Small learning communities in Washington State: Bellevue International School co-founder describes small learning community success stories: Bellevue International School and Lake Washington International Community School: small learning communities that produce student achievement by design.

<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF LINK=#0000FF ALINK=#FF0000 VLINK=#0000FF> <P><B><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=008080><font face=arial>How can new small school programs be started in an existing public school district; and how can that establishment assist a district's school renewal efforts?</FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=5 COLOR=#000000>A:</FONT></STRONG></B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=000000>Any forward thinking parent, board member, teacher or administrator can propose the establishment of a new small learning community within an existing school or school district. In recent years, what with concerns about low student achievement, the flight to home-schooling, and the demand for vouchers, districts have become increasingly willing to look into providing schooling choices for their patrons.</P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>The only trick--and it is a formidable one--is to create quality small learning communities that are educationally responsible, that <U>significantly</U> improve student performance & patron satisfaction, and that are guaranteed to succeed. In other words: new small learning communities are not necessarily <U>better</U> school programs. They must be deliberate in their program design, curricular vision, and school philosophy if they are to lift student achievement beyond that of the regular public schools.</FONT></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>Systemic renewal is the greatest challenge that we face. There are no quick fixes—or at least that there are no real and lasting fixes that can occur without full staff participation at the classroom level--which is precisely the area we need to focus on if we are discussing the renewal of public schools.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>We have all seen this educational phenomenon: district committees for school renewal are established; they work assiduously to research best practices; and they finally publish weighty (and at times brilliant) documents that are intended to guide curriculum and instruction. But in most cases, the master plan ends up gathering dust on a classroom shelf.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>The problem, it seems, is always with implementation. How can these great ideas “trickle down” into the classroom?</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>Experience tells us that in most cases they won’t; and that school transformation cannot occur from the top down. Instead, it must proceed from the ground up.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>But how to build from the ground up—especially when so many professionals are isolated from each other? Numerous researchers have commented on the fact that there is little professional dialog in public schools—for all too obvious reasons.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>So it is that collegiality withers and is replaced by congeniality; and the quality of instructional delivery varies according to the personal attributes and preparation of each individual teacher. Colleagues practice without knowing what their neighbor is doing; and within large departments, there may be little agreement as to what skills, competencies and performances and sequences are vital for guiding students to proficiency and mastery—with the resultant satisfactions that brings to students--and the improvement of school cultures that attends therunto.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>So it is that while there are many strong links in the instructional chain, there are many weak links as well.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>After 19 years in a large public high school, I began my career with small learning communities in order to develop an alternative to this lack of agreement about what is important, and about how and why to deliver instruction. I have learned that there is a way to begin to tackle the problem of school renewal, and that there is a way to do it from the ground-up by engaging those who will do the work, and who will have ownership of the product.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>The challenge is to engage school staffs in the conversation about:</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>What we do</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>Why we do it</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>When we do it</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>What skills and assessments are necessary to guarantee that we are doing it</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>And why it is essential to do any of this in any particular order</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>This conversation is the beginning of the revitalization of the professional culture; and this conversation is the first and most important step that leads to an articulated, intentional and essential curriculum. School renewal and the development of coherent school cultures cannot go forward without this discussion, and the movement to small learning communities within districts provides the ideal venue for this to occur.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>The transition to Small Learning Communities provides a District with a way to accomplish student achievement and program renewal objectives simultaneously, for the means to achieving these goals are embedded in the act of creating <U>quality</U> small schools—not just “smaller” schools that may or may not be effective.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>This revitalization process is a natural enough dialog to have, and it engages teachers in small groups—whether at Departmental or at SLC levels—in answering key instructional and program questions that relate to their content area or to their SLC.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>The act of reaching agreement on these questions is the act of rethinking both the content area and instructional delivery.