The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship (predicative capability) between selected variables, specifically, African American student enrollment, teacher ethnicity, and urban or rural district classification and the number of African American student placements in a disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP). The study used a non-experimental ex post facto design. Archival data from the Texas Education Agency were used to identify Texas schools that sent African American students to a DAEP during the 2013-2014 school year. Archival data from the Texas Education Agency were also used to identify African American student enrollment and teacher ethnicity for the selected school districts. Finally, archival data from the Texas Department of Agriculture were used to identify district classifications of urban or rural. Participants in this study consisted of 187 school districts that placed African American students in a DAEP during the 2013-2014 school year. Based on the findings, teacher ethnicity and African American student enrollment are statistically significant contributions to African American student placement in a DAEP. Urban or rural district classification is not a statistically significant predictor in the same placements. Results of this study add to existing literature by confirming that there is an overrepresentation of African American student placements in DAEPs and suggesting possible ways to combat this epidemic.

This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of alternative middle school programs utilizing a longitudinal, mixed methods design and was driven by research questions which analyzed trends in attendance, discipline, and Standard of Learning test pass rates in history and science for 8th, 9th, and 10th grade. It also examined student perceptions concerning preparedness for high school, skills previously taught, transition to high school, and relationships with peers and adults. Data on attendance, discipline, and SOL scores were collected from 34 students from the 2009-2010 8th grade cohort who attended one of two alternative middle schools. Attendance data indicated a decrease in the number of absences each year from 8th – 10th grade, ranging from two days to 53 days per student. Discipline data reflected a drop in discipline referrals, each year, from 8th to 10th grade. The greatest improvement in discipline, indicated by a decrease in per student referrals, occurred between 9th and 10th grade. History SOL results indicated a pass rate that remained between 70% - 71% for grades 8-10. The test results for the science SOL showed a drop in number of students passing from 8th to 9th grade and increasing from 9th to 10th grade. An analysis of interviews with twelve students found that they perceived their alternative middle experience as having a positive effect on relationships, both with peers and adults, and a desire to graduate. They attributed an improvement in relationship skills and ability to select positive relationships with alternative middle school attendance. Students consistently noted small class size, as experienced in the alternative middle school, as an influence on both behavior and achievement. Students previously considering dropping out of school felt their alternative middle school experience had contributed to their changed mindsets and goals. Overall this study indicated that students attending the alternative middle school for 8th grade perceived their experiences as providing greater social rather than academic preparation for high school. In addition, best practices are similar for high school and middle school alternative programs.

The climate of the class in a conventional and in an alternative basic school is the main topic of this master thesis. The master thesis is divided into two parts, the first part is theoretical and the second one practical. It the theoretical part the main focus is dedicated to an explanation of the terms concerning the theme. The thesis deals with the methods of diagnostics in a class climate. The second part, the practical one, consists of the research held in the school classes of the conventional and alternative type. The research is considered to be a quantitative analysis and its research instrument is a questionnaire. The practical part is intended as a comparison between the climate in the both types of schools. The main goal of the master thesis is firstly to compare school climate in the alternative and conventional school. Secondly the master thesis should interpret the discovered information.

This thesis's aim is to unite the worldschooling information available, show different educational models in various countries where it would be the easiest to execute for Czech families, suggest an advancement and an example of such education. Further on detect its benefits and weaknesses. The main contribution of the thesis lays in the comparison of the obvious benefits such as unworldliness, overview, or extensive progression in the field of language or geography as well as the negatives of such upbringing such as uprooting, instability or social isolation. Later on the latent advantages and disadvantages shall arise from the research part which will be focused on interviews with families already practising worldschooling. To meet the goals, specialized literature will be used, prevailingly a foreign one, most of all however using naratives. KEY WORDS socialization, worldschooling, language skills, travel, pedocentrism, alternative education, unschooling, Illich, homeschooling

The aim of the thesis is to describe in great detail the process and organization of integration (inclusion) of common primary school children and those of primary schools with the educational programme Step by Step. The focus of the thesis is to put these two school types side by side and compare their attempt to the issue. The results should work as an help for parents' to choose the right institution necessary for the elementary education of their children suffering from any kind of handicap, they should help also the educators searching for many initiatives to integrate all the pupils to a group. Another important output of the thesis is to find out the level of primary school teachers awareness with the process of the pupils' integration.

