With more than 10% of all high school age students taking classes at a continuation school at some point in their high school career, this normally forgotten alternative learning environment is one that serves many of our most historically marginalized student groups: Black, Latinx, those with learning differences, and English Learners (Ruiz de…

Continuation high schools and the students they serve are often invisible and ignored to most Californians. However, state school authorities estimate that over 115,000 California high school students will pass through one of the state's 519 continuation high schools each year, to either graduate with a diploma, or to drop out of school altogether…

The history of grading practices is riddled with inequities, dating to the inception of the traditional grading system, which was designed to rank and sort. Despite expanding public education to include all members of society, traditional grading practices have yet to evolve in response to the growing demand for equitable and student-centered…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the perspectives on engagement of students who had passed Model School Math (Integrated Math 1 or Algebra 1) and graduated within the years 2015 to 2019 from a Model Continuation High School in California. This study sought to discover the strategies, policies, and procedures which best…

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore educators' perceptions of the effectiveness of the PBIS framework in changing student behavior outcomes in a continuation high school setting. Theoretical Framework: Behaviorism is one of the main theories that encapsulates the PBIS framework. However, born out of behaviorism is…

Prior research on student voice shows that when adults genuinely listen to and value student input, students are more likely to feel they belong and can learn in their educational setting. Given this, the purpose of this research study was to evaluate if previously disenfranchised students would develop a greater sense of agency, academic identity…

In California, dual enrollment refers to any high school student who enrolls in two systems at the same time, most commonly a community college and a high school--this student is thus concurrently enrolled in both high school and college. Students may receive credit from both systems for select courses. California Assembly Bill 288 (AB 288)…

Every year, continuation high schools in California serve more than 60,000 students who are in danger of not earning their high school diploma. Students attending continuation high schools have been labeled at-risk for myriad reasons including, credit deficiency, truancy, behavior and emotional issues, teen pregnancy, substance and alcohol abuse,…

Youth of Color sit at the intersection of multiple systems of oppression--classism, racism, and sexism. Too often, Youth of Color are pushed out of traditional schools and are further marginalized by being assigned to alternative education programs, including continuation high schools. To address a recurring issue of dynamic inequality in which…

The purpose of this study is to examine the effective leadership qualities and practices of principals from successful alternative school settings that are recognized as California Model Continuation High Schools (MCHS), based on Transformational Leadership Theory. The research questions that guided this study are the following: (1) Through the…

The objective of this study was to generate principal and teacher descriptions of what constitutes a teacher's "special fitness to perform" in a public urban continuation high school with a concentration of at-risk students. The sample included 6 continuation principals and 15 continuation teachers from a large urban school district in…

This study, "A Critical Examination of the Process of Modifying the Curriculum of Alternative Secondary Educational Programs," was done with the use of action research to study (a) whether students currently participating in a continuation school believe their educational and career needs are presently being met; (b) the types of career…

Options are limited to gaining a high school equivalency for dropouts. The General Education Development (GED) exam provides people who have left school one way of gaining their secondary school credential. Employing the use of in-depth interviews, auto-ethnography, and participant observation, this study reports the descriptive findings of twelve…

Nurse education programs are implementing standardized assessments without evaluating their effectiveness. Graduates of associate degree nursing programs continue to be unsuccessful with licensure examinations, despite standardized testing and stronger admission criteria. This problem is also prevalent for LPN-to-RN education programs due to a…

The purpose of study was to examine the attributes of teachers of urban continuation high schools in Los Angeles Unified School District. The research questions were: 1. What are the attributes of veteran teachers and new teachers as prepared to teach at-risk students in alternative high schools? and 2. How do alternative high school teachers…