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CCE
Small Schools Network:
The Concept
The
Need for Small Schools
A growing body of
research and evidence indicates that large, comprehensive schools, especially
those serving high percentages of low-income students and students of
color, need a radical overhaul if they are to be successful in raising
and sustaining achievement for all students. Most schools are too large
and impersonal to engage many students. Secondary students generally have
seven to eight classes per day, all disconnected from one another and
all with different teachers who each teach 100-150 students, making it
virtually impossible for a teacher to know students well. With the nation’s
population growing increasingly diverse, our schools are leaving many
of its students behind.
Gathering evidence
indicates that school size affects student performance, particularly the
performance of low-income students and students of color. Small schools
are a powerful antidote to the failures of our nation’s large, comprehensive
schools. Besides the educational benefits of small schools, recent research
challenges the notion that large schools are cost-efficient. A 1999 study
on high school size in New York City found that, examining cost per graduate,
“small academic and large high schools are similar in terms of budgets
per graduate….Because the literature on school size indicates that small
high schools are more effective for minority and poor students, the similarity
in [financial costs]… suggests that policy makers might do well to support
the creation of more small high schools.” (Stiefel, Berne, Iatarola, and
Fruchter, 1999). Factoring in that high school dropouts add significantly
higher future costs to society through increased crime, prison, and welfare
rates and lower voter participation rates, the economic argument in favor
of large schools becomes even less credible.
What
CES/CCESSN Provides to Project Districts
and Schools
The New England Small
Schools Network works intensively with seven
school districts to create 35 new small schools over the next five
years, with the goal of successfully raising student achievement and closing
the learning gap for under-served students. For
these districts and schools, CES/CCESSN is providing the following services:
- Visits to
an Established Small School. Each new small school visits existing
CCESSN small schools in a mentoring relationship.
- Technical Assistance
and Coaching from CES/CCESSN Staff. CES/CCESSN staff provide assistance
in all areas of small schools development – breaking large schools down
into smaller schools, budgeting, staff selection, governance, curriculum,
instruction, assessment, school culture, and family involvement. In
addition, CES/CCESSN staff work with each new district to negotiate terms
of the new small school(s), determine how to grant conditions of autonomy
to the school(s), develop public relations messages to build community
support for small schools, and redirect support and professional development
to better support small schools.
- Summer Institutes
and School Year Network Meetings. CES/CCESSN conducts an annual summer,
week-long Small Schools Design Institute for all project districts and
schools, which focuses on all aspects of small schools design and district
support. In addition, CES/CCESSN conducts a week-long Critical Friends
Group Facilitator training, professional development days on using CCESSN
autonomies and CES principles to improve teaching and learning, and
visits to successful small schools.
- Funding.
Each new small school receives planning and professional development
funds, spread over four years.
- Access to a
Pool of New Small School Leaders. Selected schools have access to
new small school leaders who are educated through the Center for Collaborative
Education’s Principal Residency Network, an apprenticeship model of
principal preparation and credentialing. All CCESSN districts receive
ongoing leadership development within the districts.
Working
with Other Districts and Schools
In addition, CES/CCESSN
is available to contract with other districts to assist them in creating
new freestanding small schools or to convert large schools to house multiple
small schools. We look for districts to be committed to the following
characteristics in order to work with them:
Characteristics
of Schools
We recommend
that:
- All schools embrace
the CES/CCESSN principles
or a set of comparable principles.
- Schools be schools
of choice for students, parents, and teachers, and that schools have
proportionate enrollments to the district by race, income, and gender.
- Teaching and learning
be personalized, with student-teacher loads greatly reduced so that
all faculty know their students well, with secondary loads at no more
than 80:1 and elementary loads at no more than 20:1.
- Instruction (student-as-worker),
curriculum (less is more and students learning to use their minds well),
and assessment (demonstration of mastery through exhibitions) reflect
the CES/CCESSN principles.
- For high schools,
the proposed grade span of all new small schools be at least four years,
and for middle schools at least three years.
- All proposed new
small schools contain between 50-400 students.
District Commitments
and Requirements
We recommend that:
- All proposed
new small schools have identified and secured long-term facilities.
- Districts commit
to providing the CCESSN Conditions of Autonomy (full
explanation) to the proposed new small schools in some fashion.
The autonomies include: Staffing, Budget, Curriculum and Assessment,
Governance, and the School Calendar.
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