Little is known about the long-term outcomes of students who attend alternative provision (AP) settings. This study set out to analyse data published by the Department for Education which presents long-term education and employment outcomes for school pupils in England. After making comparisons by type of setting at the national level, this…

Martial arts and combat sports (MA&CS) are lifelong nontraditional activities seldom available for youth in school settings. Research has found that MA&CS can promote a variety of benefits to youth with novel experiences that promote nonviolent, psychological, affective, cognitive, and physical outcomes. Objective: The objective of this…

This study looked to explore the access to academic social capital for those who have considering dropping out. The research utilized social network analysis, specifically ego networks, to explore how four individuals from an alternative school perceived their own social networks. Name generators, name interpreters, and name interrelators were…

Post-pandemic, many universities are seeking ways to better engage students and support them to stay with and succeed in their studies. Immersive scheduling, whereby students complete units over shorter time periods than the traditional 12-15 week semester or trimester, may be a way to do this and improve academic outcomes at scale. This paper…

Alternative education can provide a pathway to success for students who require a nontraditional approach. Alternative education is neither general education nor special education; rather, it is a setting or program where instruction is provided outside of the traditional school setting, with modifications made to class size, school day and/or…

Although most students experience relative success at school, there remains a population of educationally marginalised learners within educational settings, indicating that mainstream schools are challenged to appropriately meet the diverse needs of every student. Designed to support students on the cusp of school disengagement, alternative…

The need for new and innovative alternatives to traditional high schools has never been greater. Alternative schools operate today as a secret, hidden educational system, often providing much needed support for at-risk students. These schools often have little to no accountability for student achievement. Enrollment at alternative schools is…

Disengagement from education is frequently reported as a reflection of persistent patterns of inequality. This research prioritized student voice to understand the experiences of young people who had disengaged from mainstream education. The current research aimed to understand why students enter a flexible learning programme, and explore how…

The problem addressed within this study was the limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of various alternative high school settings to provide high school students with the opportunity to improve their credit attainment rate through the focus on student engagement. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative and correlational study…

Postsecondary education leaders are eager for reliable data to strategically plan for the next year through the next decade, and WICHE's projections of high school graduates are among the most relied upon sources. As WICHE has reported several times since the pandemic began, the disruption to student populations was illustrated with the shift of…

Women who have children during high school are at-risk for poor educational and economic outcomes. Literature lacks information regarding college readiness among pregnant and mothering teens (PMTs) who graduated from alternative education (AE) programs. Teen mothers who receive college preparation in high school may go on to earn degrees,…

This study examined ways in which participation in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) influenced aspects of learners' achievement motivation and decisions to enroll in a master's degree program by offering low-cost and low-commitment ways to sample the learning experience. Participants in this study (n = 197) were enrolled in two MOOC courses…

Contextual definitions of success are situated within specific schools and informal learning environments and, within those situated contexts, impact the identities that youth develop. This article explores what it means to be successful outside of mainstream education and the resources youth use to reorient to alternative definitions of success,…

Utilizing the Symbolic Cultural Theory as espoused by Deal and Kennedy (1982), Deal and Peterson (1999, 2016), Bolman and Deal (2003, 2013) and Harris (2005, 2015), this qualitative study explored how cultural symbols support academic and social needs of at-risk students in a selected alternative education setting. The study focused on the…

Most school districts across the country continue to research how to help their students become better prepared to enter the workforce and higher education. As a result, the extent to which dynamic teaching techniques affect the success of classroom-taught material currently is not known. Much of the current literature reveals studies on teaching…