Education Commons^™

Alternative Learning Environments In Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

One intervention that has been shown to be successful in helping students who have not done well in traditional school settings is alternative learning environments (ALE), or alternative schools (Lehr, Lanners, & Lange, 2003). The U.S. Department of Education (2002) defines an alternative school as “a public elementary/secondary school that addresses the needs of students that typically cannot be met in a regular school, provides nontraditional education, serves as an adjunct to a regular school, or falls outside the categories for regular, special education or vocational education.”