A mother (Linda) and daughter (Katie) tried a cooperative "unschool," public school, home schooling, private school, and returned to unschooling. Linda feels that public school compromises creativity and freedom too much, but she had trouble letting go of the structure. Katie says unschooling let her enjoy her relationship with her mother, focus…

Researchers and educators argue that social and emotional development affect academic success, and therefore should be targets for intervention. It is strongly suggested that such intervention begin during kindergarten. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Nurturing Curriculum, which is designed to improve emotional…

This paper investigates the role of the lifelong learning discourse in actual governmentality. Starting with a description of the origins of lifelong learning in the discussions about alternative education in the 1960s and 1970s, the current adoption of lifelong learning by the European Union is used to show its critical components. Along with the…

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the effects of a cooperative learning strategy in physical education on academic learning time, the percentage of correct trials, the total number of trials, and the number of correct trials. A cooperative learning strategy, PACER (Performer and Coach Earn Rewards), was implemented in a sixth-grade…

Alternative education programs are often viewed as individualized opportunities designed to meet the educational needs for youth identified as at-risk for school failure. Increasingly, these programs have been identified as programs for disruptive youth who have been referred from traditional schools. The purpose of this study was to examine the…

In this study, I argue that American history textbooks present discrete, heroic, one-dimensional, and neatly packaged master narratives that deny students a complex, realistic, and rich understanding of people and events in American history. In making this argument, I examine the master narratives of Martin Luther King, Jr., in high school history…

This study assessed the interest of alternative high school staff in intervention research on students' eating and physical activity habits and the feasibility of conducting such research in alternative school settings. A two-phase descriptive design incorporated both quantitative and qualitative methods. In fall/winter 2001-2002, alternative high…

This paper provides an analysis of "Corrective Reading" research. A research review of 28 published studies was completed. Twenty-three studies examined the effectiveness of "Corrective Reading" as delivered by teachers in general education (n = 4), special education (n = 12), and alternative education (n = 7) settings. Five…

Interest in online school courses is surging nationwide, especially at the high school level, according to those who follow trends in educational technology. Much of that demand is coming from those who enroll in just one or two a year to meet a particular academic need or resolve a scheduling hang-up. Online courses have become so popular, in…

Alternative education programmes, in the form of vocational education and flexible or personalised curricula, are rapidly becoming established as a main plank in both mainstream and special schools' responses to pupil disaffection. In this paper, "alternative curriculum" will be used as an umbrella term to include all forms of curricula which are…

The Academy For Learning (AFL) serves urban students with emotional and behavioral problems. Through a Personal and Social Responsibility program, students develop skills for personal growth and service learning. Many alternative programs for troubled students offer little more than a curriculum for containment and control. In contrast, students…

In 2001, in partnership with the Waterloo, Iowa school system, the R.J. McElroy Trust, Janice Freeburg-Cannon, Tri-County Head Start, Allen Health System, the University of Northern Iowa and the Regents' Center for Early Developmental Education created a special model for early childhood education that would eventually become The Freeburg School.…

ClassWide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) is an evidence-based instructional strategy effective with students with and without disabilities. The evidence for efficacy is strong with respect to students in elementary schools learning basic academic skills in classrooms with large teacher-pupil ratios, and relatively less strong for students in secondary…

This case study contributes to a small but growing literature on alternative schools for at-risk students. Previous studies have been strong on participant narrative and advice for stakeholders, but have lacked theoretical and historical contextualization and are unlikely to have much impact on school policy. The present study focuses on the…

In May 2008, the Center for Evaluation & Education Policy (CEEP) issued the Education Policy Brief, "Calculating High School Graduation Rates," which discussed the importance of accurate and reliable high school graduation data, various graduation rate calculation methods, the history behind the use of particular methodologies, and…