Perceptions of accreditation and diploma standards for public alternative high schools.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Alternative education students are at-risk of failure in their traditional or alternative schools because of issues such as: disruptive and delinquent behaviors, absenteeism and truancy, and probability of dropping out of school. Alternative education programs provide learning experiences that offer educational choices that meet the needs of at-risk students with varying interests and abilities. At the secondary level, such a program may include choices in terms of time, location, staffing, and programs. Alternative programs challenge the issues of student dropouts, students' lack of employability skills, and student illiteracy. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, there are currently 34 school divisions that operate one or more alternative schools.
The purpose of this study was to survey school administrators' perceptions to determine whether or not public alternative high schools and their students should be held to the same accreditation and diploma standards as public traditional high schools and students. With the onset of the accountability movement, the Commonwealth of Virginia requires students to pass academic coursework for grades 9–12 and selected Virginia Standards of Learning (VSOL) assessments to earn a standard high school diploma (VDOE, 2000). The Virginia Board of Education uses data from the VSOL to measure student achievement and school achievement, and to determine if students and schools have met the assessment requirements, i.e., a 70% pass rate in English, mathematics, and science, with a 55% pass rate in social studies. This pass rate is difficult for at-risk students to attain when they have missed out on content due to their unique problems. This issue leads to the question addressed in this dissertation project. Based on the perceptions of superintendents and principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia, should public alternative high schools and their students be held to the same accreditation and diploma standards as traditional public high schools and their students? The findings of the study indicate that Virginia's administrators perceive a need for alternative schools and the students they serve to be held to standards of accreditation different, from those designed for traditional schools and students.