Effective interventions are needed to help alternative high school teachers manage challenging student behaviors. One such intervention, class-wide function-related intervention teams (CW-FIT), is a classroom management program based on positive behavior interventions and supports principles. CW-FIT involves teaching appropriate classroom…

Schools are turning to research-based social emotional learning (SEL) practices to improve student achievement and school progress. Research to support SEL implementation, however, has lagged behind outcomes-based evaluations, often resulting in poor SEL program quality and fidelity. This mixed methods study explores SEL implementation at a…

Blended learning is defined by its combination of traditional face-to-face and online educational resources. It requires that students have some control over some element of time, place, path, or pace of their own learning. In their efforts to improve student outcomes, schools adopt instructional models such as blended learning in their efforts to…

We report findings from a recent field test assessing the feasibility of training teachers in implementing restorative practices within a multi-tiered approach to supporting student behavior. First, we provide an overview of our training content, training delivery, and follow-up coaching. Second, we present overall outcomes from our field test…

The Coordinated School Health (CSH) report describes how the CSH program was implemented at AISD campuses during 2017-2018. The reports provide summary- and campus-level information about achieved CSH action goals and information about changes in physical fitness of students at the campus since the previous year.

California's alternative education options for youth vulnerable to dropping out of school have been established at different historical points and for different student age and target populations. For purposes of this brief, "alternative school" is defined as belonging to one of six legislatively authorized types of public (non-charter)…

This study is a case study of the diffusion of a successful middle college program to an early college high school in a densely populated county in the upper Midwest. The data from interviews with 17 respondents who had been designers or implementers of either the first or the diffused model defined the essential elements of success of the first…

This issue brief is part of a larger study of California continuation high schools begun in 2007. While the first phase of the study examined various alternative education options throughout the state, this second phase focused on 23 higher performing continuation high schools in California selected based on multiple student outcome measures. This…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) alternative educational options. The WCPSS options are similar to those in other North Carolina districts. WCPSS student outcomes based on state assessments and federal standards are also equivalent or higher than other districts, although the capacity for WCPSS…

The Governor's School of North Carolina (West) serves 400 gifted high school students each summer with a curriculum of cognitive development, conceptual development, and personal and social development. This paper describes the theory of the school, student selection, and plans for the future. (JDD)

In 1990, Kent-Meridian High School in Kent, Washington, decided to implement four schools-within-schools, each with its separate academic and career focus. The first school, focusing on the area of health science, was implemented in 1992. A second school-within-the-school, the International Business and Global Studies (IBGS) School, was…

Describes Foxfire, a philosophy of education firmly grounded in principles of democratic, experiential education. Discusses how many who attempted to adopt the approach of the Foxfire books without its founding principles obtained traditional, teacher-oriented results. Describes Foxfire's educational practices and major aspects of the staff's work…

In June 2007, the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) was awarded a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop the College Ready School Diagnostic, a web-based diagnostic instrument. The purpose of this tool is to provide individual school profiles and customized recommendations, enabling each institution to make…

Accounts, in part, for the successful implementation of an alternative "school-without-walls" and provides clues to what program administrators can do to make it more likely that new programs will get fair trials in the schools. (Author/IRT)

Chronically disruptive students are often funneled into "watered-down" alternative schools that warehouse rather than educate them. The Atlantic County (New Jersey) Alternative High School is a successful college-based program that expects referred students to fulfill normal academic requirements while taking tuition-free college…