Small Schools and Essential Curriculum for Advanced Placement

<BODY> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>Small school and small learning community programs have tremendous potential to serve as catalysts for the renewal of America's public schools. If new Charter School programs are centered around fundamental improvements in the delivery of instruction and in the design of curricular experiences themselves, they can serve as laboratories for a District's regular public schools.</FONT></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>Small schools that set their sights on creating meaningful educational experiences are Charter Schools mastery learning charter schools that promote scholarship, personal advanced placement responsibility and enthusiasm for learning. The point here is that in the Charter Schools that I envision, these charter school curriculum attitudes would not be so test scores charter school performance much mandated or required as they would be <U>natural outgrowths</U> of a school culture and a curriculum design that presents students with appropriately charter schools sequenced personal and academic challenges, charter school development that invites them to participate, and that licenses them to inquire.</FONT></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>Small schools. Small learning communities. Charter school test scores. Charter schools and high performance academic curriculum. Charter school development. Charter school curriculum. Top rated charter schools. International schools as charter school models for the renewal of America's public schools. Charter school results. Starting Charter schools as high performance public school options: setting high standards for student achievement and school performance. Test scores as indices of charter school performance. Charter school performance. Mastery learning and Core values of charter schools. Charter school programs. International Schools as charter school models in public education. Advanced placement and humanities curriculum in successful charter schools. Academics and student achievement in charter schools. Starting charter schools. Program development for charter schools. Program philosophy and policies for charter schools. High performance writing curriculum for charter schools. Education reform, essential curriculum and academic standards for new charter schools. Mastery learning and performance based assessment in successful charter schools. The International School model for charter school development.All schools have the inherent power to perform the following miraculous feats: they can introduce students to charter school curriculum the satisfactions of acquiring and charter school developmentapplying new skills; they mastery learning can lead social promotion students forward to surmount new challenges that are built upon previous learning; and most important, they can help students piece together their understanding of a fascinating world. When learning activities are starting charter schools connected from class to class and from year to year, and when what "has been done" is a platform that can be applied to "what needs to be done," then students know that what happens in school is <U>essential</U>, and that it has value and meaning.</FONT></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>In the International Model that my colleagues and I pioneered back in 1990, students take six academic courses:  Math, Science, Foreign Language, Humanities, History and Arts.  </FONT></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>Of these six, a powerful Humanities/Social Studies and Arts "trivium" supplies the thematic foundations for a six-year integrated curriculum (grades 7-12). This trivium also plays a supportive role in helping students acquire proficiency in their math, science and foreign language core studies.  This is because the rigor and empiricism of skill development in foreign language, math and science are similar to the skill acquisition process in the Humanities program itself.   Our study of the mechanics of language, the theory of paragraphing, the arts of analysis and hypothesis building, the challenge of identifying, classifying, associating and differentiating ideas, the willingness to take risks, to test assumptions, and to think out loud-- all of these activities reinforce equally strong performances in Math, Science and Foreign Language.</FONT></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>In the Humanities trivium, learning first focuses on the acquisition of essential knowledge and skills that can be carried forward, applied and extended all the way up through 12th. grade. Just as a high school senior needs to remember essential mathematical principles learned in the earliest years of his or her schooling, so a student in the Humanities trivium can expect to acquire new knowledge by connecting with, and building upon, previous learning. Thus, 7th graders will be engaged in activities that are important not only for 7th grade, but which will also be the foundation for success in each succeeding year. As 12th graders in Advanced Placement courses, they will be expected to refer back to, and meaningfully incorporate, works, ideas and skills that they were first exposed to as early as the 7th grade.</FONT></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>This is what is so powerful about combining long-term relationships (grades 7-12) with a curriculum that is designed to focus on essential questions, and upon the extension, application, elaboration and refinement of these up through all the grades. During the six year period that students are enrolled in such a curriculum they can acquire fundamental skills and basic conceptual knowledge, they can master the intricacies of sentence structure and paragraph formation, they can be introduced to the Socratic method, and they can receive a powerful jump start for their abstract and analytical thinking.