This study examined the associations between public alternative schools' teacher job satisfaction and school processes. Based on a multilevel analysis of the national School and StaffingSurvey 2007-08 data, we found that among the seven school processes, public alternative schools' administrative support, staff collegiality, career and working condition, and positive student behavior had positive associations with teacher job satisfaction. More importantly, we noticed that higher level factors (e.g., administrative/resource support from school level or above) presented more impacts on teacher job satisfaction. Other factors' impacts on teacher job satisfaction and relevant implications were discussed as well.

In this study we investigated determinants of the graduation rate of public alternative schools by analyzing the most recent, nationally representative data from Schools and Staffing Survey 2007-2008. Based on the literature, we built a series of three regression models via successive block entry, predicting the graduate rate first by (a) student demographics, then by (a) student demographics and (b) staffing characteristics, and finally by (a) student demographics, (b) staffing characteristics, and (c) school processes, with a purpose to compare the models to study the effects of those variables more amenable to policies (i.e., staffing characteristics and school processes). Among others, we found (a) that staffing characteristics and school processes are important blocks of variables to predict the graduation rate, (b) that summer programs and Hispanic teacher ratio are positively associated with the graduation rate, with having same teachers for 2 years or more being a marginally positive predictor, and (c) that having the traditional grade structure and providing day care are negatively correlated with the graduation rate. Implications of our findings for policy and future research are discussed.