Koetzsch (1997) states that, in its broadest sense, alternative education refers to all programs of education that fall outside of the traditional K-12 public school system. These programs would include private schools, home schools, special education schools for gifted children, and so forth. In some cases, alternative education is delivered to students over the internet (see: USA Today, June 2, 2003). The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of some forms of alternative education. To this end, the paper discusses home-schooling, the Waldorf School system, and the charter school system. The paper ends with a general conclusion about alternative education based on the material presented.
One large and growing segment of alternative education consists of "home-schooling." According to Jaycox (2001), it is estimated that almost one million students are currently being home-schooled in the United States. Parents, Jaycox reports, tend to have diverse reasons for home-schooling their children although most do so simply because they feel that they can give their children a better education at home. About 39 percent of parents, home-school for religious reasons. Other, less frequently cited, reasons include transportation convenience, and a general dislike of the environment of local schools.
Rudner (1999) conducted a study using a large national sample of 39,607 home-schooled students. Findings showed that most students who were schooled at home had at least one parent who was a certified teacher. Families had a median income of about $52,000 per year; most students lived in nuclear families where the father worked but the mother did not. It was also found that home schooled students watched significantly less television than non-home-schooled children. In terms of academic achievement, Rudner reported that an analysis of standard test scores showed that about 25 percent of students schooled at home were operating ...