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For more coverage of small schools that
appeared in the media in the last year, browse by topic:
Small Schools Nationwide
School Climate
Charter Schools
Leadership in Schools
School and Community
Teaching and Learning
School Restructuring
Education Reform
School Size and Safety
Physical Learning Environment
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SMALL SCHOOLS NATIONWIDE:
Detroit
News: Debate in Michigan on new small schools
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has proposed zero-interest loans
to school districts to help create new high schools of no more
than 500 students. These smaller schools are intended to increase
student learning by creating a learning environment in which students
interact more personally with their teachers. A debate has followed.
[04/26/05]
Honolulu
Advertiser: Hawaii Takes A Look at Small Schools
The movement toward "smaller learning communities" grew
out of the shooting spree in April 1999 at Columbine High School
in Littleton, Colo., and concerns about the impersonal nature
of large high schools. [04/25/05]
Seattle
Post-Intelligencer: A Look at a ‘Gates’ Small School
The four-year high school experience is dubbed 101 through 401,
rather than freshman through senior. Last year's 401 class had
26 members. Twenty-three went on to higher education and three
did not graduate. [04/02/05]
Education
Week: ‘First Things First’ Shows Promise
Wyandotte H.S. in Kansas City, KS and the First-Things-First program,
were singled out as a model of H.S. reform by Bill Gates in his
speech to the Governors' Confernce. [03/09/05]
New
York Times: Editorial on Reinventing High Schools
One of the most interesting points in this New York Times editorial
was the revelation that the large, factory-model high school was
actually set up for the purpose of tracking and sorting kids,
one-fifth into college and the rest into low skilled jobs. In
this sense, our large high schools aren't "failing"
but rather doing what they are supposed to do. The point for us
is that small schools are not simply a technical or remedial reform,
not just a tinkering or change in management structures, but a
deeper change that requires a re-purposing as well as restructuring.
--Mike Klonsky [02/01/05]
SCHOOL CLIMATE :
Atlanta
Journal-Constitution: Some schools Get Larger, Small Schools Do
Well
Buildings housing 2,000 to 3,000 students are not uncommon, and
high schools in some large cities house 5,000 students, Schneider
found. He said evidence is accumulating that small schools may
work better than large ones, especially for students from lower
socio-economic groups. [04/18/05]
South
FL Sun-Sentinel: Overcrowding in Small School
In a county where high schools hold as many as 4,500 students,
Monarch was planned in 2001 to accommodate 1,200 children -- a
campus smaller than most middle schools.[03/09/05]
Catalyst:
Small Schools As ‘Performance’ Schools
The framework for performance schools has features in common with
an initiative in Boston created 10 years ago, where district-operated
“pilot schools” were given budget autonomy and freed
from union regulations. [10/04]
San
Jose Mercury News: The Little School That Could
At Northwood, learning is done the old-fashioned way, one on one,
with extra time and attention early for those who need it most.[09/28/04]
CHARTER SCHOOLS :
Walton
Foundation: Research on Philanthropy and Schools
The Walton Foundation has focused particularly on charter schools,
which are independent public schools, and also has backed efforts
to provide low-income students with tuition vouchers to attend
private schools. While the Gates Foundation has given to charters
and to private education as part of its broad initiative aimed
at spurring major changes in American high schools, it has made
major investments in efforts to create smaller, more personalized
high schools directly run by school districts. [04/27/05]
Buffalo,
NY News: Tests Are Not the Whole Story for Charters
There's a definite role in the nation's educational system for
charter schools, with the caveat that they have to be carefully
staffed with teachers and administrators. The tendency of late
has been to create charter schools without the scrutiny needed
to assure their success. [12/26/04]
Catalyst:
Businesses and Charter Schools
Only one firm submits charter proposal; non-profits and educators
step up to fill the void. [10/04]
LEADERSHIP IN SCHOOLS:
Seattle
Post-Intelligencer: A Teacher Who Leads
"It's hard to be a principal in a collective," Morrison
says. "You need a leader who's willing to give up some of
their power to make a group decision and to make yourself listen
to people and really go with the will of the group. She was willing
to do that, and that's really quite unusual." [06/17/04]
Oakland
Tribune New Leadership in Oakland Schools
As program director with the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable
Schools (BayCES), Smith has worked closely with school and city
officials, parents, teachers and business leaders to manage Emery's
small school reform and forge new partnerships to benefit the
struggling district. [06/08/04]
SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY:
New York Times: Boston Teachers Union
in Fight with ‘Pilot’ Schools
The union's president, Richard Stutman, approved four new pilot
schools shortly after his election in 2003. But he vetoed a similar
effort last year at the Gardner elementary school in Allston,
defying the wishes of his own union members who had voted to organize
as a pilot school. [04/27/05]
The
