IALA » IALA

National and State Alternative Education Conferences

Wayne Jennings — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 05:22:03 +0000

Mark your calendar for any of the following conferences about alternatives of interest to you or colleagues.

The California Continuation Education Association will hold its annual conference April 26-29, 2012 in North Hollywood.

The Magnet Schools of America will hold its 30th annual conference May 18-21, 2012 in Dallas.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools will hold its 12th annual conference June 19-22, 2012: in Minneapolis.

The Association of Recovery Schools will hold its 11th annual conference in Houston July 18-20, 2012.

The Alternative Education Resource Organization AERO will hold its annual conference August 1-5, 2012 in Portland, OR.

The Association for Experiential Education will hold its 12th annual conference November 1-4, 2012 in Madison.

The National Youth Leadership Council will hold its 24th annual conference in Denver March 13-16, 2013.

The International Democratic Education Conference will hold its 21th annual conference August, 2013 in Colorado.

School Choice Necessary for Education

Wayne Jennings — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:02:58 +0000

The Brown Center on Education at Brookings published a system for ranking school districts on how much choice of educational programs is afforded children. They argue that options are necessary and valuable in an article and short video. Their rank of 25 large cities on 13 criteria ranges from grades B to D. Their booklet Expanding Choice in Elementary and Secondary Education argues that the government should as a matter of policy provide choices for every child.

IALA espouses this policy as its core mission.

Urgent to: Educational Alternatives Supporters

Wayne Jennings — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 03:27:20 +0000

The International Association for Learning Alternatives (IALA) has shifted its focus from conferences to policy advocacy with a Position Paper outlining broad concepts to advance educational alternatives. The National Association for Alternative Education (NAEA) has recently endorsed the IALA Position Paper as have several state associations. NAEA is a growing membership organization that holds an excellent annual conference and has partnered with the Association for High School Innovation (AHSI) in this endeavor. AHSI, formerly the Gates-funded Alternative High School Initiative, is a leading force for innovative educational options.

This year’s conference, February 9 – 12, 2011 in Nashville, will feature a President’s Business Meeting for State & National Leadership, similar to the Leadership Forum at past IALA conferences. We enthusiastically support this initiative and encourage organization leaders to attend and urge members to join NAEA. (membership is free!) Dr. Ray Morley of Iowa will represent IALA at the meeting of alternative organizational leaders.

Wayne Jennings, IALA Board Chair
Ray Morley, Vice-Chair
Dan Daly, Secretary/Treasurer

Alternative Education Course

Wayne Jennings — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 03:23:27 +0000

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 will run from June 21 to July 23. The course will cover the broad range of alternatives, including free schools, open schools, schools-within-schools, schools-without-walls, magnet schools, charter schools, home schools, and virtual schools. For more information: Dr. Roy Weaver, Professor of Curriculum at Ball State University rweaver@bsu.edu cell: 765.744.0913. Course Information: http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/CollegesandDepartments/Distance/Academics/CourseInfo/Schedule/Summer2010Schedule/EducationalStudies.aspx

Registration: https://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/see/

Welcome to New Website Editor

admin — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:17:25 +0000

Peter Wieczorek will be editing the website. He is a life science teacher, advisor and board chair at Northwest Passage High School in Coon Rapids, MN. Peter has spent the majority of his career working with youth in non-traditional/alternative settings. In addition to working at NWPHS he lives in Clear Lake, WI with his wife, Renee and two sons, Isaac (12) and Noah (9). He is excited to be joining IALA.

IALA Resources

admin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:42:25 +0000

At the home page, people can subscribe to this monthly newsletter (if your received this in your email, you are already subscribed). If you wish to unsubscribe, send an email to Contact Us and you will be removed.

At the home page, you can search on the 100s of past notes and other resources at the site.

The numerous articles and material on alternatives, legislation are all freely available to you.

