Alternative education has its beginnings from the foundation of education in America. However, during the civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s is when the biggest push for alternatives arose. Traditionally, alternative education programs have existed primarily to house those students who were causing problems in their mainstream settings. This is still true today but some students are opting to attend these alternative schools to have access to the vocational training that is associated with many of these schools.

This study will explore the foundations of alternative education and the impact it has had on society. Specific examples will be used where schools have taken a proactive approach to raising the attendance expectations of these students who have otherwise failed to attend at their traditional schools. Specific emphasis will be placed on one such school which adopted a 90% mandatory attendance to remain in the day school setting.

The results of this school’s expectations and outcomes will show that raising attendance expectations of former failing students does indeed increase credits earned, therefore leading to an increase in graduation rates.

The researcher also acknowledges that some of the materials presented in this thesis are indeed over ten years old. However, the researcher felt that it was pertinent foundational material for the ultimate outcome of the project to use these older references to show that indeed attendance has been affecting graduation rates for a number of years.