Tennessean: Ignoring the 'Missing Middle' in Our Schools
'Money won't fix everything,'' said Kim Karesh, spokeswoman for
the state Education Department. She points out that smaller schools,
parental involvement and extra services such as mentoring, tutoring
and classes tailored to a student's individual learning style
can make a difference.[01/05/04]
Portland
Oregonian: Business Group Offers $25 Million for Small Schools
The goal is to raise student achievement and graduation
rates, particularly among poor and minority students lagging far
behind their more affluent and white peers in Oregon and elsewhere
in the nation.[10/31/03]
TEACHING AND LEARNING:
Sacramento Bee: Innovative Schools
Win Awards
Principals and teaching staffs share a common philosophy: Every
student should receive individualized instruction to ensure they
pull the best effort from each kid. [10/01/04]
New
York Times: New Paths to a Diploma
Under Mr. Bloomberg, the Department of Education has laid the
city's low graduation rates largely at the feet of its biggest
high schools, which officials say foster a sense of anonymity
that allows many students to skip through the cracks. [05/29/04]
SCHOOL RESTRUCTURING:
Chicago Tribune: School Reform
Plans in Disarray
The 2010 initiative, which calls for shutting down the worst schools
and--with the financial support of the business and philanthropic
community--reopening 100 small schools free from many district
controls, also has set off a power struggle. [04/10/05]
Albany
Democrat & Chronicle: Unusual School Success
The school day runs from 7:25 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, plus four
hours on three out of four Saturdays a month and three weeks in
July. That adds up to two-thirds more classroom time than in traditional
schools. KIPP students also do between 90 minutes and two hours
of homework a night. [11/30/04]
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Small
Schools & Testing Distortions
This article shows how the NCLB criteria can negatively
impact small schools, some of which are only testing 10 students.
If 2 students answer a few questions right or wrong, the school
can be an award winner or be placed on the "list."
--Mike Klonsky
She said of the 35 schools that missed the mark for the first
year, 17 are "potential appeals" for the district. Many
of them are small alternative and charter schools, which have
relatively small numbers of students taking the state's standardized
test.
[10/01/04]
EDUCATION REFORM
Texas
Herald Zeitung: Megaschools Planned and Opposed
“I have a problem with these mega schools,” a school
trustee said. “I would not want to send my child to a school
that big. Bigger is not necessarily better.” [04/24/05]
Tucson
Citizen: Huge Success with Paulo Freire Freedom School
We set out to design a school where powerful, transformative teaching
and learning were the norm, not the exception; a school where
the whole person - body, heart, mind and soul - and the whole
community were supported and challenged. [04/04/05]
LA Times: Schools' Dropout Remedy:
Get Small
"We have to get smaller," said LA schools Supt. Roy
Romer at a conference this week to address the problem of high
school dropouts. "We have to get more personal in our education
experience." [03/26/05]
Editorial
Projects in Education: Black Male School Woes
Gregory Hodge, a school board member in Oakland, CA, believes
that smaller, more personalized schools—many of which are
popping up in that San Francisco Bay-area city—could benefit
African-American boys by encouraging strong relationships and
mentoring. [12/08/04]
Rocky
Mountain News: Denver Schools Need Reform
DPS high schools falling short. Report cards show pressing need
for reform, panel told. [12/10/04]
New
York Times: Small School's Script Tries to Transform Studies
As with other new small schools with themes - peace and diversity,
culinary arts, aviation - the theater is a framework for drawing
students into learning rather than propelling them toward a particular
career [10/04/04]
Boston
Globe: Parents, Teachers and a New Small School
The Mission Hill School faculty wanted students to have a voice
in their education, and they built in the structure to make it
happen. [10/07/04]
Baltimore
Sun: Problems with Educational Software
Under pressure from the 2001 No Child Left Behind law, and from
vendors using the law in their pitches, struggling schools across
the country are spending heavily on education software programs
that promise to raise their test scores. [09/20/04]
Education
Week: Wingspread Declaration Sets Reform Agenda
Some of the ways schools can build better ties with students,
according to the Wingspread document, include: setting high academic
expectations; applying fair and consistent discipline policies;
fostering trusting relationships among students, teachers, administrators,
and families; ensuring that a supportive adult watches over every
student; creating small learning environments; and even reducing
lunchroom-noise levels. [09/01/04]
Edutopia:
Community Planning Critical for small Schools
The challenge: to design schools that foster community, encourage
inquiry, and are grounded in a commitment to lifelong learning.
The opportunity: to engage an entire community in the formidable
task of turning this grand vision.[05/27/04]
SCHOOL SIZE AND SAFETY
How
Smaller Schools Prevent School Violence
Educators and the communities that they serve are increasingly
turning to small schools, academies, schools-within-schools, and
smaller learning communities as strategies for enhancing school
safety and reducing school violence. Michael Klonsky.
