The development of optional alternative public schools is based on four simple concepts: (1) in a democratic society people should have choices about all important aspects of their lives; (2) different people learn in different ways; (3) learning in schools should not be isolated from the world outside the schools; (4) those closest to the action,…

Putting the "reconceptualist approach" into its setting in curriculum theorizing raises fresh questions about its meaning in relation to other modes of curriculum theorizing. The human process of expanding awareness and concern underlies the call for reconceptualization. Discussion of "hidden curricula" and of reformist efforts…

The author devoted a sabbatical leave to visiting publicly supported alternative high schools in Canada and the United States. This booklet contains his reflections on his experiences. He identifies various types of alternative schools and the specific students for whom they are designed, discusses the qualities a person needs if he is to be an…

In this presentation the author paints a conceptual portrait of his evolving relationships to his formal studies and thereby describes a method by which educators can reconceptualize the meaning of curriculum. By taking oneself and one's existential experience as a data source and using the psychoanalytical technique of free association, one can…

A minicourse is any educational experience that involves a detailed and indepth study of a specific unit or subject, jointly planned by student and teacher, and for which less than a semester of time is used. Minicourses at Los Alamos High School, Los Alamos, New Mexico, are a part of their total packet of educational innovations, including open…

Case studies describe attempts to develop educational forms that are personally, intellectually, and socially valid in two Massachusetts elementary schools--the Charles River School, a small private school in Dover; and the Parmenter School, a public school. Both schools have tried to reorient the first six or seven years of formal education along…

In this book a task force of art specialists report on art education as integral to a total school program. Emphasizing the need for art education to play a more dominant role in the education of all students, the three chapters discuss and examine problems and the direction of quality art education in high schools. Chapter one discusses art and…

This report was prepared in conjunction with the application for accreditation status of the Chicago City-Wide Institute (CCWI) as a unit of the City Colleges of Chicago System. CCWI is an innovative, non-traditional, community-service oriented college, operating as a college without walls in cooperation with other units of the Chicago system. Its…

Simulating Alternative Futures in Education (SAFE) is a simulation game dealing with the future of education from 1975 to 2024 and beyond. It is computerized on an APL direct-interaction system and can be played at any location over telephone lines. It takes approximately 1.8 hours of computer time to play, with 5 to 9 hours of preparation, and…

The result of a five year project on alternative schools within the public school system of Minneapolis, Minnesota, this report provides a complete description of the project from the pre-planning and proposal stage through the final evaluation. The program was implemented in the Southeast area, a community consisting of several communities with…

The back-to-basics movement in part has resulted from public alarm over the increase in functional illiteracy--students' inability to solve everyday problems requiring basic language and mathematics skills. Although not all its adherents are politically and educationally conservative, those who support fundamentalist schools certainly are. These…

This publication is the second product of a three-part study funded by the Connecticut State Board of Education pertaining to the operation of educational service centers. This booklet is designed to give the citizens of the state an insight into the development of an educational enterprise that delivers to the school districts and children many…

The emerging educational brokering service, functioning between adult learners and educational resources, aims to help them find their way into formal postsecondary education via counseling, advocacy, assessment and referral services. This monograph presents nine major issues concerning the educational brokering service: (1) definition and…

While the virtues of three educational alternatives for Native American studies are discussed, a case is made for a Native American Studies Center, a research center or institute to explore the ways and means of developing a Native American studies program for higher education. (JC)

New pressures on accreditation and the unique factors that are the foundation of its continuing value to postsecondary education are addressed. The expanding variety of institutions to be accredited, government regulation, state authorization, legal sanctions, and self-regulation are also discussed. (Author/LBH)