Home > Resources > Leadership > The Change Process

Some Things Change, Some Things Don't

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• What Has Changed at Crossroads?
  • The New Modified-Block Schedule
  • The New School-within-a-School
  • New, Well-equipped Classrooms
  • Changes Being Developed
• Unplanned Changes, Ongoing Problems
  • Unanticipated Changes
• Class-Size Date: Fall 1993
  • Ongoing Problems
• Concluding Observations: The Study Themes
  • Whole-school Change
  • The Momentum of Change
  • Idea-Driven Change
• Notes

Introduction

In early October 1993 we made our fifth visit to Crossroads High School. From our week of observations in classrooms and conversations with people in the school community--students, teachers, administrators, and parents--we produced the following "snapshot" to describe what it is like to learn and to teach at Crossroads at this point in its process of whole-school change.

Located in a culturally rich city in the beautiful southwest, Crossroads High School draws its eleven hundred students mainly from the city's low-income population. Over 75 percent of the students are Hispanic, and another 3 percent are from other minority groups.

Crossroads was created to be an innovative school. One of its innovative features, the Pathways program, features multi-age, interdisciplinary learning in blocked periods, and assessment through Exhibitions of written, oral, and visual presentations.1 Its second innovative feature, the Governing Council, includes students, a parent, teachers, and administrators, who participate in shared decision making on school issues. In addition, Crossroads' mission statement is the school's version of the nine Common Principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools. (See Appendix B for a listing of the Principles.)

When we first visited this high school, we named it Crossroads because it seemed to be at a critical point on its path to restructuring.2 If it turned one way, we thought, it could make major progress toward becoming an Essential school; taking another course could leave it a typical "shopping mall high school."

This snapshot, produced during the third year of our visits, depicts Crossroads at the beginning of its sixth year as a high school. While it is still not clear which road the school will take, several changes were in the air as school opened for the 1993-94 year.

During this visit we were particularly interested in finding out three things: what changes had occurred since our previous visit, how the school was progressing in its change efforts, and what problems the school was facing at this point in time. We conclude the snapshot by reflecting on our visit in terms of the three themes of the School Change Study: how schools move from partial support to whole-school change, what factors support the momentum of change, and how ideas guiding change--particularly, the Nine Common Principles--are translated into practice.

At the end of the main sections of the snapshot, we include suggested questions for reflection. Originally these questions were given to the people at Crossroads following the visit; we invite the reader as well to use the questions as guides for reflection and discussion.

[Return to Table of Contents]

What Has Changed at Crossroads?

Since our last visit, several major changes occurred at Crossroads. Among these were the new schedule; the new performing arts program, which functioned as a school-within-a-school; and the new classrooms. The advisory program and the implementation of portfolio assessments were both in the process of development.

[Return to Table of Contents]

The New Modified-Block Schedule

Many things have changed at Crossroads this year. One of the most talked about changes is the new schedule. Some students like the changes but some don't. (Editorial from the September 1993 issue of school paper)

Of the many changes referred to by the student editorial writer, the most obvious was the new class schedule, the result of a compromise between advocates of a block schedule and those who wanted to preserve the school's traditional seven-period schedule.

As of the end of October (the schedule was still undergoing revisions after our visit), in the new schedule, first and seventh periods continue as single, fifty-five minute periods each day. Fourth period is lunch. On Mondays and Wednesdays, second and sixth periods meet for 120 minutes as a block of time. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, third and fifth periods meet as blocks. All morning classes meet for forty-five minutes on Friday, with a thirty-minute advisory period inserted in the morning. Afternoon classes on Fridays meet for fifty-five minutes.

An essential ingredient in the compromise that led to the establishment of this schedule was the commitment to daily first- and seventh-period classes. It is during these times that athletic turnouts begin (girls during first period and boys during seventh) and several teachers come to the school from other locations to teach and coach.

We arrived at Crossroads a few days after a parent open house, at which several teachers reportedly blasted the new schedule, leading some parents and faculty to conclude that it had a short life ahead of it. On balance, however, we found more support than opposition for the new schedule.3 Consider the following examples of comments shared with us by people at the school.

Students' Reactions to the New Schedule
Many students had positive remarks concerning the new time arrangements.

I like the new schedule. Students now have more time in class to ask questions and are able to get a better understanding of what's being taught. If students are having trouble with a particular problem or concept, they can ask the teacher for help instead of struggling with it at home.

