This study focuses on the secondary counselor perspective for students using alternative credit programs, e.g., independent study, evening classes, and summer school, to complement the high school educational experience. Three hundred high school counselors throughout the United States participated in this research that examined "which" types of students most benefited from these "other" curriculum sources and some of the reasons "why." This study also profiled the characteristics of successful alternative education programs. These findings promise to better inform counselors, school administrators, curricular specialists, providers, and students' themselves about the role alternative education is increasingly having within the secondary schools.