IALA

Author Archives: Wayne Jennings

National and State Alternative Education Conferences

January 4, 2010 – 3:22 am

Mark your calendar for any of the following conferences about alternatives of interest to you or colleagues.
The Washington Association for Learning Alternatives will hold its 35th annual conference March 4-6, 2010 in Ocean Shores, WA.
The Connecticut Association of Alternative Schools and Programs will hold its 32th annual conference March 24, 2010 in New Britain, CT.
The [...]

Posted in AERO, Alt, Ed. Res. Org., Alternatives, Conferences, IALA, Intern. Ass. Lrng Alts, Nat. Alt Ed Assoc., PA Assoc Lrng Alts | Comments (0)

New Center for Research on Digital Media and Learning

November 9, 2009 – 6:44 pm

There’s little doubt that the Internet will transform schooling (read choices) and how students learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. A newly-created Digital Media and Learning Research Hub at the University of California-Irvine will explore the impact of digital media on learning and its potential for transforming education. The Center is funded by a $2.97 million grant from [...]

Posted in Alternatives, Choices, Education Revolution, Lifelong learning, Online learning, Personalized Educ, Reform, Reports, Research, Technology | Comments (0)

Constitutional Law Change Proposed

September 15, 2009 – 4:21 pm

David Bly, former President of the Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs and a co-founder of IALA has written a powerful booklet, The Middle Class Amendment, which you can read online. Bly, a Representative from Northfield, is a member of the Minnesota Legislature. While IALA does not make political endorsements, we think the topic of interest to alternative educators [...]

Posted in Alternatives, Reform, Statutes | Tagged Change, constitution, legislative, Reform | Comments (0)

School Choice Expanding Worldwide

July 16, 2009 – 8:35 pm

Since the early 1990s when the nation’s first charter school was opened in St. Paul, MN, the scope and availability of school-based options to parents has steadily expanded in the U.S. and abroad. No longer can traditional education be a public monopoly. Sponsored by the National Center on School Choice (NCSC), this 648 page ($115) Handbook of [...]

Posted in Alternatives, Charter schools, Choices, Magnet schools, Policy, Reform, Research, Vouchers | Comments (0)

Alternative Education: Standards, Descriptions, Action

March 8, 2009 – 6:18 pm

Several helpful documents are available for describing, implementing and evaluating alternative education programs. The first three refer to alternative education broadly, that is, providing a choice of programs for all students. The last one is more attuned to at-risk students.
Ray Morley and the Iowa Association of Alternative Education prepared a thoughtful document, Alternative Learning Environments: [...]

Posted in Alternatives, Assessment, Choices, Ed Alt for Everyone, Loflin, John, Nat. Alt Ed Assoc., Reports | Comments (0)

Valuable Resources on Alternative Education

February 26, 2009 – 5:01 pm

Here are useful resources with links to other sites:
Brief descriptions in Summary of Educational Models include: Accelerated Schools, America’s Choice, Big Picture, Communities in Schools, EdVisions, Job Corps, Youth Build and 17 more.
The Alternative High School Initiative (AHSI) is a network of youth development organizations with over 258 sites nationwide for creating educational opportunities for [...]

Posted in Alternatives, Choices, High schools, Policy, Reform, Reports, Research, Students | Comments (0)

Range of Alternatives

January 11, 2009 – 1:01 pm

We recently created the outline below showing the kinds of choices available to students in some parts of Minnesota. This may be similar to other states. By no means are all of these alternatives available to all students in all places but it represents a major shift in what parents had to choose from in [...]

Posted in Alternatives, Choices, MN Assoc. Alt Prog | Tagged Alternatives, Choices, Minnesota, Options | Comments (0)

Federal Program Supports School Choice

December 6, 2008 – 5:21 pm

The U. S. Department of Education’s Office of Voluntary Public School Choice program supports States and school districts in efforts to establish or expand a public school choice program. It supports efforts to establish or expand intradistrict, interdistrict, and open enrollment public school choice programs to provide parents, particularly parents whose children attend low-performing public [...]

Posted in Alternatives, Choices, Policy, Reports, U.S. Dept. of Educ., Uncategorized | Tagged School choice, U.S. Dept. of Educ. | Comments (0)

Learning Outside the Ivy Walls

October 12, 2008 – 1:42 pm

Recently, I attended the Macalester College celebration and was struck by the number of community based and service learning opportunities touted as powerful for their students. In fact, there was little mention of conventional educational practices of courses, classes and lectures. Mentioned were international experiences with businesses, embassies, human rights, peace organizations, world hunger and local [...]

Posted in Choices, Reform, Students, Uncategorized | Tagged community based learning, experiential learning, Reform, service learning | Comments (0)

A Most Remarkable Book

October 9, 2008 – 8:10 pm

IALA promotes educational choices and there would not be the compelling call for change in district schools if they engaged students more. Here are my comments about an amazing book by an extraordinary teacher in a most democratic program.
If Holden Caulfield Were In My Classroom: Inspiring Love, Creativity and Intelligence in Middle School Students by [...]

Posted in Alternatives, Democratic schools, Personalized Educ, Private schools, Reform, Students | Tagged book review, engagement of students, progressive education | Comments (0)

Recalled for Revision

October 6, 2008 – 9:32 am

We thought you might like this favorite piece from 1971 and consider its relevance for today.
Recalled for Revision
William C. Miller
Dear Parents of Our Graduates:
As you are aware, one of your offspring was graduated from our high school this June. Since that time, it has been brought to our attention that certain insufficiencies are present in [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

International Democratic Education Conference

September 12, 2008 – 10:22 am

The International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) provides some of the most provocative and growing challenges to conventional education and probably some of the most extreme examples of choice. John Loflin has attended all of the recent conferences and filed comprehensive reports on their proceedings. The first conference was in 1993 and most recent was in [...]

Posted in Choices, Community schools, Democratic schools, IDEC, International Educ, Loflin, John, Reports, Small schools | Tagged IDEC, International Democratic Education Conference, John Loflin | Comments (0)

Courses Available on Alternative Ed and Starting a School

August 26, 2008 – 11:10 am

The Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO) is providing courses on how to start an alternative school and on the history of alternative education. Start a School 101 begins September 15, 2008 and is taught by Jerry Mintz among others. The Theory and History of Educational Alternatives is taught by Ron Miller and will also start [...]

Posted in AERO, Alt, Ed. Res. Org., Alternatives, Conferences, Democratic schools, Mintz, Jerry, Training | Tagged AERO, Alternative Education Resource Organization, professional development | Comments (0)

Democratic Education Resources and IDEC Conference

August 26, 2008 – 10:00 am

Dana Bennis has started a website specifically devoted to promoting democratic education and can be reached personally at dana.bennis@yahoo.com. Dana has a long standing interest in democratic education having studied it in several countries and being part of a democratic school. He advocates giving students voice in decisions about their education and their school’s operation. You will [...]

Posted in Choices, Democratic schools, Reform, Research, Students | Tagged Add new tag, democratic education, Democratic schools, student voice | Comments (0)

IALA is a Great Resource for You!

July 24, 2008 – 11:30 am

If you think our website has changed, your perceptions are correct. We’ve changed our platform to WordPress for an update and better control. Please have patience as we work out some bugs.
We emphasize that the same huge body of resource material is still available on this website. You will notice that the left panel (at the [...]

Posted in Database, IALA, Intern. Ass. Lrng Alts | Tagged Choices, educational alternatives, IALA, International Association for Learning Alternatives, resources | Comments (1)