Small Learning Communities
Over the past few decades, large schools have become a way of life across the
United States and the number continues to increase. Wasley (2002) shares
research that suggests that these large high schools lessen the educational
quality for disadvantaged students and indicates that small schools and small
classes increase the success for students. Allen (2002) describes successful
strategies for establishing smaller, more personalized connections for students
within the context of a large high school by establishing “home bases” for a
small group of 15 students, developing project-based learning strategies,
communicating the vision of treating each child with nurturing and caring;
developing small academies for special interest curricula within the school, and
renovating the school creating clusters for these academies. “Smallness is a
prerequisite for the climate and culture that we need to develop the habits of
heart and mind essential to a democracy,” states Meier (1996) founder of Central
Park East Secondary School in Harlem. She advocates seven reasons for smallness
of schools: governance through a small involved group; respect based on knowing
each other; simplicity of organizational structures; safety with reduced
anonymity; parental involvement through really knowing with their child and
building relationships with their parents; accountability through creating a
responsible community; and a sense belonging with adults with whom they have a
relationship.
Example in
Practice:
A partner school has visited several
schools across the country and shared their findings on how these schools create
a sense of community. Included in these findings are: developing authentic
assessments and service learning projects; providing adult advocates and student
voices academic support and ways to keep students on campus, and, through
established professional development time.
Small Learning
Communities Articles:
Two Schools: Two Approaches to Personalized Learning (Small Schools Workshop)
A description of six basic elements of personal instruction. Then it has a
comparison of two schools that fuction useing these elements. One school is in
British Columbia, and the other is in Massachusetts, but both schools use
teachers more as mentors rather than teachers. The teachers guide and give
feedback to students, while they work on their projects in order to fullfill
graduation requirements.
Small
Schools: The Numbers Tell A Story
Ideas about why small schools are more sucessful than larger schools. There are
several ideas presented about why this is the case. Several studies are cited to
back up these ideas.
The Big Benefits of Smallness
Seven reasons why schools with 300-400 students work best. In New York, many
large school buildings are being transformed into smaller schools. The reason
for this is that there is more of an environment where students feel important,
and everyone know who everyone else is. No one can get lost in the crowd.
When It Comes to School Size, Smaller Is Better - Education Week
The current thought on schools is that bigger is better. However many studies
now being done show otherwise. According to Andrew Rotherham, the thinking is
that in large schools there will be more of a variety of classes, and
activities. While this is true, large schools also have a higher dropout rate
and are not as efficient because they require more administration.
Research: Smaller Is Better - Education Week
Starts with a testimonial about one student who was not succeeding in her high
school, but once she went to a smaller school, she flourished. The research
indicates that students in small schools are more likely to attend class,
participate in extracurricular activities, feel safer, and have fewer behavoral
problems. Some educators are wooried that small schools are not cost-effective
however in the long run they seem to be more cost effective than large schools.
Students have more chances to succeed in smaller schools, because more attention
is given to them.
Eight
Steps to Creating Small Schools
Details of the the eight steps that one must take in order to set up a
successful small school.
Serving
Smaller Learning Communities
Discusses key elements of well run small learning communities, and it also has a
link to a website that tells how schools are creating small learning
communities.
How Small Schools
Increase Student Learning (and What Large Schools Can Do About It)
Three success stories about how principals and teachers have taken a large
school and transformed it into several smaller learning communities. They give
insight into what it takes to run a school like this and how much success the
school has had at raising test scores.
Small by Design:
Resizing America's High Schools
Link to the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF) website,
which has links to many different articles about small schools, that could be
very helpful.
Dumbing Down By Sizing Up
Discusses how school board members and parents have more information than
administrators about how small schools have more success, and why this is so. It
also has answers to a few of the "myths" about why small schools are better than
large schools, and a little blurb of research to back it up.
Huge Middle School Tries To Feel Small
A very good article that tells how Creekland Middle school in Georgia, despite
its size of more than 3,000 students, manages to keep an intimate feel within
the school. They do it by dividing the school into communities, each with their
own assistant principal, counselor and secretary. The students are assigned to a
community in sixth grade and stay with that group of students until after eighth
grade.
The Academic Effectiveness of Small-Scale Schooling (An Update)
Discusses findings from a decade of studies about how small schools have more
evident advantages for achievement. It also talks about socio-economic staus and
how that effects achievement.
