 self-esteem; others have shared anecdotal reports on efforts to serve children and youth in alternative settings (Lehr & Lange, 2003). One of the challenges to conducting rigorous research stems from the fact that alternative programs serve extremely homogeneous populations of children and youth in extremely diverse settings. Furthermore, alternative schools serve especially ideographic functions. Students enrolled voluntarily in a remedial day school program may bear little resemblance to adjudicated delinquents in a secure facility. Research conducted in the former setting would have limited applicability in the latter facility. Another challenge relates to the fact that daily demands associated with program operation pose myriad challenges, some of which may be at odds with research designed to “capture the richness of what some alternative programs offer” (Lahr & Lange, 2003, p. 63). Finally, longstanding evidence shows that changes in the child or adolescent and in the environment to which the child or adolescent returns influences the level of adjustment to home and community (Lewis, 1982; 1988). That incongruous reality can pose a problem for conducting outcome-based studies on alternative educational programs.
Paraphrasing language of a recent Carnegie Foundation report (2005), alternative education is no place for modest ambitions. For children or adolescents placed in alternative settings, time is unforgiving (Sugai, 1998) as their number of positive life changes diminish daily. If educators and administrators, and other concerned professionals are to better serve this population of children and youth, we must (a) examine critically the current practices, (b) discard those practices for which no empirical evidence exists to support their efficacy, and (c) replace these practices with what works. Given the limited amount of empirical research available to educators, administrators, and all the other varying individuals involved with the care of these children, the need exists to draw upon a mix of expert opinion and research that has been conducted on comparable populations of students and then engage in systematic replication efforts to substantiate their worth in alternative settings. However, striving to fill the void as it relates to empirical research we must not lose sight of Hobb’s (1965) contention that trust is the glue that holds the teaching and learning process together. As Quinn and her colleagues report (2006), the nature of the relationship between adults and the children and adolescents in their care is absolutely essential to realizing the positive outcomes all of us in this field have dedicated ourselves to achieving.
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