The author teaches in an alternative school in Boston Public Schools and works with students who had dropped out, transferred, or been expelled from their previous schools. Many of her students struggled with reading complex texts and had never learned how to make and defend an argument through their writing. She was determined that they would…

The focus of this research is to understand how to engage at risk students at a continuation high school in mastering mathematics. These students typically fail math classes, and, as a result, are unmotivated to attempt to learn principles of mathematics. The purpose of the study is to develop strategies that build their understanding of Algebra…

This article examines the work of three urban youths as they designed and taught a social justice class at an urban continuation high school in California, USA. Drawing from a two-year ethnographic study of the project, it shows that youth participants constructed a set of imagined binaries to frame teachers, schoolwork and coercion "in…

Mandated as an option for students who have not been successful in traditional programs, continuation education provides as alternative setting that helps students meet graduation requirements and earn their high school diplomas. Continuation high schools are quite successful in helping their students. This is due to their small size (usually 20:1…

Continuation schools were developed to enable students to continue earning a high school diploma while they worked, often full time, to support themselves and their families. Traditionally, continuation schools were home to poor teachers, narrowed curriculum and an unwelcoming culture. Intuitively, students attending today's continuation schools…