</FONT></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3> And most important: they can acquire a belief in the validity of their own critical powers by coming to appreciate that the world they encounter is amenable to reasonable explanation--not mysterious. </FONT></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>                          </FONT><FONT SIZE=4> </FONT><FONT SIZE=5>  </FONT><U><FONT SIZE=5 COLOR=#008080>The Humanities Curriculum</FONT></U></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>But this is not all that the Humanities program accomplishes.  The goal of the Humanities Strand is to produce students who are realistic, analytical, and sensitive to the artistic and cultural products that have been created by their fellow human beings, both ancient and modern.  </FONT></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>In addition to a substantial encounter with literature in all its forms, Humanities students also study the fine and architectural arts, the histories and distinguishing characteristics of political systems, and the history and characteristics of thought--both philosophical and religious. </FONT></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>Most important, is the Humanities curriculum's fundamental organizing principle: the belief that all areas of study in its domain can be referenced to one another--either as a derivative, a departure, a contradiction, a by-product, a corollary,  or a transformation and extension of basic, initial premises.  </FONT></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>In other words:  when a high school Humanities student reads <I><U>Death of a Salesman</U></I>, he or she is also able to reference passages in Miller's play to </FONT><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=#FF0000>Ovid's "Four Ages"</FONT><FONT SIZE=3>(introduced in 7th grade), to </FONT><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=#FF0000>Osirian</FONT><FONT SIZE=3> mythology (introduced in 7th grade), to </FONT><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=#FF0000>Christian sacrifice</FONT><FONT SIZE=3>, to the origins of tragedy (both introduced in 9th grade), to </FONT><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=#FF0000>Platonic</FONT><FONT SIZE=3> idealism (introduced in 10th grade), to </FONT><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=#FF0000>Pyrrhonic</FONT><FONT SIZE=3> skepticism (introduced in 10th), and to a </FONT><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=#FF0000>neo-Romantic</FONT><FONT SIZE=3> celebration of the attributes of nature (introduced in 10th).  </FONT></B></P> <P><BR CLEAR="all"><B><FONT SIZE=3>This "unification" of works that are separated in space and time--by both thousands of years and thousands of miles--helps us to understand the ways in which they participate in the on-going artistic and reflective narrative of human culture--a system of artifacts, representations and pronouncements that springs not only from our nature, but also from a fundamental set of concerns that we all share. These essential experiences and themes are applied and extended year after year, with the result that they become the tools and instruments of analysis--the knowledge of the history of a practice or idea; the knowledge of its make-up and origins; the knowledge of its various manifestations through time. We call this "knowledge" having the ability to view culture "sub specie aeternitatis"--under the aspect of eternity, and under the aspect of its participation in pan-cultural, thoroughly human contexts and forms. </FONT></B></P> <P><A HREF="TestScores.htm" TARGET="_top"><B><STRONG><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF>Dramatic Test Score Results:</FONT><B><STRONG><FONT SIZE=5 COLOR=#FF0000> ITBS, CTBS, WASL, CFAS</FONT></STRONG></B></A></P> <P><A HREF="Writing.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF><font face=papyrus>High Performance 7-12 Writing Curriculum</FONT></STRONG></B></A></P> <P><A HREF="Articulated.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF><font face=papyrus>Articulated 7-12 Humanities/English Curriculum</FONT></STRONG></B></A></P> <P><A HREF="StartUpFAQ.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF><font face=papyrus>Myths vs. Reality: SLC FAQ's</A></P> <P><A HREF="InternationalModel.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF>Designing SLC's for Student Achievement</A></P> <P><A HREF="Home.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF><font face=papyrus>Second Order Change for Small Learning Communities</A></P> <P><A HREF="TestScores.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF>A Standard for Small School Test Scores:<FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000> ITBS, CTBS, WASL </A></P> <P><A HREF="AdvancedPlacement.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF>Humanities Epiphany: Seamless Curriculum</A></P> <P><A HREF="CoreValues.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF>Core Values for SLC's</FONT></STRONG></B></A></P> <P><A HREF="breaking.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF>SLC Converstion @ NKSD</FONT></STRONG></B></A></P> <P><A HREF="Retention.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF>Social Promotion vs. Mastery Learning</A></P> <P><A HREF="WashingtonStateGLE's.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF>Washington State's Writing GLE's: A Critical Review</FONT></STRONG></B></A></P> <P><A HREF="Academics.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF>Essential Curriculum for Successful Small Learning Communities</A></P> <P><A HREF="Products.