Author Description

Four cases were studied in which proposals for alternative programs were made to publicly-funded school boards in Ontario. A review of the school choice and innovation adoption literature indicated that the decision to accept/reject a proposal was influenced by the following themes: Context, Nature of the School Board, Characteristics of the Advocates, and Nature of the Program. My hypothesis was that an alternative program requires an internal advocate with clout and must not challenge sacred roles and relationships. I concluded that the decision to accept or reject the proposals was most influenced by factors related to: Context, Nature of Program and Characteristics of Advocates. Of the ten factors within the Nature of Program theme, only one was found to be clearly significant: challenges to roles and relationships. Within the Characteristics of Advocates theme, six factors were found to be significant. The relative importance of the three themes was not determined.