Alternative Schools

the long version

In Alternative Schools: A Reference Handbook, educator Brenda Edgerton Conley surveys the emerging alternatives to our conventional educational systemoa system that is not only costly, but ineffective for many children.In a resource aimed at a broad audienceoschool administrators, politicians, and, most important, parentsoConley offers both a historical and a present-day perspective on alternative educational programs. What sets the alternative education movement apart, she argues, is its acknowledgment that we all learn differently. That knowledge has given rise to an explosion of exciting alternativesofrom open schools to home schooling, from charter schools to church schools. These alternative schools are smaller and less bureaucratic, more responsive to the community, and more receptive to change.