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF>Small Learning Community Consultation</A></P> <P></U><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#000000><font face=papyrus><A HREF="http://www.heraldnet.com/Stories/04/3/1/18236022.cfm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#0000FF>Marysville Arts & Technology High School:</FONT></STRONG></U><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=#000000></U></A>     A New Small School in Marysville</FONT></STRONG></B></P></FONT></B> <B></U><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=#0000FF></U><A HREF="http://www.heraldnet.com/Stories/04/3/3/18276411.cfm" TARGET="_top">Editorial Opinion:</A></U></B></FONT><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=#000000></U></B>  "Small Marysville School Offers Big Possibilities"</FONT></STRONG></B></A></P></FONT></P></B> <P><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=#0000FF><A HREF="BruceSaariCV.htm" TARGET="_top">Saari CV</A> </FONT></B></P> <P><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top"><B><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR=#0000FF>HOME</FONT></B></A></P> <P></P> <DIV ALIGN="center"><TABLE WIDTH=85% BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=0 CELLSPACING=0><TBODY> <TR VALIGN="top"> <TD> <B><STRONG><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>            We all remember test questions and assignments   </FONT></STRONG></B><P><B><STRONG><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>            from  high school. The following are a few </FONT></STRONG></B></P> <P><B><STRONG><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>            examples of what </FONT><U><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#C0C0C0>International High School</FONT></U><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000> </FONT></STRONG></B></P> <P><B><STRONG><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>            students have been  challenged with...</FONT></STRONG></B></P> <P><B><STRONG><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>            </FONT><U><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#C0C0C0>And can answer</FONT></U><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#C0C0C0>:</FONT></STRONG></B></P> <P> </P></TD></TR> <TBODY> </TABLE> </DIV> <P></P> <DIV ALIGN="center"><TABLE WIDTH=85% BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=0 CELLSPACING=0><TBODY> <TR VALIGN="top"> <TD> <B><U><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>Gilgamesh</FONT></U><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Contrast the two positions re. death and acceptance thereof  that occurs on pg. 45-6.  Which of the discussants, Enkidu or Gilgamesh, seems to evince the greater acceptance of death?  Which seems most bent upon defying the</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFF00> </FONT><U><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>natural</FONT></U><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF> order of things?  Weave four quotes. </FONT></B><P><B><U><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>Gilgamesh</FONT></U><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Discuss the fatal--and flawed-- interpretation of the dream on page 53.  Comment on the author's intention, especially if Humbaba is now read as a <U>metaphor</U> for nature itself...Weave three quotes.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>Durant's Essay on Plato:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  According to Durant, what accounts for the fact that skepticism <U>flourished</U> in Athens?  Develop this in a short paragraph, weaving three quotes from the text.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On Freud's <U>The Future of an Illusion</U>:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Pg. 53:  "This would be an important advance along the road which leads to becoming reconciled to the burden of civilization."  Explain this passage, <U>drawing elements of your answer from the immediately preceding pages</U>. Weave four quotes.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On <U>Wayfarer</U>:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Describe the "contest" between the old man and the officer in <U>metaphorical</U> terms.  Clearly indicate the roots of this primitive/civilized antagonism in the topic.   Weave three quotes.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On <U>Sound of Thunder</U>: </FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>Compose a paragraph that describes Bradbury's use of either:  motion, color/light, sound, feel, taste or anatomy/physicality.  Make sure the topic identifies the contribution that this imagery makes to the story.  Weave four quotes.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On Lucretius' <U>De Rerum Natura</U>:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Lines 241-300:  what law is Lucretius attempting to establish?  Which piece of evidence, from among the many that he offers, seems to be the most interesting or persuasive?  Quote those lines and then compose a paragraph that demonstrates how those lines provide <U>support</U> for the law that he wishes to establish.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On Mo Tzu:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Find the "radical" or "extraordinary" thesis at the heart of this passage.  Compose a paragraph, weaving three quotes, that describes and highlights the <U>uniqueness</U> of this idea of his.  Do not indicate whether you agree; just describe his view. </FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On Yang Chu and <U>The Book of Job</U>:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Weaving three quotes from Job 21:7, describe whether this author is in fundamental agreement with the selection from Yang Chu.