The authors take an historical look at the changes in public education leading to the establishment of alternative education programs to help practitioners understand this fast-growing population. Current legislation (IDEA, 2004; NCLB, 2001) mandates that educators hold all students to the same high academic standards. Administrators and teachers…

Of the 110 public high schools in New York City, 11 are alternative high schools serving students who have been identified as "high risk," particularly dropouts and potential dropouts, as well as students who would benefit from learning environments and options not offered in comprehensive high schools. In 1984, the Curriculum…

This report presents the results of a survey of large school systems conducted between 1977-80. The purpose of the survey was to identify schools with promising programs and developments, especially those with the possibility of system-wide application. A total of 33 public school systems with 599 programs were studied. In the report, research…

In 1981-82, the bilingual program of New York City's Auxilliary Services for High Schools served 1335 out-of-school youth (mostly between the ages of 16-22) from Spanish, Chinese, Greek, Italian, and Haitian backgrounds. The program provided educational and support services to a variety of students including actual or potential dropouts, older…

Magnet school programs require careful planning. Originally designed to achieve voluntary desegregation, magnet programs attract students of all races and backgrounds by offering special curricular themes and instructional approaches not offered in neighborhood schools. Outcomes of a successful program include the following: (1) desegregation; (2)…

This collection of papers examines the current issues in urban education as suggested by on-site studies of programs in sixteen different cities between 1977 and 1980. An overview of the problems in urban education and their causes is presented in the first paper. The second paper discusses program improvement strategies and several examples of…

This report of the first-year operations of project REAL (Relevant Experiences for Alternative Learning), an experience based career education (EBCE) project based on the EBCE model developed by Northwest Regional Educational Laboratories, is presented in four parts. (The three broad characteristics of Project REAL follow: student-centered and…