Other items available to you: Store has the Glines powerful book, Educational Alternatives for Everyone and the DVD on Wilson Campus school; Books by Glines and others, information About Us; and how to Join and Support the choices in education movement.

IALA is a Great Resource for You!

Wayne Jennings — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:30:35 +0000

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 website www.learningalternatives.net) contains topics to search for and the top beige band here leads to a variety of sections such as interesting articles, items about alternatives, how to order materials, laws, and more.

You can subscribe (left side of website). That’s free and confidential. We do not share names with anyone, ever. Just enter your email address in the yellow band and hit Go. About once a month we send out this email with news on educational alternatives. This helps keep you up-to-date on this topic.

Be sure to use the search engine. It works just like Google only is restricted to our resource goldmine. You are free to use any of the materials on the site!! We work as volunteers with the goal to inform others about educational choices. We receive funding from state alternative education associations to pay overhead costs.

IALA Changes Direction

Wayne Jennings — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:53:18 +0000

IALA held its 36th annual conference at Villanava Unversity June 20-22. Preceeding the conference was a “Leaderhip Summit.” It was determined that IALA’s direction needs to shift from conferences to policy implementation. The test of our mission is that every child has a choice of program within the publically funded sector. The growth of magnet, online and charter schools contributes to this aim but few children still have a choice of programs. We decided on the following three policy initiatives:
1. Program autonomy. School staff creativity and energy are freed if given authority over the program, budget and staffing.
2. Multiple measures. There needs to be a variety of ways to assess student and program achievement besides the current emphasis on standardized test scores which hurts innovative programs with expanded outcomes.
3. Flexible licensing. Interdisciplinary and non-course based programs need differently trained staff with some licensed as generalist educators.

A new working board of directors will be formed to carry out these initiatives and to align with other organizations with similar missions. Dan Daly, Ray Morley and Wayne Jennings were assigned the task or reorganizing IALA.

Fabulous Book

Wayne Jennings — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 21:32:56 +0000

Rescuing the Public Schools: What Will It Take to Leave No Child Behind by Evans Clinchy, a longtime school reformer and author, has written a penetrating analysis of schooling and proposes precisely the same solution that IALA suggests. Namely, provide a wide variety of learningalternatives for parents and students to choose from. He considers this the only way out of the current gridlock of status quo and tinkering bureaucracies that never produce satisfying or enduring change..

About This Weblog

Wayne Jennings — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 02:26:12 +0000

Hello, I am Wayne Jennings the person who prepares these blog entries for the International Association for Learning Alternatives or IALA. The organization has held national conference for the past 35 years and formally organized as a nonprofit seven years ago.

The mission of IALA is to lead, promote and support learning alternatives in education.

Our goal for parents and learners is to have choices to meet their needs, interests, learning styles and intelligences. We believe that a one-size education program does not fit everyone and that learning is best served by having choices.

I am also the chair of our board of directors. Dan Daly is the executive director. All of us are volunteers. But as experienced educators we recognize the value of choices. IALA receives support from state alternative organizations.

We welcome subscribers, so tell others that they may subscribe in the little box on the right of this website. There is no cost and names are not shared with anyone. People may unsubscribe at any time. Subscribing is a good way to keep abreast of news about educational choices via a brief monthly e-mail with links to more information depending on your interest.

This website contains a wealth of background articles and other information which you are free to use. You may search through the several hundred blog entries by topic. The names of the board of directors and their meeting minutes can also be found here.

Thanks for your interest.

