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Alternative Schools

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Adolescence

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Overview

Parents of American adolescents who are unsuccessful in a regular public school environment are often faced with difficult decisions on where they can best educate their adolescent. Since the 1960s, alternative schools have grown as a response to this quandary. Alternative schools offer smaller classrooms, intensive emotional and behavioral supports, and at times specialized curriculum to address the needs of students who have struggled in their home school. Ideally, alternative schools represent an often last-ditch effort of parents, adolescents, and schools to find positive and productive school environments for them to continue their education. Despite the hopes that many have for alternative schools to engage and graduate at-risk adolescents, the evidence that these schools are effective in carrying out their mission is mixed at best, with multiple critiques of alternative schools’ failure to provide adequate supports to these challenging student populations. This essay...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, University of Texas, 1 University Station D3500, Austin, 78712-0358, TX, USA

    Cynthia Franklin

  2. School of Social Work, Loyola University Chicago, 820 N. Michigan, Lewis Towers 1245, Chicago, 60611, IL, USA

    Michael S. Kelly

Authors
  1. Cynthia Franklin
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  2. Michael S. Kelly
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cynthia Franklin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University, 302 Sycamore Hall, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Roger J. R. Levesque

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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Franklin, C., Kelly, M.S. (2011). Alternative Schools. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_154

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_154

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1694-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1695-2

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