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On the <U>Hymn of Akhenaten</U>: </FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF> Compose a paragraph that discusses the chief similarity between this document and Francis of Assisi's <U>Canticle to the Sun</U>.  Weave three quotes.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On the <U>Lottery</U>: </FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF> Compose a paragraph that describes the connection this ritual has with the seasonal and vegetative pattern of the <U>monomyth</U>.  </FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On <U>Deer in the Works</U>: </FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF> Describe this story as a metaphor for the neolithic revolution.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On <U>Brave New World</U>: </FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF> Describe the similarities that exist between the social structure depicted in this work and the <U>constitution of Lycurgus</U> as described by Plutarch.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On Metaphysics:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF> Describe the relationship between the philosophy of the Gita and Plato's Allegory of the Cave.  Weave three quotes from Shelley's <I><U>Adonais</U></I> in your answer.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On the <U>Eden</U> myth in Genesis:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Compose two paragraphs, one of which interprets this story as an ontogenetic metaphor, and the other which interprets it as a metaphor for the neolithic revolution--in the particularly <U>Ovidian</U> sense that we have used in this class.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On Lin Yutang:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Early in this century, Lin Yutang wrote this introduction to a collection of Chinese literature that he knew would be widely read in the West.  Identify his main concern and compose a two page typewritten paper that explains and evaluates his idea.  Weave a minimum of five quotes.  </FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On Confucius:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>   What role to participles play in the first half of this passage; what role in the second?  <U>Please note that a shift occurs</U>.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On Confucius:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Which portion of this passage is <U>inductive</U>?  How so?  Which portion is <U>deductive</U>?  How so?</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On Confucius: </FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF> How does the use of <U>linking verbs</U> in the last half of the passage contribute directly to this thesis?</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On Confucius:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Find six proverbs which emphasize the importance of the <U>local</U> or that which is within reach (achievable), versus that which is fantastic, distant or beyond reach (remote).</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On Confucius:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Find two proverbs that seem to disagree with the values that Ben Franklin espouses in Poor Richard's Almanack.</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FF0000>On <U>Red Badge of Courage</U>:</FONT><FONT SIZE=4 COLOR=#FFFFFF>  Describe the role that the ego defense mechanisms displacement, sublimation, reaction formation and identification with the aggressor play in chaps. 5-13.</FONT></B></P></TD></TR> <TBODY> </TABLE> </DIV> <P><A HREF="InternationalModel.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Teachers Design High Powered Schools: Bellevue International School 1991, Lake Washington International School 1997, Marysville Arts & Technology 2003</U></FONT></B></A> <P><A HREF="Writing.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Mastery Learning Writing Curriculum for Student Achievement </U></FONT></B></A></U> <P><A HREF="StartUpFAQ.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>SLC Myths: Making it Better vs. Making it New</STRONG></B></A> </U> <P><A HREF="Retention.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Social Promotion...or Program Accountability?</U></FONT></B></A> <P><A HREF="Home.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Transform the Instructional Culture</FONT></STRONG></B></A> <P><A HREF="Articulated.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Thematic 9-12 Humanities & Literature Curriculum</U></FONT></STRONG></B></A> <P><A HREF="TestScores.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Test Scores</I></U></FONT></STRONG></B></A> <P><A HREF="Academics.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Essential Curriculum</FONT></B></A> </U> <P><A HREF="AdvancedPlacement.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Articulated Curriculum</FONT></STRONG></B></A> </U></FONT> <P><A HREF="Products.