Arguing for small schools and learning communities, this report profiles several schools and synthesizes the key lessons about why they are effective, as well as suggesting areas where efforts to go small foundered in ways that fundamentally limited their success. The report first lists eight strategies emerging from ongoing work and ingenuity, which can help large comprehensive high schools reinvent themselves to offer the advantages of ‘smallness’. Next, the report identifies five characteristics necessary for the success in creating effective, small learning environments. Finally, the report highlights best-practice example schools which embody each of these characteristics. This report can serves as a planning tool for other schools and districts wishing to personalize their high schools by creating small schools or smaller learning communities.
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Background and Context
One key approach to improving instruction for high school students is redesigning the environment and structure in which they learn. Creating smaller learning communities is one way schools are fundamentally reshaping that environment. Guided by a belief that student achievement will improve in a more personalized environment, advocates of smaller learning communities hope that smaller class sizes, increased teacher collaboration, comprehensive advisory systems, and a more relevant and rigorous curriculum will reap substantial gains in academic achievement.
