IALA

Author Archives: Wayne Jennings

New Book Blames Students

June 15, 2010 – 1:27 pm

Bad Students Not Bad Schools by Robert Weissberg, U of Illinois professor emeritus of political science, is a throwback to highly traditional education when principals exercised the power to throw kids out. This easy read, colorfully written with a degree of exaggeration, ultimately lapses in frustration at how to fix schools. Several chapters describe the failures of many [...]

Posted in Choices, Competition, Policy, Students, Uncategorized, Vouchers | Comments (0)

Alternative Education Course

June 5, 2010 – 9:23 pm

Here is an opportunity for anyone interested in 3 semester hours of graduate credit on the topic of alternative education from an expert. For about a decade Roy Weaver served as editor of Changing Schools (national journal of alternative education for 20 years) and organized alternative education conferences during the late 1970s and 1980s. The course is offered entirely online and [...]

Posted in Alternatives, At risk programs, Charter schools, Choices, IALA, Magnet schools, Reform, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Blueprint School

April 19, 2010 – 12:00 pm

I’ve waited for years for this marvelous book, Lives of Passion, School of Hope: How One Public School Ignites a Lifelong Love of Learning. It tells a story of a K-12 progressive school (Jefferson County Open School, Colorado) that combined the best features from research and practice such as: strong advisory system, personal learning plan, [...]

Posted in Alternatives, Choices, High schools, Personalized Educ, Reform, Students | Tagged Change, Jefferson Open School, Reform, transformation | 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, 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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