Thesis (M. Ed.)--Lancaster Bible College, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-80).

Significant numbers of Canadians in the 1960s believed their society and their schools required substantial change. A few, believing the public school system was authoritarian, competitive, unimaginative, and unlikely to change, set out to establish their own schools. In British Columbia, like-minded parents, educators, and even high school students founded over twenty alternative schools in the 1960s and early 1970s in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and the West Kootenays. Most of these people nourished idealistic world views comprising elements of pacifism, socialism, or spiritual mysticism. They claimed to be motivated by a sense of social and democratic responsibility, and also put a high value on personal freedom and the possibility of public and private transformation. Until the 1960s British Columbia independent schools had been organized chiefly on religious, ethnic, or class grounds. However, founders of alternative schools in the early 1960s typically followed a Progressive approach, emphasizing a "child-centred" curriculum based on the ideas of John Dewey. Later in the decade alternative schools took up the Romantic or "free school" ideas of A.S. Neill, and allowed young people almost complete freedom to organize their own educational activities (or none at all), and to be responsible for their own behaviour. They were influenced by the American Progressive and English Romantic educational traditions as well as Canadian social democracy, the American counterculture of the late 1960s, and the Human Potential Movement. By the early 1970s, alternative schools became "therapeutic" with the goal of attracting alienated young people back into the educational sphere and helping them to achieve personal growth. Two fundamental tensions existed in alternative schools-how democratic their decisionmaking would be, and how directive or free the adults would be in regulating the academic learning of the students. Although these schools tried to govern themselves in a participatory democratic manner, consensus was difficult to achieve. Furthermore, the participants could not usually agree on which educational approach they favoured. For students attending alternative schools educational results were mixed. Although most believed they had gained in self-reliance and inter-personal skills, many did not acquire sufficient literary or arithmetic knowledge and found their educational and professional careers limited. Alternative schools were hindered by financial instability, parental divisiveness, and the absence of a workable educational methodology. Further, the schools accepted too many children with special needs, or hired too many young adult teachers whose enthusiasm was greater than their pedagogical skill. Meanwhile, the social and cultural upheavals of the late 1960s had at last caused the public school system to accept some of the pedagogical and psychological premises of the alternate school movement. The examples of the alternative schools of the 1960s and early 1970s, along with the wider cultural changes of the time, led to a more flexible and inclusive public school system in the 1970s. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Alternative school models should represent options for students characterized as disenfranchised and/or underachievers. Mississippi?s Alternative School Education Program Standards were established to provide a framework for local school districts to use in developing the alternative school?s design to meet the unique needs of the students it would serve. It was established by Mississippi Law to serve as a learning alternative placement for students who had difficulty adjusting to a regular classroom environment or who experienced disciplinary problems in the classroom or at school. Raywid (1999) suggested that unless alternative schools have sufficient freedom to do things differently from the traditional high schools ? organize themselves differently, offer different curriculum or at least a different articulated curriculum, provide a different school climate with flexibility ? then they are not going to be any more successful with their charges than the regular traditional high school has been. Five alternative schools identified by the Mississippi Department of Education as operating an exemplary Alternative School Education Program were examined in this study. A case study approach, which utilized observations, interviews and a report, was conducted to investigate eight areas identified as critical indicators necessary to operate an effective alternative school. These eight areas were: (a) a clearly and focused school mission, (b) a safe and orderly environment, (c) program expectations, (d) alternative educational opportunities, (e) instructional design, (f) a monitoring and evaluation system, (g) support services, and (h) parental/community involvement. Each alternative school visited met all eight indicators. However, the state?s program design falls short of rendering sufficient and appropriate services to young people with opportunity to obtain an education. The state?s program does offer an alternative school setting to children that will allow them to remain in school and not be deposited on the streets as a result of suspension or expulsion from the regular school setting. However, the way the Alternative School Education Program is designed goes a long way toward shaping the nature of its establishment and its prospects for success. There is an immediate need for the state to engage in a paradigm shift for its alternative school program?s design in order to better meet the needs of the public school system and the people it serves.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 224-229). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (Faculty of Education) / Simon Fraser University.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (Faculty of Education) / Simon Fraser University.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Boise State University, 2005. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 263-275). Also available online via the ProQuest Digital Dissertations database.

Thesis (M Arch)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Zuzanna Karczewska. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-45).

While No Child Left Behind (NCLB) provides a mechanism for holding states, local education agencies (LEA), and schools accountable to improve academic achievement for all students, policy itself has done little to include students from dropping out of school. Rather, dropout prevention/recovery schools/programs such as alternative schools of choice are recognized and relied upon as a means to reduce the number of students dropping out of school. These schools seek to re-engage the student who is at-risk to dropping out of school through nontraditional means and strategies. As more and more students become disenfranchised and drop out of school, these schools grow in importance. To ensure that all students have equity in education, regardless of educational setting, these schools warrant further attention and consideration. Therefore, two questions become evident: (a) How do educators in alternative schools interpret and implement policy such as NCLB? and (b) How do they define their role and responsibility? This case study examined the socio-legal discourse applied when seven administrators and 15 teachers administered policy as a response to an at-risk student population in five demographically diverse alternative education settings in California and Texas. A critical discourse analysis of text, interviews, and observations was used to reveal administrator and teacher assumptions and motivations of policy and risk. The data analysis revealed three dominant discourses of risk compliance and policy knowledge that were notable forces in the policy implementation of NCLB at these schools. Themes that emerged from the data included responsibility, dissociation, success, and equity. The findings from this study have demonstrated that a moment-by-moment process shapes the construction of role, responsibility, success, and equity as defined by the teachers and administrators. Furthermore, the discourse of risk and policy converged as ideological and political conceptions that perpetuate the notion that educating disadvantaged children as a process of demonstrating a particular level of knowledge and/or acquitting what it means to be considered at-risk. The implication for these educators is that the risk discourse that was engaged influenced their sense of responsibility, practice, and thus may counter policy intent.

The use of disciplinary measures to deal with student behavior brings with it the responsibility to educate the student, not only academically, but socially. It is the social or behavioral component of education that is lacking in most Texas Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP) settings. The current DAEP model does not provide the means nor the method by which students’ behavior can be remediated, so students’ need for learning positive behaviors goes unmet. The Texas Education Code (TEC Chap. 37) mandates that DAEPs provide instruction in “self-discipline,” but it does not specify how this instruction is to be delivered. In addition, it does not provide for oversight or evaluation, so these requirements may be inconsistently fulfilled, or not fulfilled at all. Many of the students who attend DAEPs have behavioral and emotional difficulties, and are considered at risk for academic failure. Although there have been programs to compensate for and remediate academic skill deficits, there is not one comprehensive program to help students learn appropriate behaviors and overcome risk factors. The Thinking Errors program was developed to help students become aware that the choices they make every day are influenced by poor patterns of thinking. It is designed to help students correct these thinking patterns and learn to take responsibility for their own decisions and behaviors. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Thinking Errors program in helping students change their behavior.