EN
The article deals with the issue of quality assurance in alternative schools in EU countries. The goal of the research in general is to compare alternative education systems in traditional EU countries and those joining during two last enlargements in terms of school environment using Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale (ECERS). The research was carried out at two stages – theoretical and practical. For the years 2008 – 11 the author has studied the theoretical approaches to alternative education and peculiarities of legislation in 4 EU countries and Ukraine. The author visited 34 alternative schools of different kinds in Poland, France, Germany, and Bulgaria and collected data for the comparative analysis. The results were presented at ECER 2011 in Berlin.