Bellevue International School & Lake Washington International Community School: creating small learning communities designed for student achievement.

How High Performance Small Public Schools Begin

Bellevue International School and Lake Washington International Community Schools have been consistently ranked in the top tier of schools nationwide by both Newsweek and USA Today.

As co-founder and program developer at both schools, I have created this website in order to describe instructional practices and program goals that produce student achievement by design.

The Bellevue International School program was envisioned and developed by six veteran teachers.* Our goal was to discover whether a school could be created that would be a joy to work in, as well as produce superb learning results for students.

We met for a year and a half on our own time, and hammered out a vision for a 6-12 school that would raise the level of accountability for all participants. We made a presentation of our vision to the Bellevue School District Board, and asked for the go-ahead. Instead, the Board challenged us to seek some form of external validation for our ideas.

Six months later, we returned with a $300,000 Schools for the 21st Century Grant from the State of Washington: one of twelve from 113 schools that had applied. Unlike the other applicants, we had received the grant based upon the promise of our design and core values. We had no students, we had no school, and we had yet to write curriculum. At the next Board meeting, we were given a moth-balled elementary (Bellewood) that was then being used as a district warehouse and as a food-bank. We were ecstatic; but the pressure was on.

We were also given "carte-blanche" to create a program, establish a curriculum, equip a building, and then recruit families and students who were willing to take a risk on an untried idea.

I can't begin to describe the sense of obligation that we felt. We were moving from the realm of being teachers in classrooms to teachers who were becoming program designers. As such, we would take the credit or the blame for the quality of the program. A semester of intensive planning led us to a widely publicized launch sequence.

Our first recruitment and information meeting, held on the night of "Desert Storm," brought a grand total of three parents and one student.

But the next, held two weeks later, brought an overflow crowd.

Word had spread, and we were on our way to getting the 150 students that we needed in order to open in the Fall of 1991.

As a 6-12 public school, we accepted all students who applied, and final enrollment decisions were based upon a lottery.

The founding of Bellevue International occurred in the earliest days of the small schools movement--a movement based upon the belief that elements of the teaching & learning equation needed to be re-examined if public schools were to be renewed.

As co-founders and program developers of this small learning community, we knew that our success in improving upon the large high school model would depend upon instituting key "second order" changes that went to the heart of the educational endeavor.

Deep level transformation was our goal, and our first task would be to create an articulated, essential curriculum that deliberately targeted fundamental skills, and that provided continuity of learning experiences over the years.

But in order for this to be accomplished, staff in each department would have to identify and commit to referencing all classroom activities to a core of "essential questions" and skill practices that would underlie all learning activities, as well as link them forward through the years.

Because of our cumulative experience in large American high schools, we also knew that we would also have to value and consistently uphold the same performance standards and behavioral expectations for all students.

Our community and our culture were "the school," a sensible and humanized center that required all students to come together under the same teaching and learning aegis. We were a mono-culture, not a multi-culture, and we expected that each of our students would respond to a quality learning environment, regardless of race, religion, or national origin. Our expectations, values and modeled behaviors consistently hewed to that standard.

As master practitioners, we also knew that each teacher would be expected, as a member of a cohesive team, to model and reinforce those scholarly "habits of mind" that would be the key to student success in each content area and level.

There could be no weak link in the chain; no inconsistency as to "what we were about, and what we cared about."

Like our counterparts in other areas of the country, we teacher founders of Bellevue International believed that our children's schools needed to be re-dedicated to high academic standards; that our schools needed to bring an end to social promotion; and that coherent curriculum and oustanding teacher instructional skill would be the essential ingredients for any small school's success.

Our vision was not about separating the gifted from those who were struggling.

Instead we planted ourselves firmly within the arena of public education and proclaimed that all students can learn, and that all students can achieve.

The key to our success: united staff commitment to a strong school culture, and a curriculum design that targeted fundamental skills while pursuing essential questions that knit together all learning experiences.

By the time we graduated our first class in 1997, our lottery waiting list had grown to several hundred students, and our state and national test scores indicated that we were heading in the right direction.

As the last of the remaining original founders on the Bellevue International staff, I graduated with our first senior class (1997) and left Bellevue in order to help parents establish a new small learning community in the Lake Washington School District, Redmond, Washington.

As parents requested, I designed Lake Washington International Community School to be a clone of Bellevue International.

As program developer, I had the opportunity to recruit our first two classes of 150 7th and 8th graders, to hire the inaugural content area staff, and to develop a curriculum and program philosophy that extended and improved upon the original Bellevue model. For its first several years, ICS had no campus or building proper, but was instead housed in several portables located behind Redmond High School. Earl Wayman, Principal at Redmond, was instrumental in providing the assistance and expertise that would lead to a successful opening.

Lake Washington International Community School is now entering its eleventh year of operation, and is a leading public school program in Washington State.

In 2003 I went to the Marysville School District to develop yet another new small learning community: the Marysville Arts & Technology High School.

After five months of program development, I recruited 140 ninth and tenth grade families and hired the inaugural staff. Jim Fenstermaker, Facilities Director at Marysville, provided excellent leadership for the renovation and remodel of the office park complex that was to become A&T's home.

After a successful first year at A&T, I was priviliged to accept a position with the North Kitsap School District as planning Principal for the new Kingston High School.

According to the original plan, this school will be designed to accommodate 800 students, organized into four small learning communities of approximately 200 students each.

After two productive years at North Kitsap--and after thirty five years in secondary education--I made the decision to retire in June of 2006. Since then, I have begun working with Antioch University, Seattle, offering evening courses on school change, and serving as university supervisor for student teachers. I also continue with curriculum development activities for school districts on a consultancy basis.

*Bellevue International School's founding teachers were: Rick Hart, Patricia McLean, Rita Lowy, Terry LaRussa Banton, Karen Kurle and Bruce Saari. Of these six planners, only four assumed teaching positions when the school opened: McLean, Lowy, LaRussa Banton and Saari. Hart assumed administrative duties at the District level, and Kurle was not available to teach because of an upcoming leave.