In the late 1960's the educational literature reported the emergence of a distinct kind of public school labeled "alternative." This term was used to describe a variety of school programs. Within this group of schools were several which claimed to offer students opportunities for individual and collective decision making and use of the community as a learning resource. The purpose of this study was to examine five such public secondary alternative schools, the perceptions of students concerning these opportunities, and their responses to these opportunities. The research questions for the study were:

1. Do students in the five schools see these schools offering all students opportunities to make decisions (a) individually concerning their learning and (b) as a group concerning the governance of the school as the schools' literature purports?
2. Do students in the five schools see these schools offering all students opportunities to use the community as a learning resource?
3. How important were the opportunities to make individual learning decisions and use the community as a learning resource in students' decisions to attend the alternative school?
4. Given these opportunities, what choices did a sampling of students actually make? The methods of data collection were:
5. a review of each school's literature to document the opportunities reported available;
6. researcher observations of selected activities and the environments of the five schools;
7. a questionnaire developed by the researcher voluntarily completed by the students;
8. interviews with students who had completed the questionnaire; and
9. interviews with a staff person in each of the five schools. Students' responses were reported in the form of actual numbers, percentages, and mean scores. The opportunities for individual decision making to be examined were those the schools' literature reported were available: (1) grade options, (2) independent study, and (3) evaluation of courses and instructors. All schools reported that some type of all-school meeting was involved in the governance of the school. Students reported the mechanics of the meetings and the range of authority of the meetings. Schools reported use of outside speakers and community persons in the schools and the opportunity for students to take outside learning activities. Students were asked to describe the extent to which these opportunities were available and the types of outside learning activities they pursued. The conclusions of the study were:
10. The opportunities to make learning decisions and use the community as a learning resource were important factors in students' decisions to attend; however, "other" factors such as peer pressure within their former schools and better student-teacher relationships in the alternative school were also important.
11. Students reported that they had a range of grade options, opportunities for independent study, and for evaluation of their courses and instructors.
12. Students knew that their schools had all-school meetings, but they were generally confused regarding the meeting's authority on a variety of issues.
13. Students perceived that they had the opportunity to use the community as a learning resource.
14. Although students reported having the opportunity to make learning decisions, over half the students did not take independent study. Almost as many reported that they did not take an outside learning activity.
15. Those who did take independent study and outside learning activities did so in a quarter or less of their courses.
16. The types of outside learning activities which students pursued varied. Students came to the alternative school partly because of the opportunities that the schools claimed to offer them. Students perceived generally that they had the opportunities which the schools claimed to offer. Some students participated in all activities; some participated selectively; some did not use any of the opportunities available.