Foreword / Jeannie Oakes -- 1. Overview. Where Are the Girls? From Factory to Soap Opera. Entering the Hidden World. A Mini-Traditional School and a Hybrid Alternative. In the Eyes of the Beholder: Helper, Hippie, Stoner, Spy. Some Definitions. Ways of Seeing the Continuation School -- 2. How a Chameleon Survives: A History of Continuation. Early Years: A Part-Time Bridge between Schooling and Work. Years of Uncertainty during Hard Times. Adjustment Education: 1945-1965. Alternative Education for "Divergent Youth" The "Discovery" of an Outcast Group: Pregnant and Mothering Girls -- 3. Safety Valve versus Safety Net: The Process of Stigmatization. Community and Family Influences. Organizational Influences. Individual and Small Group Influences -- 4. Slipping In and Out of the System: Symptoms and Styles of Disengagement by Gender. Warning Signals: Quiet and Loud. Absenteeism and Cutting Classes. Classroom Survival Strategies. Boys' and Tough Girls' Greater Vulnerability to Pushout -- 5. Reasons for and Timing of Disengagement by Gender. Fighting. Institution Labeling Practices and Stigma Avoiders. Competing Demands of Relationships and the Relationship-Absorbed. Early Pregnancy, Parenthood, and Marriage. Family and Work Responsibilities. Timing of Disengagement -- 6. What Do Continuation Schools Continue? Learning Gender and Class. Connections between the Continuation School and Students' Futures. Peers' Informal Enforcement of Traditional Gender Identities. Consequences of Dropping Out versus Getting a Continuation Diploma -- 7. Reengagement: Who and How by Gender. The Continuation Credential. Academics: Second Chancers, Push-Throughs, and Pushouts. Extracurricular Activities. Peer Relations. The Limits to Reengagement -- 8. Hidden Hierarchies. The Credential Hierarchy and the Dilemma of Difference. The Gender Hierarchy. The Adult-Child Hierarchy. The Knowledge Hierarchy. Appendix: Routes through the Hidden World: Charts of Student Flows into and out of Beacon and La Fuente
Summary
Describes the history of continuing education and how high schools lower their dropout rates by sending marginalized students to alternative schools, and examines the factors that encourage and limit the success of alternative schools
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-265) and index
