Alternative schools were around at least a generation ago. They came to be associated with less structure, fewer rules, and less demanding standards than good public or private schools; but they were often the most useful places to get turned-off kids turned on again.

Then charter schools became an alternative to both public and private schools. They usually follow a private model, within a public school district. Sometimes this allows real innovation.

More alternatives are emerging for kids inside and outside public school systems. Here are three that are pretty interesting.

Chronicle staff writer Meredith May did a recent article on one of the KIPP schools. It prompted me to find out more about them. Some are charters, some not. One that isn't is a school within a school in Oakland, which came about because of the small schools movement. It's called KIPP Bridge College Prep. (See this newsletter's last issue, where a similar project at Balboa is discussed.)

KIPP Bridge College Prep isn't very preppie. It's in West Oakland, where the average family income is $12,500 a year. But it takes itself seriously:

Classes run from 7:30 to 5:00 six days a week, and for a month during the summer. Students earn vouchers based on behavior, which can be redeemed for prizes and field-trips.

One teacher interviewed, Will Chaverin, is happier than ever before. "There are a lot more rules, and it's very structured; but I get to teach more, and discipline less."

Those are exactly the reasons that make private schools attractive to teachers, even though the pay is generally less.

Another innovative school, called the Bay School, an interfaith school hosted by the Episcopal Dioceses of California, will open in September in the Presidio, with 80 ninth graders and 50 tenth graders. By 2007, the school anticipates a full student body of 375, and a faculty of 40. Class size will be 16.

The school's Board of Trustees is comprised of a number of civic leaders, including Bishop Swing, Dr. Nancy Asher of UCSF, and Coreen Ruiz Hester of Hamlin School. The mandate is thus expressed: " Any contemporary curriculum must take this shrinking cosmos seriously. Future leaders need to know the difference Sunni and Shiite and why the difference matters. They need to have the skills and curiosity to keep up, using the web especially, with scientific advances, their ethical implications, and their social and economic potential. Most important, students must be exposed to many issues whose answers are ambiguous, whose outcomes are not clear."

A third and rather startling innovation is happening in spots all around the country, and is reported in the New York Times by Brigid McMenamin: parents are replacing schools with tutors.

These are families who want the benefits of home schooling, but not the complications. (As we've mentioned in earlier newsletters, the benefits are many; but it means that at least one parent has the equivalent of a full-time teaching job.)

In the past, families of children with sports or acting careers have used tutors to replace schooling. The rest of the population generally uses tutors for special test preparation, or to supplement the schoolwork of children who need to make more progress.

Suddenly, people are turning to tutors to replace schools, saying it's because their children are bored, because they need special attention, or because families feel they are better off at home than exposed to vulgarity and violence. The cost is only slightly more than private schooling, and this may become a major trend of the future. We'll keep you posted.