Chapter 8: Dashed Hopes And Withered Dreams: Alternative School for Boys Who “Don’t Fit In”

There are a number of studies that document school experiences of African American male students; however, most of this research is grounded in the traditional public schools (Clark, 1993; George, 1993; Irvine, 1991). There is a paucity of research that accounts for the experiences of students who have been displaced from the public school arena and relegated to alternative school environments. Existing accounts of alternative school experiences of African American students bring to mind three questions: First, what happened in traditional school that led to their expulsion? Second, how do these students make sense of their lives after expulsion? Third, are their dreams of success simply deferred while in the alternative school environment or do they simply vanish?