Program Vocational Education ABSTRACT Private
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 228 400 CE 035 397 AUTHOR Piland, William E. TITLE Illinois Alternative Schools and theEmployment and Training Community. INST/TUTION Lake County Coll., Grayslake, Ill, SPONS AGENCY Illinois State Dept. of Commerce andCommunity "Affairs, Springfield. PUB DATE [82] NOTE 67p. PUB TYPE Viewpoints (120) Reports Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS ,Competence; Education Work Relationship;*Employer Attitudes; Employment Potential; Job Skills;*Job Training; *Models; *Nontraditional Education; Program Development; *School Role; SecondaryEducation; Vocational Education _IDENTIFIERS *Illinois ABSTRACT Alternative schools in public schooldistricts and private institutions offer a choice of morethan one educational option to students. These schools usuallyhave some of the following characteristics: voluntary participation,distinctiveness, nonexclusiveness, comprehensive objectives,and'a supportive learning environment. Instructional stylesinclude Montessori, open classroom, behavior modification, and individualizedinstruction; their curriculums offer programs such asenvironmental education, performing arts, international studies,and career ,education. Clients served by alternative schoolsinclude students wno are dropouts, come from multicultural backgrounds, arehighly motivated, or are prgnant. Although they mayoffer innovative types of education, alternative schools must also provide theirstudents with the basics and protect them from being penalizedfor attending such a program. In Illinois, the role of alternativeschools i7n employment and training efforts is limited; however,these schools, because they are typically small and flexible, could offermore employment-related training for their students. Employer surveyshave suggested competencies related to employment andtraining needs-that alternative schools should provide(list included in report). The balance of the report suggests ways to workwith alternative schools to prepare students for work,and profiles the efforts offive alternative high schools throughoutIllinois. (KC) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are thebest that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Illinois AlternativeSchools And The Employment AndTraining U.S. DEPAIUMENT OF EDUCATION NATIONAL INSTIRITE OF EDUCATION "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS F DUC AT IONAL RESf.JURCESINFORMATION MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY CENTER ERI(.I ds Community r,prolitiLud /7E, d4+. LV, 'or it 'la-,tutPrl fru!, 9,- 4.rAt)llor nr,OrliZ3tion ,altlin,Iting ,! '' '''.9,,, h,,,, nr-erlMall, to lir-11),o.! ASA rr.pri 1.1, II11, :11,1hTS, O P,Irlts o. Sta!tsi ru this docll TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES L.11, nu, re0t, sr,nt LutfucualNIE INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." Project Staff William Grove Frank G. Adams, Director Department of Adult Vocational Jeanette Y. Klehm. Project Assistant and Technical Education Ka ly Brey. Secretary Springfield, Illinois Toni Harris' P,eocil Written By Illinois Board of Higher Education :Ham E. Piland, Ph.D. Springfield, Illinois .;. lois State Univeraity Roslyn Jackson ormal, Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs Springfield, Illinois Project Advisory Committee David Murphy Roger L. BPI ry Rockford Consortium CETA . Private IndustryCouncil Lakeland College Rockford, Illinois Mattoon, Illinois H.J. Pfeiffer Jerome Bradley Lawrence Adult Center Lewis and Clark College Springfield, Illinois Godfrey, Illinois Chris Reitz Nancy Bross Lake County CETA Program Eastern Illinois University Waukegan, Illinois Charleston, Illinois John Roark Archie Criglar Affairs Macon County CETA Services Department of Commerce and Community Decatur, Illinois Springfield. Illinois Al Sherline Donald Full Adult Education Center Illinois State Board of Education Mattoon, Illinois Springfield, Illinois John Wilson Ralph Goodman Lake County CETA - Private IndustryCouncil Illinois State Board of Education Waukegan, Illinois Springfield, Illinois Janet York Al Green Department of Commerce and CommunityAffairs Richland Community College Springfield, Illinois Decatur. Illinois by the Department of Commerce andCommunity Affairs under the Comprehen. This project is conducted with funds provided represent, in whole or.in part;the viewpoint sive Employment and Training Act of1973. as amended, and does not necessarily of the Department of Commerc.,. andCommunity Affairs. HECollege of Lake County (312) 223-6601 19351 West Washington Street,Grayslake, Illinois 60030 all aspects of education and employment. The College of Lake County affirmsand adheres to a policy of equal opportunity in TABLE OF CONTENTS Description of Alternative Schools 1 in Illinois .Alternative Schools and theEmployment ani Training . 