Characteristics of Students in Traditional Versus Alternative High Schools

A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Enrollment in One Urban District

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9730261
AutoresAaron B Perzigian (Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA, autor de correspondencia), Kemal Afacan (0000-0002-2691-6397, University of Wisconsin–Madison, WI, USA), Whitney Justin (University of Wisconsin–Madison, WI, USA), Kimber L Wilkerson (0000-0002-3704-9137, University of Wisconsin–Madison, WI, USA)
Año2017
Volumen49
Número7
Páginas676-700
Fecha de publicación2017-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEducation and Urban Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0013-1245 • E-ISSN: 1552-3535
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0013124516658520
OpenAlexW2474717693
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas30

Urban school districts are comprised of many diverse high school environments including comprehensive neighborhood schools as well as a variety of smaller alternative models that focus on innovative practices, behavior remediation, or academic recovery. In terms of enrollment distribution, urban school districts are increasingly offering nontraditional school placement options for students presenting academic and behavioral difficulty or for students seeking specific curricular emphasis or pedagogy, including—but not limited to—use of school choice voucher programs. In this study, we examined student distribution across school types in one large urban district to investigate enrollment patterns with regard to gender, race, socioeconomic status, and disability status. The results of this cross-sectional analysis indicated significant disproportionality in student demographics within different school types, including overrepresentation of African American students, male students, and students with disabilities in restrictive and segregated alternative schools; overrepresentation of White students and female students in self-selected and innovative alternative schools; and underrepresentation of Hispanic and Asian students in remedial alternative schools. Implications of this disproportionality for policy and practice are discussed

Academic achievement · Demographics · Focus group · Mathematics education · Medical education · Population · Remedial education · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics · Voucher · Demography · Disability Education and Employment · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Education Discipline and Inequality · Medicine · Psychology