IALA Initiatives and Conference

Wayne Jennings — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 04:46:40 +0000

The IALA Board of Directors approved the next conference for June 20-23, 2007 at beautiful Villanova University near Philadelphia. Mark your calendars. Take a virtual tour of the campus and surrounding area of historic importance. We hope to establish a one day “leadership summit” prior to the conference to discuss advancing policies about education choices at state and federal levels. The Board also established several initiatives:

1. Autonomy for learning alternatives. Alternative schools and programs must have the authority to make decisions to accomplish their vision and mission. This means decision-making in the areas of the program design, staffing configuration and total budget allocation. Many alternatives exist at the whim of their districts and thus surrender their initiative and curiosity.
2. Alternative assessments. Current judgments about alternative programs are made almost solely on the basis of standardized test scores. This should be but one of a number of ways to judge a program’s effectiveness.
3. Teacher licensure. Many alternative programs call for thematic or interdisciplinary approaches to learning. Some alternatives are non-course-based, that is, not presented in the usual subject matter divisions of English, social studies, math, science.
In addition continued work with youth development was urged. The STARS program has achieved excellent results by involving youth in formulating and demonstrating their learning, legislative affairs and leadership initiatives. The power of youth to change education could be harnessed to overcome the inertia of schools status quo.

If any of these interest you, contact Dan Daly, executive director at ddaly@mn.rr.com.

Major Conference on Alternatives

Wayne Jennings — Wed, 31 May 2006 02:45:01 +0000

The International Association for Learning Alternatives will hold its annual conference at Ocean Shores, Washington June 29, July 1, 2006. This meaty and significant conference features the theme, Education for Everyone, and emphasizes that many types of alternatives are necessary to meet different learning needs and student-centered philosophies of education: magnet school, charter schools, homeschooling, democratic schools, virtual schools, Montessori, and more. Make this a summer vacation trip with your family to this lovely setting.

Conferees will enjoy the Shilo Inn conference site on the Pacific Ocean with a variety of family activities. Ocean Shores is a 6,000 acre peninsula at the mouth of Grays Harbor, the only deep water port on the Pacific coast north of San Francisco. Ocean Shores was originally developed in 1960, and is one of Washington

Search for Topics of Interest

Wayne Jennings — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 22:06:21 +0000

You can search for a topic to find all previous information and links. For example, you can find information on subjects like virtual schools, unschooling, middle colleges or other alternatives by either typing in the term in the “Search this site” box or by clicking on the term under “Blog Categories.” Immediately, the computer will find all previous blogs with their links to websites. Try it! You will love this feature. It gives you access to much material for research on a topic.

Also note that this website under “Site Navigation” has a wealth of information about us, our national conference, background articles, research, membership, our Board, minutes, a great book on alternatives you can order, a video about one of the most famous and innovative schools, state laws, criteria for alternatives, related conferences, keynote speech by Don Glines and much more including how to contact us.

IALA Conference

Wayne Jennings — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 21:08:00 +0000

The International Association for Learning Alternatives held its 34th annual conference April 6-8, 2005 in Waterloo in conjunction with the Iowa Association of Alternative Education. Everyone enjoyed a well-planned and stimulating conference. Keynoters were Gary Phillips and Ann White. Both were awesome and inspiring. A wide variety of breakout sessions featured practical, experiential, charter schools, powerful instructional strategies, differentiating learning, NCLB issues, STARS youth organization and many others. Tom Keating, Minnesota teacher of the year presented which was interesting as he was the first such from an alternative school.

Next year’s conference will be June 29-July1, 2006 in beautiful Ocean Shores, Washington. Save the date. Watch for information.

Excellent book, Educational Alternatives for Everyone

Wayne Jennings — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 04:28:23 +0000

Don Glines’ excellent book, Educational Alternatives for Everyone: A Handbook for Educators, Families and Politicians is for sale at our online store. An unparalleled and extraordinary resource book on learning alternatives by the foremost advocate for alternatives. It presents the reasons why choices of a variety of learning environments are essential for the future of society, offers concrete descriptions of various practical programs, defines the potential outcomes and methods of assessment, provides an extensive bibliography and cites fifty relevant quotes by child-centered leaders. 410 pages, 2002. Price $35, Members $30.Buy it now to obtain the greatest resource on educational alternatives. It’s many books of information in one volume.