IALA » MN Assoc. Alt Prog

Range of Alternatives

Wayne Jennings — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:01:28 +0000

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 1970 which was almost nothing in the public sector. In that sense it represents major progress in the IALA mission of leading, promoting and supporting learning alternatives in education to better match needs of every child. Of course, much remains to be done to reach the policy that every state and the federal government provide a choice of different programs for each child.

Minnesota Options for Students

1. State approved alternative programs (SAAP)

Area learning centers (ALC)
Contract schools
Alternative programs

2. Charter schools

3. Online/distant learning schools

4. Traditional schools

5. Magnet schools

6. Post secondary enrollment options (early college enrollment)

7. Open enrollment

8. Nonpublic schools

9. Programmatic schools

Open education
Core knowledge
Subject: performing arts, science
Experiential and community based
Project based
Waldorf
Montessori

10. Recovery schools

11. Democratic schools

Public School Choice

Wayne Jennings — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 17:33:15 +0000

Enormous growth is being registered in the choices available to Minnesota families, an early adopter of providing educational options. As an example of the growing desirability of choices, here are the data and types of choices for Minnesota between the years 1996-97 and 2004-05 (Source: Minnesota Department of Education): See newspaper story by reporter, James Walsh in the Star Tribune on this topic.

Postsecondary enrollment options: This program permits high school juniors and seniors to attend college and other post secondary programs with 90% of the revenue following the student to pay tuition which the post secondary insitituion must accept as full payment if they chose to participate. Growth 18%.

Open enrollment: Permits students to attend another school district. 64%

Alternative programs for at-risk students: 156%

Homeschooling: 41%

Charter schools: 736%

Minnesota Conference

Wayne Jennings — Fri, 21 Mar 2003 15:37:11 +0000

The Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs (MAAP) held its annual conference Feb. 19-21, 2003 in Rochester, MN. 825 people attended. The keynote speaker was Deborah Meier, former principal of Central Park East schools in New York City and now co-principal of Mission Hill School in Boston and author of several books. 75 breakout sessions featured such topics as new forms of education, teaching methods, brain based learning, service learning, experiential learning, the MAAP student organization (STARS).