Alternative schools are essentially specialized educational environments that place a great deal of emphasis on small classrooms, high teacher-to-student ratios, individualized instruction, noncompetitive performance assessments, and less structured classrooms (Raywid 1983). The purpose of these schools is to provide academic instruction to students expelled or suspended for disruptive behavior or weapons possession, or who are unable to succeed in the mainstream school environment (Ingersoll and Leboeuf 1997).While there is a great degree of variation among alternative schools, research demonstrates that the schools that succeed with this population of youth typically have  Curriculum-based on real-life learning (Coffee and Pestridge 2001) Bartlett Educational Center in Erlanger/Elsmere School District is a Alternative school.  4-H  partnered with the School Counselor to provide Real Life Learning through Cooking Classes.  4-H Cooking program met once a week and taught  the youth with basic cooking skills  gradually working  toward more complicated cooking skills.  By the end of the program the youth were able to take a basket of ingredients and produce a dinner using all of the skills they learned through the year.  In fact all of the youth stated they had cooked at home after taking the class and felt confident in cooking a variety of dishes.