This book focuses on the process of implementing an alternative school within a public urban system. To identify and illustrate the problems inherent in organizing and operating an alternative school the West Philadelphia Community Free School was taken as a case study. Observations and analysis are here offered on two different levels: (1) harnessing the resources of an urban community to sustain the existence of an alternative school, and (2) the alternative school itself as providing an innovative approach to learning. Within these two levels several important aspects of the implementation process are dealt with: (1) Parents and members of the community became active participants in determining the goals of an educational facility which directly affected their own and their children's lives; (2) The partners to this experiment demonstrated to varying degrees a willingness to share in the overall responsibility of educating urban youth; (3) The alternative school itself, physically small and scaled to human size, attempted to create a total learning environment; and, (4) finally, in spite of all the problems, delays, and frustrations in implementation, this alternative school did, in fact, become a reality. The book is arranged to illustrate as clearly as possible the implementation process. (Author/JM)