I think it is a good change. I find it easier in classes, such as science or math, when you are doing a lab or learning new material. But I think it can make it more difficult when it comes to tardies. If someone is absent one day, it can be difficult to make up work or get notes that you might have missed.

I really like it because it gives me more time to do my work and it also gives other students more of an opportunity to finish up their work without trying to do it in a rush.

I really enjoy having two hours of my humanities classes. I have more time to do my work in class. . . .Also, since I have only four classes a day, I have less homework. This is important to me since I have a job and get home at about eleven at night.

It allows the students to get a better grasp of the concepts taught in class, especially in difficult classes like science or math.

I think the new scheduling will help me in the future when I have to sit in class and listen to a long lecture in college.

It will prevent ditching because missing an entire class will leave the students severely behind in class.

I like it. . . .You don't have to interrupt things; you can carry over and accomplish things. You don't have to see the same teacher every day. Most of the people I talk to like it. Some people don't because of lectures and the style of teaching.

It's pretty hard. It helps a lot of students. They have time for homework and for learning and not so much pressure outside of school with personal lives. . . .Fridays seem twice as long as the other days. . . .

Half of the teachers like block, some don't. . . .I think it depends on the attitude of the teacher.

It helps in AP classes. I don't want to think how it would be if we did not have block for them, because we barely finish the work. It's also good in science because we can complete labs.

Bakery and industrial arts have more time to work on what they are doing.

I really like the block schedule and I have three classes a day where I can get concentrated homework done every night.

At first I wasn't sure of the blocks. But actually, for some classes, like calculus and physics, they are really good. We have time to do our labs . . . and I think most of the kids like it. Teachers' complaints about it are that when they lecture, they are done with forty-five minutes left in the period and they have nothing left to say.

My senior year is going to be better than I thought. It seems like it's more fun being here. . . .I think the blocks are making the difference. . . .The teachers who don't like it really let you know it. It seems that more like it than not.

As the school's paper said, some students were not happy with the schedule.

Personally, I think it is worthless at the high school level. The students' attention span is shorter than an hour. In my foreign language class, the two hours are so boring. Science is great because of the labs. But for the rest of the classes it is worthless. I hear complaints from both teachers and students.

Some students don't like being in typing for two hours. [Other students offered different examples of classes that, to them, were "boring" or "too long" with the block schedule.]

Blocking is stupid because if you miss a class you miss two days.

We shouldn't have blocks because I am bored.

I think block scheduling could be better if we had the right teachers to do it--but my teachers are still doing it regularly. They should have time management for teachers.

I don't care for the block scheduling because it is too confusing, and it's hard to concentrate for two hours on the same subject.

As a student of three years attending Crossroads High School, I find it difficult to keep up with the constant changes. I, like many other students, feel we're playing the part of a guinea pig. . . .The new block schedule prohib-its people from using the restroom. . . .

Also, teachers spend more time giving work that doesn't mean anything, or help the student, because by the middle of the second hour the student's attention span is short. Teachers need to know what to plan for two hours, so work won't be overloaded or students won't be left for forty-five minutes not knowing what to do.

Teachers' Reactions to the New Schedule
Many teachers spoke positively concerning the new time schedule.

I love the block schedule. The school is divided about it. The loudest complainers are Pathways. There is one teacher in particular who is leading the fight. When I talked to her, she said her lesson plans from last year did not work--kids can't do grammar for two hours. . . .Teachers have to come up with new approaches. As far as I'm concerned, I love it. I'm in a lab situation and that helps. . . .It takes five or ten minutes to get started in any class so, in percentage of time, I lose more time in my one-period class.

I enjoy it with my language classes, especially with second- and third-year classes. . . .I am enjoying block classes more than others. You can get into grammar and vocabulary and are able to accomplish a lot of work.

I love it in word processing and business math. It gives me time to go around and check on student progress.

All my students in blocks are learning more than students in single-period classes. [At least four teachers made this assertion.]

I like it--no problems. Doesn't seem to be middle ground among the faculty members; either people like it or they don't.

I like the block classes because I am able to go at a slower pace and give the kids better practice, so they really understand what I am teaching. My block class is really ahead of my first period class in the same subject--I could tell when I was correcting papers this weekend. Some teachers are having trouble with the block and we have offered to help them, but they refuse to work outside of school to adapt their work to the new schedule.

The block schedule means more work for me. In order to keep them working for two hours, and to break up the monotony for the kids, I work two lessons. It's harder, but I don't mind it. I think it helps the kids prepare for college.