This study explored the impact that principals’ transformational leadership behaviors had on teachers’ self-efficacy in secondary urban alternative schools. The research question that guided this study was: How does perceived transformational leadership behaviors of principals’ impact teachers’ self-efficacy? This question had two sub-questions. The first was: How do teachers perceive their principals’ leadership behaviors? And, the second sub-question was: How does this perceived behavior affect teachers’ self-efficacy? Literature focused on urban schools and alternative schools, since they share a similar population of students. Additional literature discussed the four components of being a transformational leader which are idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration, in addition to the components of a teacher’s personal self-efficacy. A total of ten secondary school teachers from two different urban alternative schools were interviewed using the semi-structured interviewing process. The researcher analyzed interview data by using the Constant Comparative Method of Analysis as a guide. Results of the interviews indicated that teachers viewed their principals as having behaviors of a transformational leader. They described the behaviors that resulted in two major categories: Principals as Instructional Leadersand Principals as Team Players. As a result of the principals’ transformational leadership behaviors, teachers’ efficacy was deemed to be high, due to shared examples of going above and beyondthe call of duty, creating a family environment, and being a loving teacher. Additional themes that gleaned from this study were the teachers’ perceptions about the student population, quality of education, understanding the purpose of urban alternative schools, educator preparation, and the challenges and rewards for working in an urban alternative school setting.

Alternative high schools serve some of the most vulnerable students and their programs present a significant challenge to evaluate. Determining the impact of an alternative high school that serves mostly at-risk students presented a significant research problem. Few studies exist that dig deeper into the characteristics and strategies of successful alternative schooling. Moreover valid program evaluation methods to identify successful alternative school practices are hit and miss. As a result, public policy and systems of accountability have either disregarded information relating to alternative high schools or unjustifiably included them in comparisons with traditional high schools. This dissertation studied the issue of how best to evaluate alternative high schools and what tools support leaders in planning a thorough and accurate program evaluation. The Alternative High School Program Evaluation Toolkit was developed to support school leaders and evaluation teams made up of internal and external stakeholders as they facilitate the program evaluation process. The features of the Toolkit address the need for alternative school evaluation to be practical, useful, fair and accurate. The Evaluation Toolkit includes training materials, protocols, an evaluation planning worksheet and an evaluation planning matrix that supports the team in conducting the evaluation. The research represented in this dissertation is theoretically and practically grounded in Bridges and Hallinger's (1995) Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Borg and Gall's (1989) Research and Development (R&D) Cycle. The product of the R&D Cycle was the Alternative High School Program Evaluation Toolkit and a process for use by evaluation teams assigned the task of planning and carrying out program evaluations.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In 1959 the popular Revolution of national liberation and independence triumphed in Cuba, extended a few years later into a Marxist-Leninist strategy for building socialism and communism on the island. In this radical social and political context, conditions were ripe for a radical alternative approach to secondary school education. This research confirms and extends existing evidence and analyses, showing that the model of secondary schooling established in revolutionary Cuba shared fundamental aspects of dominant models throughout the world. In particular, Cuba’s revolutionary schools are shown to have adopted a similar approach to mass education, as an investment in human capital and citizen formation. In the analysis of this historical phenomenon, a world-systems geocultural approach is used to describe and explain the non-exceptional form and character of Cuba’s secondary schools. The approach synthesises world-system level economic and cultural aspects, within the concept of a world-systems ‘geoculture’ of development, describing how these interrelated influences historically conditioned secondary school education policy and practice in Cuba. This process is traced through the impact of the world-economy, and related world-systems geocultural assumptions and objectives, over the political economy of Cuba’s socialist project, with direct implications for secondary school education. The world-system level conditioning influence on school policy and practice is shown to have been mediated by the particular national conditions, such that features specific to Cuba’s secondary schools are identified within the broad framework and constraints of the world-system level influence. The world-systems geocultural approach provides a viable, historical account of secondary school policy and practice in revolutionary Cuba. General continuity is identified, in accordance with the broad, world-system level influence. The historical analysis demonstrates the need for a world-system level approach, and supports the need to include world economic and cultural factors, under the geocultural framework.

