This study was presented at the American Educational Research Association 2012 conference in Vancouver, Canada. The study explored how action research of arts-based teaching (ABT) impacted at-risk students in three urban public schools in southern California, USA. ABT was defined as using arts, music, drama, and dance in teaching other subjects. A…

The purpose of this article is to review a partnership between a teacher education department and a dropout prevention program. The partnership developed from a variety of communities' needs, no less of which was that of reconnecting marginalized youth at a local dropout prevention school with their community through cultural and civic…

A project to develop a school within a school at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf is described. It is explained that 20 students were scheduled for the minischool for 14 to 17 hours per week of flexible grouping according to needs and styles of learning. Interdisciplinary teaming formed the backbone of the program. Five chapters concentrate…

"Middle College High Schools" are alternative high schools located on college campuses that aim to help at-risk students complete high school and encourage them to attend college. The schools offer a project-centered, interdisciplinary curriculum, with an emphasis on team teaching, individualized attention, and development of critical…

Phoenix, Arizona, has experienced the impact of a nationwide trend toward an increased teenage birthrate, with nearly 1,500 births to teenage mothers in 1980. To serve the special needs of teenage mothers, the Phoenix Union High School offers an alternative education program, Cyesis, for pregnant and parenting teens. Data from the center's…

What does a student achieve and learn by the time he or she graduates from high school? How are various schools educating and evaluating students in their final year of school? Interdisciplinary senior courses at Phillips Exeter Academy encourage students to exercise their analytical, interpretative, and decision-making skills; to define their own…

This report examines experience of Moorhead State University (Minnesota) in attracting and retaining nontraditional, high-risk students through an alternative program called The New Center for Multidisciplinary Studies. The program's two-tier admission system represents an open-access concept offering an alternative way to begin college for…

Workshops and presentations in this volume are as follows: "Learning the Language of Learning" (Firestone); "Self-Study Examination Program of Higher Education for Adults in China" (Wang, Smith); "Using the Principles and Process of Adult Learning to Develop an Award Level Program for the Education of Adult Educators: An…