Creating Smalls Schools that Promote Equity and Excellence

Small Schools: It’s all about the kidsFebruary, 2005Portland, Oregon

Warren Simmons, Annenberg Institute for School Reform, Brown University

Goals of the Session

• Provide national overview of the small schools/ small learning communities movement

• Discuss major lessons learned

• Discuss broader vision of school and district redesign needed to achieve twin goals of excellence and equity for all students.

Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University• Established in 1993 with a gift from Ambassador

Annenberg to Brown University

• Key Features of Current Work• Action research and teaching

• Primarily capacity-building support to large, urban districts and their core partners

• Four Focus Areas: • Leadership – Community, Central Office, and School

• Opportunity & Accountability

• District Redesign

• Community Engagement

School and District Reform Portfolio at the Annenberg Institute• Schools for a New Society – High School Redesign

(Carnegie Corporation, Gates Foundation)

• The Learning Partnership (MacArthur Foundation)

• National League of Cities Mayors’ Education Policy Advisors Network

• Aspen Institute Urban Superintendents Network

• Central Office Review for Results and Equity

• Teaching and Learning Review

• School Improvement Toolbox

What is the challenge?

Student Voices

• Lack of clarity about what it takes to succeed: Grades, complete work, behave well

• Many feel not much is expected of them.

• Curriculum is repetitious and not challenging.

• Little support for grappling with issues of race, ethnicity, gender, income/class, etc.

NAEP 2003 Reading Achievement Percentages in Grade 4

Basic: Partial mastery of knowledge and skills

Proficient: Solid academic performance including subject matter knowledge, application of such knowledge, and analytic skills.

Advanced: Superior performance. 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

BelowBasic

Proficient

NationLarge CitiesAtlantaBostonCharlotteChicagoClevelandDCHoustonLos AngelesNYCSan Diego3-D Column 133-D Column 14

NAEP 2003 Reading Achievement Percentages in Grade 8

Basic: Partial mastery of knowledge and skills

Proficient: Solid academic performance including subject matter knowledge, application of such knowledge, and analytic skills.

Advanced: Superior performance.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

BelowBasic

Proficient

NationCentral CityAtlantaBostonCharlotteChicagoClevelandDCHoustonLos AngelesNYCSan Diego

Source: USDOE, NCES, 1999 NAEP Summary Data Tables

Too Few 17 Year-Olds Demonstrate Strong Reading Skills

AfricanAmerican

Latino White

Learn from SpecializedMaterials

1% 2% 8%

Understand ComplicatedInformation

17 24 46

Partial Skills 66 68 87

Make Generalizations 95 97 98

Source: USDOE, NCES, 1999 NAEP Summary Data Tables

Too Few 17 Year-Olds Demonstrate Strong Math Skills

AfricanAmerican

Latino White

Multi-Step ProblemSolving

1% 3% 10%

Moderately ComplexProcedures

27 38 70

Numerical Operations 89 94 99

Teacher Voices

• Lack of clarity about what good instruction looks like

• Lack of support for providing differentiated instruction for English language learners, students with disabilities, and students with significant gaps in achievement

• Lack of system support for identifying and sharing local expertise and models of promising practice

Why Small Schools and Small Learning Communities

Annenberg Challenge: Lessons

• Small schools and learning communities improve teacher and student performance.

• Every child benefits from high expectations.

• Schools are too isolated.

• Schools need allies.

• Professional development is key.

• School need strong leadership.

• Accountability needs to be reciprocal.

• Public education is better than its image.

• Large grants are no substitute for adequate funding.

Small Schools and SLCs Support Authentic Learning

•Learner-centered

• Knowledge-centered

•Community-centered

• Assessment-centered

Source: National Research Council (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking)

Small Schools and SLCs: Salient Structures

• Communities no larger than 400 students

• Extended learning time

• Common planning time

• Looping

• Shared space

• Shared schedules

Small Schools and SLCs: Salient Instructional Features

• Personalized course of study (rigorous & coherent)

• Interdisciplinary, multicultural curricula

• Active learning on part of adults and students

• Curriculum-related assessment

• School-based decisionmaking

• Community engagement and partnership

• Choice on part of students and educators

Source: Christman, J. & MacPherson, P. (1996)

What is progress to date?

Lessons Learned: Overall

•Small Schools/SLCs outperform more traditional schools serving comparable students

•Small schools require new curriculum know-how.

•Communities without teacher and student stability and shared learning experiences are communities only in name.

•Without careful planning and altered beliefs about who can learn at high levels, small schools repeat old tracking patterns in a new form.

Lessons Learned

• Progress is most consistent when there is a strong “spine” of curriculum and instruction in core subjects. Teachers need good examples of instructional activities, units of study, and assessment tools in each subject area and grade.

• Low progress schools need additional guidance and support from central office and external partners.

Equitable and Effective Classrooms: Things to “See”

• Shared understanding of essential learnings.

• Standards reflected in tasks and materials.

• Rich range of learning resources and tools.

• Variety of learning activities used over time.

• Attention paid to learning as both a process and mastery of content and skills.

• Student work analyzed and revised (learning vs. grades).

• Learning guided by salient themes, questions, issues and problems.

Lessons Learned

• Large blocks of time and support are necessary for planning and professional development.

• Phase-in approach to implementation needed to develop capacity, acquire necessary resources, and to ensure that success of new schools enhances rather than undermines the success of others.

Lessons Learned

• Districts Matter: What kind of system do we need to create a community of successful schools?Portfolio of Schools

Pre-K to 16 Pathways for Learning

Needed supports, timely interventions

Ensure schools have power and resources to make good decisions

Make decisions and hold people throughout the system accountable using leading and lagging indicators of progress

Engage the community to guard against immediacy and attentional shift.

Districts Making Progress:Foundations for Success MDRC,CGCS

• Focused on student achievement.

• Outcome and practice-centered accountability.

• Focused on lowest-performing schools.

• Increased curricular coherence.

• Redefined central office role to guiding, supporting and improving instruction.

• Data-driven decision-making.

• Focused on reading and math.

What will be our legacy?