in credits, truant, exhibiting behavioral problems, pregnant or parenting, learning disabled, in the court system, homeless, having family problems, or experiencing other obstacles to learning. Though broader definitions of alternative schools often encompass magnet and charter schools, or voucher programs, it is not the intent of this booklet to examine these or other issues of school choice.

In one sense, the need for alternative schools reflects the success of the school system in enrolling a growing proportion of school-aged youth. "[M]any young people remain in school today who in the past would have 'adjusted' to the educational system by leaving it. . . . [L]aw and practice have recently made it more difficult for these young people to drop out when they want to; or for educators to exclude them when they want to. It has become more incumbent upon the public schools to educate all children as much as reasonably possible regardless of the mutual unsuitability of the students and mainstream conventional schooling" (Gold & Mann, 1984).

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© 2001 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

Date of Last Update: 09/19/2001
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