Vermont has an unusual two-year college system. There is no campus, no full-time faculty, no grades or credits are given, students develop their own performance contracts, non-traditional courses are offered, and life experiences are counted toward a degree. Methods of finance and the lack of a model on which to evaluate success are the major…

The Dutch Open University accepted its first students in September 1984 after a two-year preparation period. Like its British counterpart, the Dutch Open University offers free access and has no requirements as far as previous education is concerned. Its principal aims are to (1) provide higher education for adults either as a second chance (for…

The second of two studies on non-traditional approaches to official language training for adult immigrants to Canada focuses on programs that deviate in some way from a proposed traditional model of language training (involving a paid, trained teacher in an educational institution teaching to a class of 25 students full-time in the day or…

A summer employment and training project for high school dropouts was conducted at Florida's Pensacola Junior College (PJC) through the college's Adult High School. The program participants were economically disadvantaged teenagers who were eligible for Job Training Partnership Act funding. All but four of the 20 participants were high school…

The third in a series of volumes of curriculum essays on the concepts, issues, and strategies of community development education and training is presented. Five sections with 20 papers are as follows: (1) introduction: theories, definitions, and origins of experiential education--"Experiential Education for Community Development" (I. Harris, P.…

A British study compared the characteristics of Open University students 60 years and older with those of a random sample of younger students. Data collection involved obtaining demographic information from the student database, questionnaire responses from 831 out of 1,042 older students and 884 out of 1,418 students younger than 60, and…

British students 60 years and older in 1985-86 were studied in order to learn about their age, sex, marital status, employment background, the subjects they study, their reasons for studying, how they study, and what they think about their studies. Considered by the researchers to be the largest survey of older students, the study involved 2,254…

This videotape transcript describes Kansas State University's Alternative Teacher Preparation Program for Rural Citizens Seeking a New Career. Three related problems affect education in the Plains States--the devastated rural economy, limited career opportunities in rural areas, and the shortage of teachers of selected subjects in small rural…

Whether the constructs of value consistency and social capital can be used to explain the achievement outcomes of home education is explored. It is evident that children exposed to home schooling experience a high degree of value consistency. The values to which such children are exposed in education are those of their families. This would seem to…

Education in the United States desperately needs new tools, new approaches to learning, and new educational contexts more in touch with the world as students will experience it after leaving school. Changes of this magnitude require a fresh perspective that allow society to travel familiar territory with a renewed identity and idealism. Distance…

Step-by-step advice for Spanish-speaking parents on how to choose among available schools for their children is offered in this guidebook. Factors to consider in making the choice are discussed, as well as information on alternatives to the available choices, which include home schooling and working to create new options. After an introductory…

Four essays and associated introductory text constituting the proceedings of a symposium on dropout research issues are presented. The introduction by Glynn Ligon makes a call for considering what is known about dropouts, what is needed to be known about dropouts, and how these findings can be communicated to educators, the public, and lawmakers.…

This interim evaluation compares the initiation, design, and curriculum of two school-based "academy" programs in Oakland (California) high schools and examines their links to the school district and the business community. The academy model of schools-within-a-school originated in Philadelphia. The Health Academy at Oakland Technical…

At least 21 states have passed or are considering legislation to expand public school choice. The reasons for increasing students' options vary as do the forms of available choices. Some options currently in use are interdistrict choice; second-chance plans; postsecondary enrollment options; intradistrict choice; and magnet, state-supported…

A non-traditional approach to professional training at the graduate level is described. Studies of professional practice are referenced to identify educational requirements for health and human service practitioners. Using a knowledge worker perspective, these requirements are translated into a professional education/learning environment in which…