[01/05]
Billings
Outpost: Small schools Considered in Montana
Provide opportunities for students (particularly those in at-risk
groups) to learn in smaller learning environments, either by creating
smaller schools or by implementing the school-within-a-school
concept. [11/27/04]
Detroit
Free Press: Safety in Smaller Numbers
"Our school sizes are smaller, so I think it's easier for
them to control," said Sherry Saoudof Ira Township. "I
know our school is safe." [09/29/04]
New
York Post: Record Number of Dropouts in NYC
Cahill pointed to some of the existing smaller high schools in
low-income neighborhoods, which have higher graduation rates (58
percent to 37 percent) of similar students in high schools with
thousands of students. [06/17/04]
Teacher
Magazine: Critical Look at Largest Middle School in US
The school, which opened this past August, is also organized into
"clusters," allowing students to spend most of their
days in one part of the complex, rather than having to schlep
all over the 332,235- square-foot building.[03/04]
PHYSICAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT :
Rocky Mountain News Mixed Reviews
over Small School
"There were some positive changes that were made at Manual,"
said Van Schoales, executive vice president of the Colorado Children's
Campaign. "Attendance did improve slightly and the personalization
improved slightly." Problem is, he said, the culture never
changed. [04/15/05]
Nashville
Tennessean: Successful Small School in the Hills
They all know the school's size is also its blessing. The pupil-teacher
ratio is low, and the community is tight. ''We don't have the
violence,'' Carden said. ''We don't have the problems of large
middle schools with 500 to 1,000 students. We know all of our
kids, and the positives outweigh the negatives.'' [12/27/04]
Dayton
Business Journal: Two Schools in One Building
The result is a school that features a central core filled with
shared space and two wings that each comprise individual, smaller
schools called Dunlavy and Holbrook. And that allows educators
to maintain a more personal focus on student achievement while
not duplicating expensive services such as a cafeteria. [11/26/04]
Christian
Science Monitor: New Hope in Chicago small Schools
It isn't so much that small schools by themselves are the answer,
says Tom Vander Ark, director for education at the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation, which has given millions of dollars to create
small schools around the country and in Chicago. "They only
make success possible."[09/21/04]
New
York Times The Middle School Controversy
Are middle schools an idea whose time has passed. One reason,
cited by many administrators, is the idea that students do not
always do well with change and by keeping them in the same building
they will not have to cope with a new environment and all of the
new faces in the faculty and staff. [09/12/04]
USA
Today: Prediction of Increase in School Violence
A few law enforcement officials and school safety advocates say
the nation's focus on terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, is beginning
to drain money and attention from efforts to keep schools safe.
[06/28/04]
Edutopia:
Small school, Small Business
"I have a drive to just show everybody here at school that
students can actually do something," [05/27/04]
OTHER HOT TOPICS :
Chicago
Tribune: Teachers Union Helping with Schools in Trouble
Chicago Teachers Union wants to extend its special relationship
with several failing public schools on the verge of being closed.
[03/25/05]
Chicago
Tribune: City Schools Face Heavy Cuts
"I can't run a school with this few teachers," said
Bill Gerstein, principal of the School of Entrepreneurship. Created
as one of four new small schools at the former South Shore High
School campus, the school is projected to lose eight of its 29
teachers.[03/25/05]
Tech
Learning: Technology and Small Schools
Creative approaches to teaching and learning are an integral focus
of the new small schools. Built from the ground up as a showcase
for the use of technology in education, Los Angeles's High Tech
High enrolls 180 students from 40 different zip codes, 52 percent
of whom are on free or reduced lunch status.[03/05]
ABC
News/Christian Science Monitor: Schools using many lessons of
Columbine
The real key is "putting adults in there that kids can talk
to them when they have a problem, making sure they can listen,
that they have the willingness to listen, and can provide them
with guidance." [03/25/05]
Christian
Science
Monitor: Is Smaller Better?
Some educators argue that rather than simply mass producing small
schools, the entire approach to education must be rethought. Otherwise
the result may be what one researcher has called "small schools
in drag" - all the problems of a big school reproduced in
a smaller package. [12/14/04]
New
York Times: NYC Picking 30 to 50 Small Schools
A shortage of seats in desirable schools is one of the public
school system's most acute problems, and the chancellor has said
that he cannot create schools fast enough. [08/12/04]
Small
Schools Nationwide
School Climate
Charter Schools
Leadership in Schools
School and Community
Teaching and Learning
School Restructuring
Education Reform
School Size and Safety
Physical Learning Environment
Other Hot Topics
