This report examines the Ford Foundation's efforts in developing and implementing alternative schools to the public schools or in providing seed money to new alternatives designed for public support. The publication begins with a look at the origin of the alternative school movement and then describes several kinds of school alternatives assisted by the Foundation in recent years, such as the Philadelphia Parkway Program, a school without walls; the East Harlem Block Schools, two day-care centers and a private elementary school scattered in three large storefronts in different locations; and the Massachusetts Experimental School System, established as a model for other school systems in the State. The Foundation advocates public funding as the long-term solution to the question of survival for most alternative schools. (Photographs may reproduce poorly.) (Author/DN)