ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION
States should broaden eligibility guidelines, going beyond a focus on troublesome or disruptive youth to include any student who is not thriving in a traditional high school setting. The intent should be to bring alternative education into the mainstream as a legitimate pathway toward obtaining high school and postsecondary credentials. 
States should provide guidance on quality standards by which to operate and manage alternative schools and programs, while still allowing flexibility for districts and schools to design alternative education to meet local conditions and student needs.
States should allow alternative programs the flexibility they need to move students along proficiency-based pathways, while ensuring that the programs expect students to meet the common statewide standards. States also should give alternative programs credit within the state's accountability system for reengaging and holding onto students and for hitting key benchmarks toward common graduation and college-ready standards.
States should implement strategic and comprehensive efforts to invent educational models that improve outcomes for off-track students, and spread those that prove successful. States have a responsibility to provide the flexibility and funding that supports this kind of large-scale innovation.
States should seek to improve the quality of alternative education by improving the quality of instructional staff and leadership. They should provide incentives for high-performing teachers and leaders to join alternative education programs and support their ongoing professional development.
States should formally recognize that academic success is virtually impossible for alternative education students without meaningful support services. States should also provide funding and other incentives for districts and schools to partner with outside organizations that specialize in these areas to ensure that students receive the full range of needed supports.
States should develop funding policies that channel more resources toward off-track students, taking into account that alternative education programs must not only reengage them but also accelerate their learning and provide intensive academic and social supports to help them succeed.