School administrators in Texas cannot require all children to attend public school (Leeper v. Arlington I.S.D., 1987). Even though efforts to improve public school education have been extensive at both the state and national levels, many parents have become dissatisfied with public schools and have pursued educational alternatives.

Home schooling is one alternative option for parents who decide to pursue other schooling options for their children. Leeper v. Arlington I. S. D. (1987) paved the way for the boom of home schooling in Texas. In that case, which challenged the compulsory school attendance law, a state district judge ruled that in the state of Texas a home in which students are instructed qualifies as a private school (Kemerer & Walsh, 1994). Chief among the acceptable conditions which qualified a home as a private school were that students were actually taught by parents or those standing in parental authority, that students follow a curriculum consisting of books and other written material, and that the curriculum is designed to meet fundamental educational goals of reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics, and a study of good citizenship (Funkhouser, 2000).

Texas law presently does not delineate any statutes governing home schools, but Leeper v.Arlington established that home schools must have a curriculum that is designed to meet basic educational goals. The Texas Court of Appeals affirmed Leeper v. Arlington in 1991, which then went to the Texas Supreme Court as Texas Education Agency v.Leeper. The state’s high court ruled that a home school could be a private school with exemption to compulsory attendance law, as long as children are taught in a legitimate manner from curriculum designed to meet basic educational goals (Funkhouser, 2000). Home schooling in the United States has become a topic of interest to education policymakers, administrators, and the general public. Published estimates of the number of children who are home schooled vary by hundreds of thousands of children and are of questionable reliability (Lines, 1998).

Texas parents were also able to choose charter schools as an alternative to public school after the Texas legislature authorized creation of these schools under three different arrangements: home rule school district, campus, or program charters (TEA, 1999; Funkhouser, 2000). Unlike conventional public schools, charter schools must be customer-oriented in order to remain in the business of education. Ray Budde was credited with introducing the idea of charter schools in the United States in the late 1980s. The first United States charter school law was passed in Minnesota, and California followed with charter legislation in 1992 (Funkhouser).

No two state charter laws are alike. Laws vary and sponsors of charters can be either local boards or state boards of education, but the majority of states require local board endorsement. Charters are granted to teachers, parents, universities, community members, business leaders, and other interested groups (Funkhouser, 2000; TEA, 1999).

Some resistance to charter schools focused on negative attitudes stemming from the traditional educational establishment. Other issues derived from financial concerns because state per-pupil funds that would have gone to the local district followed the students to the charter school (Funkhouser, 2000). In the academic year 2004, the Snapshot State Summary Table (TEA, 2004c) indicated that 274 charter schools were serving 7,539 students in the alternative charter school setting.

The GED has become a key credential for school dropouts in the United States, especially for economically disadvantaged students (Tyler, 2003). Some researchers have concluded that the GED is not equivalent to a high school diploma and that GED recipients are similar to dropouts in terms of labor market outcomes (Boesel, Alsalam, & Smith, 1998). The relationship between GED recipients and dropouts might be explained through noncognitive skills (Heckman & Rubinstein, 2001). Given the mixed results of this research, there is value in examining the GED credential using a different sample. Moreover, the focus of previous studies has been on the economic benefits of the GED credential, and benefits in other areas may have been overlooked.

As noted in Tyler’s (2003) findings, a lack of research exists on the relationship between the GED and nonlabor market outcomes. One of the few examples of such studies is an examination of the connection between GED recipients and smoking and obesity (Kenkel, Lillard, & Mathios, 2006). Due to the lack of research, it is unclear whether GED credentials benefit dropouts, especially in areas other than increased earnings.

Although the GED is viewed as a high school equivalent, a GED credential is not equal to a high school diploma, as economic researchers have shown (Heckman & LaFontaine, 2006). Even so, the possession of a GED credential should benefit dropouts because it indicates a specific level of educational attainment.

