oses, and in addition they offer a possible solution for the student who is about to be removed from the school. Alternative programs attempt to focus on the problems before they reach the point of expulsion (Gordon, 1998, p. 418).
Statement of the Problem & Study Purpose
Alternative schools and alternative programs are designed to provide troubled students with individualized support services not typically found in traditional education. Literature demonstrates both success and failure for each situation as well as concluded success factors for each. Whether the alternative school or the alternative program is more effective, remains unclear, and is the key research question for this study.
The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of alternative schools and alternative programs. Effectiveness will be measured in three ways: First, are the attitudes toward school changed; second, does the students' academic performance improve; and third, does school attendance increase. In order to judge all three axes of effectiveness, results from alternative schools will be compared with alternative programs within traditional schools.
Studies have concluded that causal relationships between school-related variables and delinquent behavior include the following: attitudes toward school, academic performance, and school attendance (Cox, 1999, p. 323). Therefore these variables are appropriate for the measure of program effectiveness.
The following hypotheses will be used for this study:
Hypothesis 1: Students attending alternative schools will show greater improvement in their attitudes toward school than will students participating in alternative programs.
Hypothesis 2: Students attending alternative schools will show greater improvement in their academic performance than will students participating in alternative programs.
Hypothesis 3: Students attending alternative schools will show gre...