[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Alternative Schools
Alternative schools are remarkably successful by traditional standards. The research that has been done consistently shows the superiority of alternative schools both public and independent on a wide variety of measures. It is the public alternatives such as magnet and charter schools that we tend to hear about; rarely do independent alternatives receive either media coverage or research consideration. This is unfortunate because it is the independent school that is more likely to attempt to create and implement a qualitatively different methodology from traditional models. We can learn from what their independence allows them to do, perhaps in a way that frees us to "now go on."
Currently there are over ten thousand alternative schools throughout the country. These schools are working, each in their own unique way, to try to meet the needs of the millions of students who have found their way out of the traditional program and into the local alternative school. To the credit of the millions of dedicated and professional educators who serve the majority of students in America, regular education does create climates for student success.
The growth of the alternative school movement has inspired much literature in support of the art and process of alternative schooling (Chalker, 1996; Kellmayer, 1995). Choice in education is finally emerging on the educational landscape, and it is gaining momentum (Washington State Department of Education, 1995-96). Perceived as a way to ameliorate dissatisfactions with traditional or regular education, alternative education experiences range from individual home schooling of children (Jeub, 1995, 50-52) to charter schools. In more extreme cases of disenchantment with the operation of the local public schools, some communities have enlisted the support of private entities to run their schools (Sawicky, 1997, 29-33).
More and more, parents are pulling their students from the public schools and placing them in alternative institutions..........
