Alternative schools

All you want to know about Alternative schools

This article is about an alternative school. For alternatives to traditional education, see alternative education.

An alternative school (sometimes called a minischool), is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional, or sometimes ultratraditional.[1] These schools have a special curriculum offering a more flexible program of study than a traditional school.

Many such schools were founded in the United States in the 1970s as an alternative to mainstream or traditional classroom structure.[2] A wide range of philosophies and teaching methods are offered by alternative schools; some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, while others are more ad-hoc assemblies of teachers and students dissatisfied with some aspect of mainstream or traditional education.

Contents

Alternative high school

In education, the phrase alternative high school, sometimes referred to as a minischool, is "any junior high school, high school, senior high school, or secondary school having a special curriculum offering a more flexible program of study than a traditional school." [3] An alternative high school serves as an addition to a larger traditional junior high school, high school, senior high school, or secondary school.

Sometimes, particularly in the United States, the phrase alternative high school can refer to a school which practices alternative education. This is a much broader use of the term, covering all forms of non-traditional educational methods and philosophies, including school choice, independent school, homeschooling, and alternative high school. However, even the narrower usage of the term may refer to a range of school type such as a school with an innovative and flexible curriculum aimed at bright, self-motivated students; a school intended to accommodate students with behavioral problems; or a school with special remedial programs.[4]

Magnet schools

Magnet schools are public alternative schools which offer innovative courses, specialized training, etc., in order to attract students from a broad urban area and thereby help to desegregate schools.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alternative%20school Definition of alternative school, accessed August 9, 2007
  2. ^ Alternative Schools Adapt, by Fannie Weinstein. The New York Times, June 8, 1986, section A page 14.
  3. ^ alternative school - Definitions from Dictionary.com
  4. ^ Changing Perspectives on Alternative Schooling for Children and Adolescents With Challenging Behavior, Robert A. Gable et al. Preventing School Failure, Fall 2006. Volume 51, Issue 1, page 5.

External links

Further reading

  • Claire V. Korn, Alternative American Schools: Ideals in Action (Ithaca: SUNY Press, 1991).

Resources

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Day school • Alternative school • Parochial school • Boarding school • Magnet school • Virtual school • K-12
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_school"

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