基於單一文化之困境與美學意識之衰微，台灣另類教育在二元對立的邏輯運作下，常遭受負面的誤解或打壓，普羅大眾對於另類學校學生最常見的質疑便是：「以後要怎麼跟人家競爭？」、「如何考基測？」、「出去有辦法適應嗎？」，為探究另類學校學生的生活世界及其進入體制內學校的跨體制經驗，本篇論文嘗試以敘說探究開採夏天—一位華德福學校學生的生命故事，從而了解其學習世界的變遷及內在的適應歷程。研究發現，華德福學校具備自由、對話、創造之特徵，以即興的學校圖像作為陶養創造性人格之可能條件，促使夏天在面對基測和進入體制的衝突中展現出自我組織的生命樣態，而即興美學中的自由遊戲精神與複雜思維，不僅啟示了教育引發創造的本質，同時也為另類教育學提供更多元的定位基礎。 / Because of the conformity of culture and the lack of aesthetics, alternative education in Taiwan is usually misunderstood or suppressed in the logic of binary dualism. The most common questions to alternative schools’ students are “How do they compete with others in the future?”, “How do they prepare for the basic competence test?”, and “Are they able to adapt to the life outside?” To investigate the life world of an alternative school’s student, Summer, and her experience of transferring to normal school, narrative inquiry is adopted in this research to understand the changes of the learning environments and her state of mind. According to the conclusion, the Waldorf school contains the characters of freedom, dialogue, and creation. And its picture of improvisation provides Summer with possible conditions for developing creative personality. As a result, she shows the attitude of self-organization when facing conflicts in the cross-boarder process. In addition, improvisation’s spirit of free play and complex not only reveal the essence of education as creation, but also provide alternative education with more diverse orientation.

The overrepresentation of African American students in special education coupled with their disproportionate disciplinary sanctions is a contentious educational issue. An examination of extant literature suggests that African American students are more likely to be referred to special education; placed in a stigmatizing disability category; educated in a restricted educational settings; and least likely to return to a general classroom setting. Equally disturbing, these students are more likely to be cited for subjective disciplinary sanctions and least likely to be educated with their peers. This is disturbing because the labeling of special education coupled with disciplinary sanctions can negatively impact this sector of students’ educational opportunities, psychological image, long-term goals and aspirations, and their overall quality of life. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between discretionary removal, special education, and African American students. More specific, this study sought to determine the trends of discretionary removal for special education students as defined by Texas Education Code 37, and whether these types of disciplinary measures had a disparate impact on African American special education students’ school completion rate. The findings for this study, revealed a diverse district with a large percentage of economically disadvantaged students and a special education population that was aligned to the state average. Chi-square results revealed a relationship between discretionary removal and Latina/o and White students and students who were identified as economically disadvantaged. In addition, logistic regression results showed ethnicity for Latina/o student who were served by special education was a significant predictor for discretionary removal. Conversely, disability category, economic status, and ethnicity were all significant predictors for school dropouts for special education students who were cited for discretionary removal. Moreover, African Americans who were not evident in the chi-square analysis were significantly associated with discretionary removal. Furthermore, interviews of administrators revealed special education students who did not have an Individual Education Plan (IEP) that purposefully addressed disciplinary issues were purportedly treated no differently than students without a disability. / text