I'm ecstatic over the block schedule. Kids are doing things I have never seen before. . . .In theory there is the same contact time for all students, but the ones in the block are getting sustained teaching and attention.

I like the block scheduling, although those of us in Pathways have been blocking all along. I do have a tough fifth-period class. It takes me an entire two hours to cover basic material. They are very needy. I am thankful for the two hours, because to start up every day is too tough.

As was the case with students, not all teachers agreed with the block schedule. Some had no use for it; others had suggestions for altering it.

The schedule is physically killing me. I hate it. I don't have a prep two days a week. With thirty-three ninth-graders for two hours--they don't even have a place to sit.

I don't think it affects Pathways. It's fine with me because we've always done our classes this way. The only difference is that it is confusing for knowing when to plan in advance for which days. I don't have a prep two days out of five and this is exhausting.

I love it and I hate it. Two hours in the afternoon with ninth-graders is too much. I spend too much time to settle them down.

I can't get away to go to the bathroom. I don't get to go but once a day. I can't leave my classes unattended. One boy hit another today.

If we keep the blocks I am leaving.

Have you talked with the PE teachers? They said they are exhausted. They need to change what they are doing.

That's one of the weaknesses--teachers did not get methods classes in college or they have the same curriculum that they've been teaching for twenty years and all in fifty-five-minute blocks.

Blocks don't work for the middle track of students. I have made my opinion known to the principal based on my many years of teaching. . . . You need planning for using a whole long period like a block and we don't have it. We should change the schedule so that there is just a block on Tuesday and Thursday, rather than on four days each week.

I see little hope. I need to make a disclaimer that you shouldn't even be interviewing me. I started out the year really depressed--with so much controversy over block scheduling. . . .

Parents' Reactions to the New Schedule
Parents, too, had their own mixed reviews of the new schedule.

I know the parents are not happy with blocks where kids have to sit for two hours.

The block schedule prevented my daughter from being in a cooperative work program. [After another parent asked if this meant the Distributive Education Clubs of America program had been dropped, this parent clarified:] Well, what I meant was she would have had to drop two classes to be involved in the program.

I can see good and bad things about the blocking--cuts down on skipping because they are in class longer. But if they are going to have a big test they don't have a chance to review questions with the teacher the day before the test. [This point of view was clarified by another parent who pointed out that the teacher whose tests the parent was talking about is always at school by seven in the morning, so the daughter could still get help before the test.]

For some classes it works well. For others it is twice as boring as before, only now they have to stick it out for longer periods.

Parents with whom we spoke insisted they had not been engaged in discussions concerning the block schedule before it was implemented. One parent pointed out that it had been discussed and acted on by the school's Governing Council, which includes parent representation. However, most agreed with one who indicated that the first time he heard anything about it was when kids signed up for school this year.

Administrators' Reactions to the New Schedule
In contrast with people at the school, all of whom identified the block schedule when asked what was new in the fall of 1993, two of three central administrators interviewed failed to mention it. When prompted, one of those two acknowledged that some changes in the schedule had been made, but, since there had been little parent reaction, there was little concern about the changes. A board member echoed this central administrator, noting, "I haven't heard any negative things towards it. I've heard very little about it. If there were anything negative, I would hear."

At the school, the administrative staff members' reactions were generally in terms of the reduced confusion in the hallways as a consequence of students being inside classrooms for longer blocks of time. One building administrator perceptively summarized the situation as follows:

The block schedule is working where teachers are being innovative at looking at instruction and not doing the same thing over and over again for two hours. They are engaging students in hands-on acts. Those that are doing the same thing are frustrated. This is reflected in the students. When they have different methodologies, then they are happy.

Has the Block Schedule Changed Instruction?
During the first two years of our visits, one of the most frequent complaints by a group of teachers was that a majority of them had voted in favor of operating a block schedule but had been denied the opportunity by the administration. Now that that opportunity had been realized, at least in a modified form, the key question becomes, what changes can be noted in the classroom? Opinions of various groups aside, is what is happening in the classroom now any different from what was happening before?

There are several problems in answering this question definitively. Turnover in faculty (close to 30 percent each year, or approximately fourteen new staff members during each year of the study) makes it hard for us to compare teaching from one year to the next. Also, our observations in the fall of 1993 were made early in the implementation of the new schedule, while teachers and students alike were trying to learn how best to take advantage of it.

Although we observed twenty-nine periods of instruction across a number of disciplines with a variety of teachers over a four-day period, what we saw is hardly an exhaustive sampling of instruction. Therefore, some of our views of what was happening in the classroom are shaped by reports from interviewees.

