Remedial education in the context of "High-stakes testing"

An alternative school is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional. Such schools offer a wide range of philosophies and teaching methods; some have political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, while others are more ad hoc assemblies of teachers and students dissatisfied with some aspect of mainstream or traditional education.

Some schools are based on pedagogical approaches differing from that of the mainstream pedagogy employed in a culture, while other schools are for gifted students, children with special needs, children who have fallen off the track educationally or expelled from their base school, children who wish to explore unstructured or less rigid systems of learning, etc.

In the United States, community colleges are primarily two-year public institutions of tertiary education. Community colleges offer undergraduate education in the form of an associate degree. In addition, community colleges also offer remedial education, GEDs, high school diplomas, technical diplomas and tech certificates, and occasionally, at some colleges, a limited number of 4-year bachelor's degrees. After graduating from a community college, some students transfer to a four-year college or university to continue their studies leading to a bachelor's degree. Community college is tuition-free for selected students in 47 states, often under the name College Promise. Most community college instructors have advanced degrees but serve as part-time low wage employees.

Community college enrollment has declined every year since 2010. According to the National Student Clearinghouse, the total decline in enrollment from 2010 to 2020 was more than 2.2 million students. The largest enrollment drop occurred in 2020, the latest year surveyed.