Survey and Analysis of Alternative Education Programs [electronic resource] / Nathaniel S. Hosley.
A study of the status of alternative education (AE) in Pennsylvania surveyed 220 administrators and 234 teachers and counselors in AE settings. Results indicate that discipline programming was common to most programs, probably because Pennsylvania's AE legislation specifically states that AE pr...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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2003.
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| Summary: | A study of the status of alternative education (AE) in Pennsylvania surveyed 220 administrators and 234 teachers and counselors in AE settings. Results indicate that discipline programming was common to most programs, probably because Pennsylvania's AE legislation specifically states that AE programs are "designed to modify disruptive behavior." Rural programs reported more emphasis on discipline than did urban programs. The large majority of programs had teacher student ratios of 1:12 or fewer students. Career counseling and curricula had only modest priority. Full-time assignment of a program administrator was rare. The 5,540 AE students served in 2000-01 were predominantly White males, and student population had steadily increased in the past 5 years. Ninety-three percent of AE efforts targeted students in grades 7-12. Rural programs had more students with disabilities than did urban programs, perhaps excessively so. Forty-three percent of AE teachers had no or inadequate preservice training. More than one-third of AE teachers had fewer curriculum resources than did regular classroom teachers, and nearly 55 percent indicated that students in AE were excluded from parts of the curriculum that were available to regular education students. This raises questions of the right to equal education. Family involvement was only on an "as-needed" basis. Urban respondents viewed their programs as more effective in improving academic performance than did their rural counterparts and also reported having the same or more curriculum resources as regular classrooms than did rural respondents. Five policy recommendations are presented. (TD) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED478724. Availability: Center for Rural Pennsylvania, 200 North Third St., Suite 600, Harrisburg, PA 17101. Tel: 717-787-9555; e-mail: info@ruralpa.org. |
| Physical Description: | 23 pages. |