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Improving Instructional Effectiveness</FONT></B></A> <P><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="BruceSaariCV.htm" TARGET="_top">Saari CV</A> </FONT></B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR=#000000>E mail address: saari@topschools.com</FONT></A></P> </BODY> <BODY>Small learning communities and student achievement. Successful small learning communities: academic achievement in small learning communities. High performance academic curriculum for small learning communities. Top rated small learning communities. International schools as small learning community models for the renewal of America's public schools. Charter schools as high performance public school options: setting high standards for student achievement and school performance. Test scores as indices of small learning community performance. Core values for small learning communities. International Schools as small learning community models in public education. Advanced placement and humanities curriculum in successful small learning communities. Academics and student achievement in small learning communities. Starting small learning communities. Program development for small learning communities. Program philosophy and policies for small learning communities. High performance writing curriculum for small learning communities. Education reform, essential curriculum and academic standards for new small learning communities. Mastery learning and performance based assessment in successful small learning communities. The International School model for charter school development. <P><A HREF="InternationalModel.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Teachers Design High Powered Schools: Bellevue International School 1991, Lake Washington International School 1997, Marysville Arts & Technology 2003</U></FONT></B></A> <P><A HREF="Writing.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Mastery Learning Writing Curriculum for Student Achievement </U></FONT></B></A></U> <P><A HREF="StartUpFAQ.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>SLC Myths: Making it Better vs. Making it New</STRONG></B></A> </U> <P><A HREF="Retention.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Social Promotion...or Program Accountability?</U></FONT></B></A> <P><A HREF="Home.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Transform the Instructional Culture</FONT></STRONG></B></A> <P><A HREF="Articulated.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Thematic 9-12 Humanities & Literature Curriculum</U></FONT></STRONG></B></A> <P><A HREF="TestScores.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Test Scores</I></U></FONT></STRONG></B></A> <P><A HREF="Academics.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Essential Curriculum</FONT></B></A> </U> <P><A HREF="AdvancedPlacement.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Articulated Curriculum</FONT></STRONG></B></A> </U></FONT> <P><A HREF="Products.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Improving Instructional Effectiveness</FONT></B></A> <P><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="BruceSaariCV.htm" TARGET="_top">Saari CV</A> </FONT></B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR=#000000>E mail address: saari@topschools.com</FONT></A></P> </BODY> </FRAMESET> <NOFRAMES> <BODY>Small learning communities and student achievement. Successful small learning communities: academic achievement in small learning communities. High performance academic curriculum for small learning communities. Top rated small learning communities. International schools as small learning community models for the renewal of America's public schools. Charter schools as high performance public school options: setting high standards for student achievement and school performance. Test scores as indices of small learning community performance. Core values for small learning communities. International Schools as small learning community models in public education. Advanced placement and humanities curriculum in successful small learning communities. Academics and student achievement in small learning communities. Starting small learning communities. Program development for small learning communities. Program philosophy and policies for small learning communities. High performance writing curriculum for small learning communities. Education reform, essential curriculum and academic standards for new small learning communities. Mastery learning and performance based assessment in successful small learning communitiesCharter Schools. Charter schools and high performance academic curriculum.</P></B></FONT> <P><A HREF="InternationalModel.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Teachers Design High Powered Schools: Bellevue International School 1991, Lake Washington International School 1997, Marysville Arts & Technology 2003</U></FONT></B></A> <P><A HREF="Writing.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Mastery Learning Writing Curriculum for Student Achievement </U></FONT></B></A></U> <P><A HREF="StartUpFAQ.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>SLC Myths: Making it Better vs. Making it New</STRONG></B></A> </U> <P><A HREF="Retention.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Social Promotion...or Program Accountability?</U></FONT></B></A> <P><A HREF="Home.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Transform the Instructional Culture</FONT></STRONG></B></A> <P><A HREF="Articulated.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Thematic 9-12 Humanities & Literature Curriculum</U></FONT></STRONG></B></A> <P><A HREF="TestScores.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Test Scores</I></U></FONT></STRONG></B></A> <P><A HREF="Academics.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Essential Curriculum</FONT></B></A> </U> <P><A HREF="AdvancedPlacement.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Articulated Curriculum</FONT></STRONG></B></A> </U></FONT> <P><A HREF="Products.htm" TARGET="_top"><font face=papyrus><FONT SIZE=3><B>Improving Instructional Effectiveness</FONT></B></A> <P><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="BruceSaariCV.htm" TARGET="_top">Saari CV</A> </FONT></B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR=#000000>E mail address: saari@topschools.com</FONT></A></P> </BODY>