9 Community in Illinois Schools byEmployMent Specific Uses of Alternative 15 and Training Agenciesin Illinois Schools Working With the Alternative 27 in Illinois 36 Alternative School VisitationReports 58 Bibliography DESCRIPTION OF ALTERNATIVESCHOOLS 2 What le It? The AlternativeSchool of the revolves aroundthe concept A great dealof confusion aneducational An alternative school' is alternative school. byprivate or spons.ored school districts program in public oneeducational offers a choiceof more than institutions which Althoughmanyalternative (NSBA, 1974). option to students still definition, it of meeting this sChools fall short alternativeeducation description ofan represents the ideal time. Altevnative schocAs Illinois atthe present programin (NSPRA, 1972): characteristics typically exhibitthe following Students endteachers choose VoluntaryParticipation school. toparticipate in the school isdifferent Each alternative Distinctiveness school.n from theconventional all students The schoolis open to Nonexclusiveness on avoluntary basis. A set of comprehensive Objectives schools. Comprehensive those ofconventional objectivesequivalent to A supportive learning Environment styles. Learning -t-t-nd-ent---I-earning environment whichrelates to on how toclassifyalternative While thereis no agreement have been usedinclude schools, someideas which schools, . open Styles Montessori Instructional modificatiOn schools,individualized schools,behavior continuous progressschools performing arts environmental schools, Curricula for international centers, centers schools, career studies highly motivated, multicultural, Clients dropouts, pregnant Facilities- schools-without-walls, learningcenters, educational parks Administrative Structure - school-within-a-school, satellite school, mini-schools Alternative schools coMe in many sizes and shapes and with varying objectives and philosophies. Thatstudents or parents havea choicein selecting an'educational program is basic to all. Alternative schools recognize that different students may do better in different types of schools and,therefore, stress varietyrather than uniformity. Theyare organized in many different wayswithvariouskindsofstudentbodies but all involve a total educational program. They occur at any -causational level, elementary or secondary,.though there has been more effort thusfarto establish alternatives for high school students, who are more vocal than elementary age youngsters in their complaints about education-asusual. Many alternative schools are innovative and open but some are traditional and formal. To provide true alternatives, this choice within the system must exist. Most alternative schools are small but there are no size limitations. Many are physically separate fromother schoolsbut some share a large school building with other., administrativelyindependent, alternative programs. Many are not confined to a single building and consider an entire city their schoolhouse (Deal and Nolan, 1978). Some alternative schools depend heavily upon inv9lvement of students, parents, and volunteer instructors in the community. role in makingdecisions Students and teachersoften play a large administrators in otherschools. usually reservedentirely for importantly, by offeringbasic Through suchinvolvement and, more a greaterchance to options, alternativeschools give students chart their owneducational courses. The Range OfAlternatives: Secondary Level whirh can be developed Pre The kinds ofalternative programs willingness to meet limited only by a schoolsystem's needs and here are the bestknown those needs. Without being exhaustive, schools: types ofalternative secondary students work andstudy in Schools-without-walls where and other placesin the museums,businesses, hospitals, limited to a community and learnthat learning is not school building. which can or schools-within-schools Mini-schools students subdivide huge highschools of 3,000 or more example, 150 personal units of, for into small, focus their studies students and sixteachers who may aviation, art,or around a special interest such as anthropology. school dropouts canget the basic Dropout centers where in regular education and vocationalskills they missed nation's students schools. with _about_ 30% of the communities have leaving school beforegraduation, many such a center. such as students withSpecial problems, Schoolsfor who, disruptiveness, orpregnancy, academic failure, probably leave or without such specialprograms, would be forced out ofschool. frustrated by Open schools forcapabfe students who are organized schools. typical, traditionally Individidualized study andself-direction are stressed the program is but, unlike schools-without-walls,