Small or Large? The
Debate Over School Size
Addresses the research that has been done over school size. It aslo gives pros
and cons, debating which format is better. It also has a glossary of terms,
which is helpful.
Building
Blocks: How Schools Are Designed and Constructed Affects How Students Learn
Examines the correlation between the condition of school buildings and learning.
The article states that rooms that have more openess and light to them better
serve the students and teachers who work there. Since student enrollment rates
are rising the districts must look at ways to contribute to school success.
Shrinking High Schools
Discusses how school enrollment numbers that are between 2,500 and 3,000 are
common and the numbers are rising. It also talks about how several schools have
succeeded in carving small schools out of big ones.
Restructuring the
Schools Learning Arrangement Into Communities
An abstract that discusses an elementary school in Kansas City, which changed
formats to a community learning arrangement.
About
Partnership: The New High School Reform Movement
Discusses public school reform and how Harvard is leading the way to change
junior highs so that they could better serve the students. The Carnegie
Corporation has a study that was put out in the 1980's showing how this will be
accomplished. The Carnegie Corporation is also looking for a way to reform the
public high schools into a more positive learning environment.
The Impact of
School Size
Examines factors that are affected by school size, and also a few things that
must be figured into the long term costs of a school.
Connectedness Called Key to Student Behavior
Study about how students who feel accepted and important are more likely to
avoid using drugs and engaging in dangerous behaviors, and therefore do better
in school.
Big Campuses Harm Morale, Survey Finds
Study done by the University of Minnesota, which found that schools with more
than 1,200 students run a higher risk of their students participating in risky
behavior, and feeling alienated. The research says that schools that have
between 600 and 1200 students are the best size, and its not class size that
matters, but the feeling of acceptance. This survey was completed by 90,000
students at 132 schools across the country.
What Really Divides High Schools?
A discussion of the book "Class Dissmissed" by Meredith Maran, that follows
three students at Berkley High School. This school is the most racially diverse
high school in the nation, yet it still follows the trends of the white student
doing very well, and the racial minorities falling behind. It is a book that
addresses the problems of the educational system.
Sizing Things Up: What Parents, Teachers, and Students Think About Large and
Small High Schools
Presesnts findings from a study of parents, teachers, and students from all
different sizes of schools around the country. It gives some interesting
statistics from the survey, about what parents and teachers think about schools.
Seventy percent of teachers surveyed in the article say that small class size is
more important than small school size, when looking at student achievement.
An Analysis of the Relationship of Size of High School to Marks Received by
Graduates in First Year of College
Examines the relationship between first year college grades and the size of high
school attended as well as their socioeconomic status. Are larger high schools
better than small.
Effects of High School Restructuring and Size on Early Gains in Achievement and
Engagement
Focuses on the effects that restructuring high schools have on achievement. It
surveys 11,794 sophomores in 830 high schools and tracks their gains in
engagement and achievement using a theory developed by the Center On
Organization and Restructuring of Schools at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison.
Gates Small School Initiative
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provides strong support through grants and
research.
Small Classes, Small Schools: The Time Is Now (Wasley, 2002, ascd)
Effects of School Restructuring on the Achievement and Engagement of
Middle-Grade Students
Thinking Small
Technology Counts 2001: Looking Beneath The Numbers To Reveal Digital Inequities
Technology Counts 2001: State Snapshot
How One Community Rejected the Monolithic High School
School Size,
School Climate, and Student Performance
The Ultimate Education Reform? Make Schools Smaller
Success in School: Education Ideas That Count
Great Schools Issue Paper: School Size
Taking
Stock: The Movement To Create Mini-Schools, Schools-Within-Schools, and Separate
Small Schools
Small Learning Communities Books:
Lawrence, L., Leonard, P. &
Sackney, L. (2001). Confronting assumptions about the benefits of small schools.
Educational Management & Administration, 29(1), pp.79-96.
Accession No.: EJ630801
Levine, E. (2002). One kid at a time: Big lessons from a small school. Series on
school reform. The series on school reform. Teachers College Press, New York.
Accession No.: ED459051
Newman, R. E. (2000). Building urban little schools where every child succeeds
with dignity. Brookline Books, Cambridge, MA.
Accession No.: ED458067
Wasley, P. A. & Lear, R. J. (2001). Small schools, real gain. Educational
Leadership, 58(6), pp.22-27.
Accession No.: EJ626270