Teacher preparation programs are geared toward preparing educators for traditional school models, which is reasonable, given that traditional models make up the lion's share of schools, but this means that the pool of talent available to alternative models might be small or nonexistent. If nontraditional schools have to essentially create their…

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)…

First year learning community (LC) freshmen entering as education majors participated in year-long activities related to service learning and leadership development. Activities included fall cohort classes with shared content, a common read, and a spring seminar that included leadership learning, fund raising, and a short-term service project in…

When addressing the ongoing shortage of family and consumer sciences (FCS) teachers, it is important to accommodate those unable to follow a traditional college program. This article describes a program that is beneficial to practicing professionals; it utilizes technology to aid in effective communication and efficiency of content delivery.…

Research examining child-care providers' beliefs and behaviour has produced contradictory evidence perhaps because analyses commonly examine providers as a homogenous group. Among providers in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we used cluster analysis to identify groups based on profiles of beliefs. We found evidence for five…

Teachers have the greatest school-based effect on the achievement of any child in their classrooms, but highly effective principals can positively affect the achievement of every student in their schools. The difference between a highly effective principal and an average one is equal to two-to-seven months of extra learning per year for each child…

This paper examines how two sites of adult learning in the food movement create educational alternatives to the dominant U.S. food system. It further examines how these pedagogies challenge racialised, classed and gendered ideologies and practices in their aims, curricular content, and publically documented educational processes. The first case is…

As the use of online courses in high schools increases rapidly across the United States, schools are using courses from a multitude of sources to achieve a variety of educational goals. Policies and practices for monitoring student progress and success in online courses are also diverse. Yet few states formally track or report student…

"Education Matters" is the monthly newsletter of the Association of American Educators (AAE), an organization dedicated to advancing the American teaching profession through personal growth, professional development, teacher advocacy and protection. This issue of the newsletter includes: (1) The Big Shift: Changing Demographics in the…

The qualitative case study explored teachers' perceptions and attitudes toward counseling services and alternative programs for students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. The study was driven by four research questions that attempt to capture the teachers' attitudes toward and perceptions of counseling for high school students with…

This article describes a school-based youth-driven teen dating violence prevention project. The project objectives are to provide opportunities for students to plan presentations and activities; develop knowledge and awareness about unhealthy gender norms, seen as an important root cause of relationship violence, particularly for teenagers; and…

As an educational media, radio has a long and complex history in the United States, but its most extensive and important use in education took place during the School of the Air (SOA) movement. From approximately 1929 to 1975, commercial broadcast networks, state universities and departments or colleges of education, and local school boards…

This article is based on participant observation, review of documents such as curriculum materials, and interviews with participants associated with Spotted Eagle Alternative High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The school was founded to combat the high dropout rate of American Indian students from mainstream secondary settings and offers a last…

Anthony, a stocky, muscular, young African American man with a smile that exudes warmth and enthusiasm, chose a path taken by far too many of his peers: he became a high school dropout. He started down this path long before he entered his urban high school in Wisconsin in 1997. Throughout his years in school, he had never been pushed to excel, and…

In this paper, principals and other persons of innovating middle schools, junior high schools, and senior high schools associated with the Wisconsin Research and Development Center for Individualized Schooling describe the most interesting features of their schools and respond to a features checklist. They provide the names of contact persons in…