As several students, teachers, and administrators observed, the change in schedule seemed to have no impact on what happened in some classrooms. In fact, some teachers seemed to make an extra effort to make sure they continued with business as usual.

One Pathways team, for example, was careful to pass students from one teacher to another at the end of the conventional periods within the block. To prevent the students from "getting loose" as they moved between the teachers' rooms, the teachers formed a human wall separating the passing students from the school hallways. Once inside the classrooms, students diagrammed sentences or listened to lectures and responded to short-answer questions, much as they had done in previous years with the same teachers.

Across the hallway from these teachers, another pair working with similar students in the Pathways program made much different use of the expanded time schedule. One of the teachers, working with half of the students assigned to this pair, used the extended period to show a feature-length video of a classic literary work. Meanwhile, the other used the extended time with her students for several learning activities.

One Teacher's Use of the Blocked Schedule

Because one teacher (we will call her Mary) seemed particularly able to make effective use of the new extended period, we turn next to a detailed description of what happened as she worked with her students. In thinking about this class, particularly close attention needs to be given to the ways she took advantage of the longer period to gain student commitment to a long-term project.

Also, the reader should note the way different activities were selected to reinforce each other in a manner that would be hard to achieve if they had been spaced out over several days. She used the double period for four activities:

1. Reading an excerpt from an autobiography by Linda Ellerbee and discussing it in a way that tied it to the next three activities
2. Negotiating details of a five-week homework project with the students
3. Having students report on cooperative group assignments related to creation myths
4. Having students begin idea development for their own creation myths

Mary used the first ten minutes of the ninth-grade class to handle routine affairs such as taking attendance and establishing the atmosphere that she wanted for the remainder of the period. At one point she asked, "What is the first rule in this class?" As the students responded, "Show courtesy and respect," they began to do just that and to listen to Mary as she reviewed with them a previous conversation about the characteristics of myths. She concluded, "That's what myths are. How do I explain what I don't understand?" She then asked them to get comfortable as she read the Ellerbee excerpt.

The Five-Week TV Project.

The story she read begins with Linda and a young girlfriend engaged in imaginative play. Linda falls from a tree, breaks her arm, and then with her friend begins to develop theories of how they can fly so that they don't have to worry about such mishaps. However, just as their imaginations are beginning to create wondrous possibilities, her friend is called into her house with the message that her father has brought something for her. That is the last Linda sees of her friend.

Eventually, she learns that a television was the surprise the father had for the friend. Never having heard of television, but painfully aware of the disappearance of her playmate, she begins to derive her theory--her myth--that television ate her friend. As the story continued by revealing the ways television changes people and the effects it has on family life, it is evident from student comments and non-verbal messages that they knew what Linda is talking about. As one student said concerning television, "I'm obsessed with it."

From this story, Mary began a general discussion of television viewing and compared it with reading. She asked the students how many of them had had the experience of watching TV and of wanting to make a comment, but had been told, "Shh." All raised their hands. "Yes," Mary said, "you sit there and it is like talking to empty space, because people are so immersed in TV."

Then she asked how many had read a Stephen King book and had seen a movie of the same book. A number raised their hands. At first the students asserted that they preferred the movies; then several began to comment on how certain books seem more vivid than the movies. Several said, for example, that Jurassic Park was better as a book than a movie, because the movie left out some of the best descriptive parts.

At this point Mary let the students in on why she was using the Ellerbee story.

Usually I use it when I'm on my soapbox about not watching television, but it seemed like a perfect example of explaining what we don't understand, that is in our minds, as a myth. She had tried to explain the loss of a friend somehow, so I thought this might be a good time to try an experiment.

With these last words, students began to mutter to each other. It seems they had caught wind of what was coming from conversations with their parents who had recently attended a back-to-school orientation session with the teacher.

Mary said, "This is a five-week project."

A student responded, "Oh God!" and there was general laughter.

Smiling and continuing, Mary said,

It has been my contention that TV has great potential but eventually it is like many things that we abuse. We talked about--now who is moaning? It's OK to watch TV to vege--when we don't want to be intellectually engaged--when we are just being mindless. But I want you to learn if you have a reason for watching TV, then watch it. The second thing I want you to learn is that there are options to watching TV.

She then proceeded to define the project with them. First she had them write on their papers: "Number 1: For one week I will watch all the TV I want and I will keep a journal and that journal will be a daily log telling what I watch and why."

