Reviews current efforts in the movement for providing parents and students school selection choices. Benefits resulting from school choice include: dropout reduction, increased achievement, more parental involvement, racial integration, and improved morale. Outlines the features of a desirable choice plan and the prospects for development of…

In spite of a widespread commitment to the comprehensive high school, the nation has long had specialty or theme schools and schools that target particular children. Magnet schools, alternative schools, and Catholic schools illustrate that the idea of specialized schools is not new. Recently, the concept has received a boost from a study by the…

This report contains research findings on student achievement and retention at New York City alternative high schools serving dropouts and potential dropouts. After a summary and introduction, statistics are presented which reveal that alternative schools facilitate positive changes in student performance. Next, reasons for students' dropping out…

Intensive education is an alternative educational approach in which students study one or two subjects a day for a concentrated number of weeks. This report considers whether intensive study is a valid alternative to the traditional class schedule and discusses the strengths, values, and problems of intensive education. Data sources for the report…

This report examines experience of Moorhead State University (Minnesota) in attracting and retaining nontraditional, high-risk students through an alternative program called The New Center for Multidisciplinary Studies. The program's two-tier admission system represents an open-access concept offering an alternative way to begin college for…

The first year's observations of projects funded by the Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting in its New Pathways to a Degree project are summarized. The project was designed to help colleges use technologies to develop academic degree programs that are accessible to the new majority of learners, those who have jobs, home responsibilities,…

Increasingly, educators are being challenged to find meaningful ways to meet the needs of nontraditional college students. A transdisciplinary model is useful in meeting these needs, in that it focuses on the individual and is characterized by a sharing of information and skills across traditional disciplinary boundaries. This model was conceived…

In the fall of 1985, 10 academy programs were established by the State of California as replications of the Peninsula Academies already operating in a local school district for four years. An academy is a modified high school program with the following specific elements, among others: (1) students with academic potential who are at risk of…

The Peninsula Academies is a three-year high school program for at-risk students, designed to provide them with incentives both to graduate and to acquire labor market-relevant skills. An academy combines academic and technical training in a school-within-a-school setting, and is based on school-business partnerships. In the fall of 1985, 10…

This paper discusses alternative schools that serve students with special needs. The evolution of alternative education is outlined and several kinds of alternatives are discussed: schools for the gifted, the vocationally-oriented, and the disruptive, and multiethnic and basic skills programs. Alternative schools for problem students appear to be…

This manual is a collection of reports of library research, classroom research, and classroom experience of teachers of bilingual education and English as a Second Language. The guide is intended as an aid to teachers and administrators, who are encouraged to use and adapt the ideas for their own students. The essays include the following:…

A study examined current research on the proficiency of vocational students in basic skill areas and explored current practices for improving the basic skills of vocational students at the secondary and postsecondary levels. Based on current research, vocational students, on an average, seemed to be less proficient in basic skills than were their…

A third-party evaluation was conducted of the first year of the Building Experience-Based Career Education project (BEBCE). BEBCE is a planned adaptation of the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory model (NWREL) to meet the needs of students in Philadelphia and to assist high school students in successful transition to adulthood. Career…

A third-party evaluation was conducted of the first year of the Exploring Careers through Experiential Learning project (ExCEL). ExCEL is a planned adaptation of the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory model (NWREL) to meet the needs of students in Prince William County, Virginia, and to assist high school students in successful transition to…

Replicating the Appalachia Educational Laboratory's (AEL) experience-based career education (EBCE) model, this project had as its objectives increasing students' basic, career awareness, and life skills; developing in students awareness of their abilities, interests, and aptitudes; developing positive student, parent, and community attitudes;…