Private schooling has received significant attention from educational reformers who view the public school system as too resistant to change to be successfully reformed. Rather than provide money directly to public schools, the supporters of private schools urged the adoption of some type of voucher system whereby public money goes to parents, who then choose a public or private school for their children (Funkhouser, 2000). Proponents believed that such a system would stimulate healthy competition within the educational system and would give parents a greater stake in their children’s education (Rumberger, 1987). Critics asserted that a voucher system would destroy the common learning experience fostered by the public school and would be discriminatory both economically and racially (Funkhouser, 2000). School enrollment grew faster in the 1990s than in the 1980s, and even though much of the growth in both decades was in public education, private and other forms of education became larger parts of total elementary and secondary enrollment in the state over the last decade (Murdock et al., 2002).

Most educators have recognized the value of small class sizes. Over the last half of the 20th century, student-to-teacher ratios in the United States have fallen from about 27:1 to 17:1, or 35% (Hanushek, Rifkin, & Taylor, 1996). Larger school size (enrollment) has long been linked to higher dropout rates. Districts with larger enrollments per school tended to have higher dropout rates (Alspaugh, 1998). The reasons for these higher numbers varied by location. A portion of the larger schools had a greater number of Special Education students and students with Limited English Proficiency. These schools often had a greater number of students with low socioeconomic backgrounds. As school size increased, the negative correlation between the percent of students on free or reduced lunch and educational outcomes increased in magnitude, illustrating some of the complex, underlying relationships associated with the variables involved in studies of dropout rates (Alspaugh, 1998). Alspaugh believed that, as a school’s enrollment grew, the probability that underlying factors associated with high dropout rates would also increase. Small school size was associated with lower high school dropout rates (Toenjes, 1989).

Small classes or small groups working with one teacher were key elements of programs targeted for students at-risk of dropping out (Slavin, 1990; Slavin & Madden, 1995). Glass and Smith (1978) strongly endorsed reduced class size as a reform likely to produce improvements in academic achievement. The researchers reviewed 80 research reports on the relationship between class size and achievement, obtaining more than 100 comparisons from studies of smaller and larger classes. The meta-analyses showed that, as class size decreased, achievement increased and that benefits began to emerge as class size fell below 20 students. Wehlage, Rutter, Smith, Lesko, and Fernandez (1989) stated, “The structural and cultural factors are interrelated; i.e., smallness and autonomy are linked to teachers’ sense of school ownership and their willingness to invest themselves in helping at-risk students” (p. 147).

The most influential contemporary evidence that smaller classes lead to improved achievement was Tennessee’s Project STAR (Finn, 2002). Because this program set up randomly selected control and experimental groups of students, researchers were able to compare students who had four years of small class participation with students who had none. Researchers could more reliably evaluate the impact of the class size reform. Finn documented that students in smaller classes did better than those students in larger classes throughout Grades Kindergarten through 3. Finn further reported that minority and inner city children gained the most from smaller classes and that the more years spent in reduced size classes, the longer lasting the benefits. These studies verified the benefits of smaller classes and lower student-to-teacher ratios for students served in academic alternative schools. Achilles (1996) reported that in all assessments for student achievement, students in class sizes of 13–17 scored higher than the students in class sizes of 22–25.

Regardless of the era, the findings were consistent. Small schools were perceived as safe, personalized, and equitable environments (Raywid & Oshiyama, 2000). By creating these environments, student achievement increased, and students had greater opportunities for individual development (Cotton, 2001).

Some educators and legislators have argued that large schools were more cost-effective than smaller schools. A closer look revealed that this belief may not be true. Researchers have demonstrated that the relationship between size and costs varied depending on individual school circumstances (Gregory, 1992; Howley, 1996). Many small schools were operated very economically, and many large ones had exorbitant per-pupil costs.

