A guide to granting undergraduate college credit for knowledge and skills obtained by students outside the classroom, the book describes useful techniques, examines programs nationwide, identifies major obstacles to implementation, and proposes solutions. Material for the book was gathered mainly from interviews with faculty/administrators and…

When parents in Cupertino, California, became dissatisfied with the nontraditional, unstructured education offered in their district's elementary schools, they created the Academics-Plus alternative program. This account of the history of the 3-year-old A+ alternative school is written by one of its original promoters. The elementary level A+…

Investigation of the effect of a task-oriented learning group approach to writing on attitude and skill improvement, as compared to a traditional one-teacher, whole-class design, was the purpose of this study. Fifty high school English students were administered baseline tests of writing skill. An IQ score was also obtained, and the subjects were…

This paper investigates the claim that better curriculum planning will be achieved if educators specify educational objectives before selecting learning activities. After consideration of what is meant by "better planning," the author concludes that this claim for planning by objectives is not valid since an objective can neither be a…

A summative evaluation study of six experimental school library media education programs was conducted as the final phase of the School Library Manpower Project. The six programs consisted of one bachelor's level program, four master's level programs, and one sixth-year program. Data for the study was obtained from program directors, students…

Traditional models for curriculum theory describe human development as a sum of its parts, organized in a hierarchy leading to operational competencies. The reconceptualist Currere model, originated by William Penar, develops horizontally with energy and learning moving outward and inward rather than upward in a linear trajectory. Educational…

The Oregon competency-based graduation requirements--survival competencies--are motivated not so much by public demands for accountability in the normal sense of improved "efficiency" as by the desire to bring about a greater range of alternative learning settings and experiences. There are two sets of research and development questions…

The revised Oregon high school graduation requirements, adopted in 1972, are an attempt to respond to attacks on the schools and to clarify the purposes of schooling. The uniqueness of the Oregon approach lies in the mechanism for bringing about change in the schools--a radically revised set of requirements for high school graduation. The focus of…

This document has four parts. Part 1 defines free universities, describes the origins of the free universities of the 70's, breaks down current free universities into three kinds, and ends with a chapter on teacher-learning processes. Part 2 contains quantitative information - numbers, age, location, enrollments, and funding. Part 3 lists what…

The usefulness of item sampling with unobtrusive measures and observational data is demonstrated. Particular emphasis is given to the question: Is item sampling appropriate for estimating the differences between means as well as the means themselves? A descriptive analysis is made of one aspect of a junior high school curriculum. Twenty four…

Open enrollment is a concept concerned with a student's access to schools. In general, it reflects the possibility of parents exercising choice when enrolling children in schools. In East Hartford, parents may seek permission to transfer a youngster to a different school if that school has space for him; however, the parent must provide the…

A course in macro economics, designed to teach economic concepts and to improve student attitudes toward the discipline, is described. It is divided into 10 weeks of core study, using a self-instructional package, and 4 weeks for student options. Objectives of the core study are application of economic concepts to current events, feedback through…

The paper describes four alternative teacher training approaches offering Navajo Indian college students the opportunity to become certified classroom teachers within proximity of their homes and jobs on the reservation. Programs discussed include Navajo Tribal Teacher Education Program, Career Opportunities Program, Teacher Corps, and a…

Families choose schools; and they choose programs within schools. Yet the processes, contingencies, and outcomes of families' choices of schooling have not been systematically examined. In this paper, the social science literature on families' choices of schooling is reviewed. Treating this choice as a special case of consumer choice, the paper…

This report discusses the problems of alternative schools in general and describes the experiences of two public alternative high schools -- the Cambridge Pilot School (a "school-within-a-school" in Cambridge, Massachusetts), and Metro High School (a "school without walls" in Chicago). The report (1) describes what goes on inside these two…