This book explores the unique phenomenon of public alternative schools in Toronto, Canada and other large urban areas.  Although schools of this kind have existed for more than a century, very little has been written about the alternative school movement. These alternatives focus more on child-centered instruction, give many students (and teachers) opportunities to organize the school differently, provide a greater voice for teachers, students, and parents, and engage students far more with experiential learning. When traditional school structures are failing to meet the needs of many children and youth, there is a rapidly growing need for information and discussion about alternatives that will encourage their talents and serve their needs. This book draws attention to the issue of alternative schooling to help make it more accessible to a wider audience.

Nina Bascia is Professor and Chair of the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education at OISE, University of Toronto, Canada.Esther Fine is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University, in Toronto, Canada.Malcolm Levin is a retired professor of education and university administrator.

1. Curriculum Development in Alternative Schools: What Goes on in Alternative Schools Stays in Alternative Schools.- 2. Alpha Alternative School: Making Democracy Work.- 3. Tracing Tensions in Humanization and Market-based Ideals: Philadelphia Alternative Education in the Past and Present.- 4. Alternative schooling and Black students: Opportunities, challenges and limitations.- 5. Reverberations of Neo-Liberal Policies: The Slow Dilution of Secondary Alternative Schooling in the Toronto District School Board.- 6. Private to Public:  Alternative Schools in Ontario 1965-1975.- 7. Looking Backward and Forward: Fifty Years of Alternative Schools.- 8. From the Release of the Hall-Dennis Report to the Founding of Alpha II Alternative SchoolMy Personal Journey.- 9. An Administrator's Perspective on the Politics of Alternative Schooling in Toronto.- 10. Learning to Teach and Becoming a Science Teacher at City School.- 11. New Beginnings.- 12. Notes on Big Ideas and Incremental Change.- 13.Contact An Alternative School for Working-Class and Racialized Students.- 14. Inglenook: A Cozy Place by the Fire.- 15. The Name Unspoken: Wandering Spirit Survival School.- 16. The Triangle Program: Canada's Only High School Program for LGBTQ Students.- 17. Credit Factory or Alternative Education for Adults? Student Re-engagement through Multi-Media Arts and Social Justice Education, a Transdisciplinary Pilot Project.- 18. Resistance: Student Activism, SEED Alternative School and the Struggle against Streaming.- 19. Some Last Words.