In response to this first item, a student asked, "What if I barely watch TV?" and students shared in friendly laughter as Mary responded, "Pedro, why tell fibs?" She then continued by having them write the next item in the assignment. "Number 2: For two weeks I will watch TV only one hour a night." This elicited a number of student comments.

"After school too?"

"What about the World Series?"

"That sucks."

"What if it's a movie? Can we only take an hour for one day?"

At this point, Mary modified the assignment:

OK, let's change that and make it: Watch TV for only seven hours a week. That way if I want to watch the World Series, I can watch it for three hours. If there is a twenty-hour mini-series, you are out of luck.

Next, she had them continue writing, " . . . and I will log what I watch and why (I don't care what your reasons are; I just want you to list them)." This again generated student comments.

"Does a movie count if you go to see a movie?" "Are you really going to make this count?"

"I have a question: What if you have to watch a movie for a test like the one going on in the room next door?"

"What if you are watching something scientific?"

Rather than stopping to respond to each of these comments, Mary observed, "We will finish all the directions and then deal with these questions." The she had them write the next item: "Number 3: For one week I will watch three hours."

Students again interrupted, "Ugh! A night or a week?"

"The whole week?"

"Oh my God, I can't do that!"

"You mean I can't watch cartoons on Saturday morning?"

"Monday to Friday?"

In response to this last, hopeful question, Mary responded firmly, "No, Monday through Sunday," then continued with the third direction, "I will log what I watch and why. Number 4: For one week I will watch no TV."

Again students responded, "Oh God!" and "Really?"

Mary continued, "Furthermore, what I want you to tell me is what you are doing in place of watching TV." Then she said, "Number 5."

This produced the following exchange between two students: "There are already five weeks." "She's the teacher."

Mary ended: "Number 5: Draw some conclusions." This last portion of the assignment led to an exchange with one student with limited English proficiency, during which Mary recognized that he did not understand the idiom draw conclusions, and helped him with an example. He said, "Oh, like if you decided whether TV really eats people." Another student chimed in with an example, "TV is like drugs." Mary agreed that was an example of a conclusion that might be drawn.

Having laid out the basic rules for the assignment, Mary was now ready to negotiate with the students on some interpretations. Working together, they decided that "movies at theaters don't count." Then a student asked whether video games should count. Everyone started talking at once. Mary paused and asked if they needed to stop and talk about discussion techniques. She asked, "Carmela, should video games count?"

"No."

"Why?"

"You are not watching something."

"Danny?"

"No."

"Why?"

"You are using your hands." [Laughter]

"Darrell?"

"No, you are doing work." [Applause]

"Since this sounds like punishment, Sega should go too."

"Maybe Mark has a point. How many believe the project is punishment?"

Only one hand went up, and that student explained she felt that it was punishment because, she said, "You can't do what you want."

Mary responded, "Well, it is intended to be a project and not punishment."

Another student observed, "It is an experiment to see if TV really does not eat people."

Mary nodded and said, "That's the whole point!" [Laughter]

With great and grave emphasis a student announced, "Whoever can't do this project, you don't have a life!"

Mary then returned the conversation to the rule regarding video games. A student explained why he thought they should be included. Others commented: "Well, you're still watching it and it doesn't matter whether you're using your hands"; "It is still just sitting there"; "It is like sitting and watching TV with a remote control."

Mary called for a vote. Eighteen supported including video games in the ban on watching, two opposed. A second rule had been negotiated and written on the chalkboard: "No video games."

Another student raised the question of whether taping movies on a VCR and then watching them could be allowed. After a brief discussion the students agreed, in spite of their earlier rule permitting watching movies, that was still watching TV .

There were several outside interruptions at this point in the class, and Mary gave the students permission to talk among themselves for a few minutes. A teacher delivered some mugs that were being sold as a fund raiser by one of the student groups, another teacher put her attendance slip in a folder by the door, and the phone rang in the office adjoining the classroom.

Then the conversation about the TV assignment continued. Mary commented, "Karen had an interesting question. She wants to know, what if you don't watch television very much?" A quick survey of students' viewing habits showed that they watched between one-and-a-half hours a week to "most of the time" when they were not in school. Clearly a reduction to seven hours a week, the first level of the assignment, would produce a major change for most in the class.

There was a variety of comments from individuals about the assignment. These were followed by the announcement that the project would not begin for a week, to make sure they could watch the World Series if they wanted to. Mary then said that printed contracts containing the rules they had developed in the class would be ready soon for them to take home for their parents to sign.

