Washington State's Alternative Education.

Overview & Synopsis

The literature of the educational field suggests that a movement is taking place in many of our school systems that expands the traditional structure and transforms it into an integrated approach designed to meet the needs of all students. Instead of shaping the students to fit the mold of the system, the system is being expanded to make allowances for individual differences. Alternative programs are another attempt by concerned educators to respond to the needs of individual students. In an effort to gain a picture of the extent of alternative education in the State of Washington and to help local districts avoid re-inventing the proverbial wheel, a survey was conducted during the 1971-72 school year wherein each public school district was asked to describe its alternative education programs. In April of 1972, an Alternative Education Workshop was held in Issaquah, Washington, to discuss the problems inherent in the alternative education movement. This booklet provides excerpted comments from workshop participants and brief descriptions of the more than 200 alternative education programs offered in 95 of the State's public school districts as reported on the survey. The programs have been indexed into two categories based on age grouping/program and the instructional mode, with groupings representing programs for pre-school through adult education. (Photographs may reproduce poorly.) (Author/EA)