The major goal of an alternative school is to provide opportunities for the students not succeeding in the traditional classroom setting to obtain academic credit, career exploration activities, vocational work experience, and extended teacher/peer support in an alternative setting where the unltimate goal is that of obtaining a diploma. This is done through methods aimed at helping and encouraging at-risk students Many of the methods utilized attempt to:
- Reduce the alienation and improve the self-concept of at-risk students
- Provide at-risk students with increased access to desirable social roles
- Increase community and parental participation in the education of at-risk students
- Provide a flexible and integrated academic and vocationally oriented curriculum which emphasizes the importance of school in preparing for later life
- Provide students with a success-oriented program to obtain academic and employability skills in a school environment
- Provide a competency-based, self-paced program with clear quantifiable objectives. Instruction will be provided in a variety of ways best suited to the individual student's needs
- Foster within students the responsibility for their own learning and the expectation that they will take an active role in setting their own goals