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>This is where we start. And if the conversation is successful, and if the practices are implemented at departmental levels or within the SLC, then relationships between students and adults are strengthened because high quality learning experiences will be available to all students.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>The effects of making these decisions <U>conscious</U>, and then committing to implementing them as a team, makes all the difference for a vital school program. The surest way to effect transformation is to do what we say we will do. Each individual talent and genius <U>must</U> serve this agreement, while at the same time being allowed to find its own unique pathways to its sure accomplishment.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>These are the tasks:</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>Each SLC (Small Learning Community) is guided through the process of deciding what the core content must be at each instructional level. This core content is expressed in terms of specific learnings that are sequenced so that what comes first prepares the way for what comes second; and what comes second prepares the way for what comes third. This is a logical, intentional progression where previous learning is the platform for subsequent learning. This content is tied to applicable State performance benchmarks and grade level expectations. Teachers commit to upholding this agreement at each level.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>Each SLC is guided through the process of deciding what fundamental skills must be developed and mastered, again ordering these sequentially as above. All teachers commit to upholding this agreement at each level.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>Each SLC is guided through the process of identifying those essential questions (versus entry level questions) that will underlie and inform all instructional activities. These essential questions will be carried forward from class to class and from year to year in each content area because they are essential to the act of doing history, or the act of doing mathematics and so on. Teachers commit to these, at each level.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>The essential questions will be consistently held up before the students, and because they link all learning activities, students will be placed at the center of an educational journey that they are constantly called upon to interpret and describe. This is the real meaning of "student centered" curriculum.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>These essential questions may be added to as the student moves forward in the curriculum, but because they are essential they will <U>never</U> be discarded. So easy to say: but it is absolutely crucial that this occur.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>Each department is guided through the process of describing those “Habits of Mind” that will form the metacurriculum for each content area. These are those scholarly habits, expectations and attitudes that students must bring to class, and that are required for success in each content area, regardless of the level. These too are carried forward from year to year and, like the EQ’s, may be added to but never discarded. Students will be promoted or retained according to the degree to which they have mastered both curriculums. Teachers commit to these, and make them co-equal with traditional content.</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>The act of asking and answering these questions marks the beginning of the establishment of professional and collegial dialog within the team. I have found that committed educators have an affinity for this process.</B></P></Font> <P><FONT SIZE=5 COLOR=#008080>Q:</P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=3>What kinds of assistance do new school developers need as they begin to think about, and design, the alternative program that they envision? </FONT></B></P> <P><B><FONT SIZE=5 COLOR=#000000>A:</B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>School developers--whether they are parents, administrators, teachers or board members--need the benefit of experience as they begin to think about new small learning community ventures. They need to know what works and what doesn't work: not only for effective program design and curricular articulation grades 7-12, but also so that they can develop academic and school policies that will promote School goals, as well as <U>sustain</U> an over-arching philosophy of excellence. The act of breaking up a high school into small groupings of teachers and students is merely change of the first order--and it in no way guarantees that quality programs will be the result, or that student achievement will be improved. Instead, the small learning community teams must become engaged in the task of identifying their values, their expectations, and in crafting a curriculum that is not a random sequence of courses, but a well orchestrated assault upon fundamental competencies and essential questions--a coherent four year design that must focus on developing a student who has the knowledge, experience, capabilities and intellectual temperament that the program has described as its outcome or goal. This refashioning occurs when teams are engaged in the task of asking questions like: What is important? What knowledge and capabilities do we want our graduates to have? How can we design learning sequences and activities that will logically and deliberately lead to this end result? What key skills and essential understandings must be taught at each and every level by each and every staff member?</FONT></B></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3>Second order change requires staffs to answer questions like these, and to commit without reservation to following through in support of each other as the program goes forward. Questions like these are second order questions that need to be answered before any new 7-12 school program can begin to accept students.  <P><A HREF="breaking.htm" TARGET="_top"><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=#0000FF>For more information on the curricular groundwork that must be prepared for a successful transition to high performance small learning communities,</FONT></STRONG></B></A><FONT SIZE=3 COLOR=#000000> please consider the work now underway in the North Kitsap School District.</FONT></STRONG></B></P> </FONT></B></P> </FONT></UL></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>