The book addresses issues in meeting the educational needs of disruptive students. In the introduction, R. Sarri examines the rise of alternative schools and discusses common elements in their design and operation. D. Sabatino follows with "Issues and Concerns: Problems with Alternative Schools," in which he examines the particular difficulties…

Homeschooling has grown over the past several decades. It is estimated that 923,700 to 1,275,098 children will be homeschooled by the 2001-02 school year. Homeschooling families come from all major ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds and all income levels. Homeschooling parents are commonly active in their communities and join community…

This article examines so-called "alternative schools," taking care to define precisely what is meant by this designation. There are many types of alternative education available to the public, including those programs intended for special-education students, advanced-placement students, and home-schooled children. The first alternative schools…

As more and more agencies are moving toward supplying career information on the World Wide Web, it has become apparent that pre-service counselor education career development courses need to become electronically enhanced. Once this enhancement of face-to-face instruction occurs, it is tempting to move to the delivery of courses through distance…

Alternative teacher certification is defined as any significant departure from the traditional undergraduate route through teacher education programs in universities and colleges. An overview is presented of some specific alternative certification programs, and raises questions useful for evaluating alternative certification programs. A…

This article looks at a rapidly growing form of distance education: virtual schools. Also known as cyber schools, these Internet-based programs enroll fewer than 50,000 students nationwide, but more and more companies are entering this market. Some examples of these virtual schools are the Willoway CyberSchool, which was founded by a former…

This document looks at the increasing popularity of charter schools for intradistrict school choice. During 2000, about 1,700 charter schools were serving some 250,000 students in the United States. Charter schools typically begin as preexisting schools or as "startups" born with charters. States seem to have ambivalent attitudes toward charter…

This report discusses homeschooling as an option for parents looking for educational choice. Keeping track of homeschoolers is difficult since many return to the public schools. Some estimates claim that in the late 1960s there were 10,000 to 15,000 homeschooled children in the U.S. By 1999, those who were homeschooled ranged in numbers from…

Cites documents in the ERIC junior colleges collection dealing with a community-based approach to the administration of adult education; the "one-college" concept; community college relationships with industry; learning centers; developing and implementing continuing education programs for elderly homebound; and nontraditional delivery systems for…

This Digest discusses engagement in alternative preparation to acquire a license to teach in U.S. public schools. Prospective teachers seek alternative programs for many reasons, including job change due to forced retirement or lack of interest; desire to contribute to society's wellbeing; and desire to use teaching skills learned elsewhere.…

This handbook examines practices and issues involved in the implementation of multiage programs. Data were collected through site visits at four schools with reputations for excellent multiage programs; interviews with a representative sample of parents and teachers at each school; document analysis; a survey of multiage teachers, parents, and…

This paper describes magnet schools as thematic islands of choice within a traditional district-assignment plan. These "islands of choice" are currently the most popular destination with those who exercise some choice in where they send their children to school. During the 1991-92 school year, 3,200 magnet schools were in operation, hosting some…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional strategy for preparing administrators whose basic unit of instruction is a project. Students are organized into teams and work on these projects to grapple with the problem and to achieve the learning objectives that are embedded in the project. In this PBL project, students design and prepare a…

Cites ERIC documents describing the community education and development programs of two-year colleges. Documents cover building a neighborhood coalition, an approach to marketing vocational programs, community education and development, and educational alternatives. (DMM)

This digest highlights some of the findings of the largest study of home schooling conducted to date (L. Rudner, 1999). For this study, 20,760 students in 11,930 families provided useable questionnaires and corresponding achievement test data. Home schooling parents had more formal education than parents in the general population, and many had…