Alternative High Schools

Alternative schools can be havens for students who do not feel that the traditional school system is a good fit for them. They can be a way to study a particular discipline in depth, a way to obtain credits at a faster pace and, at times, a way to serve out a disciplinary placement.

Function

Alternative schools exist to educate students who might not receive an education without them. Districts with alternative schools often see students graduate who otherwise might not have.

Types

Students who are expelled from their home school might attend a disciplinary alternative school. Students who need to make up credits or who need flexible hours because of an illness or childbirth go to credit-recovery alternative schools. Students who are interested in a particular subject, such as the arts, may perform better in an alternative school that focuses on that discipline, such as a school for the arts.

Benefits

Students attending alternative schools frequently get their high school credits faster, because many alternative schools offer a "work at your own pace" schedule. Alternative schools are typically smaller and may offer lower student-teacher ratios, providing more individualized instruction than traditional schools.

Requirements

Some alternative schools have special requirements for enrollment, such as meeting at-risk student criteria. Magnet alternative schools may require an entrance exam or audition. Of course, disciplinary alternative schools simply require bad behavior that results in expulsion.

Expert Insight

John Taylor Gatto, a former New York City Teacher of the Year, states in his book "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling" that "Independent study, community service, adventures and experience, large doses of privacy and solitude, a thousand different apprenticeships, the one-day variety or longer--these are all powerful, cheap, and effective ways to start a real reform of schooling." Many alternative programs are based on these ideas.

References

• John Taylor Gatto

Resources

• The Underground History of American Education