Nine Friction Points in Moving to Smaller School Units
Over the past few years, the movement toward smaller school units has accelerated. Public and foundation resources, as well as copious amounts of technical assistance, have been brought to bear on comprehensive high schools in an effort to provide greater personalization, increase adult accountability for the achievement of all students, and create better links among schools, families, community organizations, and institutions of higher education. The previously held notion that strong relationships and academic challenge are somehow irreconcilable has given way. Closely watched initiatives in a number of large cities, such as those funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have supported recommendations from a diverse set of organizations that we transform big high schools into smaller learning communities.
Many of these large-to-smaller initiatives have been under way for several years. Yet in many locales, results have been few despite substantial investment in what is often called “conversion” work. People still demand to know where they can go to “see it done well.” Given the complicated organization of high schools—built on years of state and federal policies and legislation, academic statutes and regulations, contractual negotiations, funding formulas, certification requirements, and self-serving college-admissions policies—attempting to change one or two of the working parts quickly results in frustration and cynicism. Despite calls for “reform,” most high schools continue to function as comfortable environments for adults, displaying few tangible changes in operations, values, priorities, professional culture, and, most important, teaching methods and student engagement.
For some urban systems, however, responding to this limited payback on investment has meant the creation of new “start-up” small schools, replacing “conversion” efforts. There is widespread agreement that results in these start-up schools are generally more promising. But given the sheer number of large high schools, it’s likely that work on small learning communities will continue side by side with building...
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