McKenzie (1983) argued that many analyses of the school size-cost relationship were simplistic and did not yield useful information. He provided a numerical representation of that relationship, which indicated that it was U-shaped; that is, average per-pupil costs declined up to a point as enrollment increased, reached a minimum, and then rose with increased school growth. Researchers (Gregory, 1992; Robertson, 1995) claimed that the sizeable staff needed to supervise and direct large numbers of students accounted for the growth in costs as school enrollment increased.

The Digest of Education Statistics (2004) stated that total per pupil expenditures in the United States increased from $373 in 1919–1920 to $7,507 in 2000–2101 after adjustments based upon The Consumer Price Index. From 1970–1973 and 1983–1988, the main average annual increases at just over 4% were recorded. In Texas, the total unadjusted per pupil expenditures followed a similar pattern by increasing from $1,740 per student in 1980 to $6,539 per student by 2000.

Skandera and Sousa (2003) explained several causes for growth in per pupil spending. Special education student expenditure changes explained about 20% of the expenditure growth between 1980 and 1990. Pupil-teacher ratios dropped from 22.3:1 to 17.3:1 from 1970 to 1995. Teacher salaries increased as the median teacher experience increased from 8 years to 15 years for the same years. The percentage of teachers with a master's degree increased from 27.5% in 1970 to 56.2% in 1995, and growth in expenditures, other than instructional salaries, revealed a large share of the cost increases. Hanushek et al. (1996) reported comparable findings in their study of 20th century expenditure growth in U.S. school spending.

In the 2001–2002 school year, Texas per pupil spending ranked 36th in the United States at $6,771 and 36th for instructional spending at $4,089 (Digest of Education Statistics, 2004). Expenditure changes followed the U.S. trend with considerable increases reported from $551 per-pupil in 1969 to the $6,771 per pupil in 2001–2002. However, from 1999 to 2002, only minor increases in per pupil spending were shown. Along with expenditure increases, student-to-teacher ratios fell from 15.3:1 in 1997 to 14.7:1 in 2001 (Digest of Education Statistics). Actually, a considerable reduction in the ratio of non-teaching professionals per student occurred from 86.9:1 in 1991–1992 to 63.8:1 in 2004–2005 (TEA, 1991; TEA, 2004d). This decrease in the ratio of non-teaching professionals indicated an overall increase in non-instructional spending.

The data in Texas indicated that general revenue expenditures on public higher education increased by 18.3% and that per pupil expenditures increased by 8.7% between 1990 and 2000 (Murdock et al., 2002). Public costs in Texas for education in 2000 were more than $23 billion for elementary and secondary education, having increased by 31.6% in real dollar terms from 1990 to 2000, and general revenue costs for educational programs at colleges and universities were more than $2.6 billion in 2000, having increased by more than 18.3% from 1990 to 2000 (Murdock et al., 2002).

Wolk (2000) stated in his study of alternative schools that the alternative setting reflected Dewey’s ideals in that:

Sergiovanni (1999) noted that all students, at-risk or otherwise, could reach their potential with the encouragement of quality teachers within a caring school community. The results of a 2001 study of alternative schools (Husted & Cavalluzzo, 2001) indicated that alternative schools, schools-within-schools, career academies, magnet schools, and technology preparation schools had higher success rates for graduating at-risk students. Researchers attributed that success to the smaller learning environment, increased educational engagement, varied instructional techniques, and expanded teacher input regarding issues related to curriculum and governance (Conrath, 2001; Roderick, 1993; Rumberger, 1987).

In this article, we explored the importance of studying the dropout issue, as well as the reasons that prompted a student’s decision to leave school before completing graduation requirements. In this review, we examined the issues faced by students who are at-risk of dropping out of school. Specific topics included (a) students in danger of failing to graduate from high school, (b) defining dropouts, (c) at-risk students and dropouts, (d) the history of traditional education, (e) alternative schools, and (f) accountability and alternative education. Also explored was the literature regarding school settings and the impact the aforementioned issues have on at-risk students.

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