Group Presentations on Creation Myths.
Next, Mary asked them to set aside the assignment, to "change gears" and make their group presentations on creation myths. For several days students had been working in cooperative learning groups. Using an anthology of creation myths from different cultures throughout the world, each group had prepared a report answering a series of questions about the myths. Presenting from the front of the room, the students talked about such matters as the what characteristics of gods were shared among myths in a particular part of the world and whether humankind was viewed as positive or negative in the myths of a particular region. Each member of the group was responsible for an individual report.

With the conclusion of a group's presentation, Mary encouraged students to ask questions of each other. Then she posed some of her own. For example, she called on them to compare findings of one group with that of another. In one instance she helped them see connections between creation myths of some of the Native American cultures and those of the Judeo-Christian traditions.

One group included several students with limited English proficiency. She praised them for the clarity of the report which, while delivered with some halting phrasing, had responded well to the questions posed for the groups. The other students had responded well to this group also, applauding them at the end as they did with several of the reporting groups.

While the groups reported, Mary also gave attention to presentation skills. Several times she helped students speak more loudly, clarify points that they were making, adjust the way they were standing as they spoke, and, in general, think about their audience. She checked the notes being taken by the students who were listening and praised the quality of several students' note taking.

A Creation Myth Writing Assignment.
After the fourth group had reported, Mary noted that they would finish the last couple of group presentations during the next class meeting. Then she turned to the last activity of the class: beginning a writing assignment.

Pretend you don't know as much as you really do. Imagine yourself as sitting around a campfire starting to discuss the world and I say to you, "How did this world come to be? How did you and I come to be? How am I going to explain this?"

What I want you to do is to write the story you would use to explain the world--you and me. I want you to write a creation myth.

When a student asked, "As if I did not know anything about it?" Mary continued,

This is your chance to reach into your creative pocket. Start brainstorming now. Just write down words and phrases and I will collect them at the end of the period and give them back tomorrow so you can keep working on this paper. You will do more of the drafting and outlining tomorrow.

A student asked, "Can we make up our own gods and stuff?"

Mary nodded, "That's it. Make it all up! Brainstorm!"

As the students began to write, Mary circulated throughout the room, stopping here and there to encourage or prod. After talking with one girl, she interrupted the class, "Angie just made an interesting observation. She asked if we realize that in most of the myths we have been reading, men are created first."

This prompted a couple of girls to respond, "But not in all."

Mary said, "That's right. We will hear some during the next class meeting where that is not the case."

As the class period ended, Mary collected the students' work and they exited. Those who left were replaced by a classroom full of students of various ages who came to this popular teacher's room to eat lunch and share conversations about the day's events at Crossroads.

Other Uses of the Extended Time

In another Pathways class we observed, the teacher used the extended time to prepare students for a field trip and to have them write in their journals, consider vocabulary necessary for their reading, work in cooperative learning groups to study original examples of historical journals, and read independently. Like Mary, this teacher included a brief break during the class rather than trying to keep students on task the entire time. Unlike Mary, she struggled to keep the students attending to the various assignments.

Student conversations wandered from the topic, with much attention to questions of personal grooming and social life. Consider, for example, the following exchange during a time when a cooperative group was supposed to be studying an explorer's journal.

"I had breakfast, but I'm hungry."

"I saw Ms. Brown. She was all offended."

"Jacob writes like he's left-handed."

"You don't even care if I'm upset."

"Yes I do. I just solved your problem."

"My dad is in the hospital--a biking accident."

Later, during time when students were supposedly engaged in silent reading, we noted the following conversation as a further sign that the students had not really "bought into" the assignment.

"I'm leaving in two weeks."

"I'm getting twenty dollars a week."

"What's a coxswain?"

"I don't know. This is all dumb."

"I'm going out to lunch."

"I'll go with you."

"I can't take you. I always spend too much money."

"I'll spend two dollars."

"I like your beads."

"I like them too. I don't know if they're glass or not."

Interrupted at this point by the teacher's asking, "Why are you talking?" one of the students responded, "Because girls do that a lot."

As students, teachers, and administrators had told us, science, industrial arts, computer, and business education teachers throughout the school engaged students actively in learning during the extended block. Individual project work at various levels of difficulty in computer classes kept students engaged in learning skills and problem solving. Lab exercises in science gave students an opportunity to test theories read about in texts and described in class lectures. Math teachers used the extended period to provide guided assistance to students doing homework.

Reflections on the New Schedule

We asked the staff to consider the following questions which may be helpful in thinking about the new schedule.

1. Some teachers say that students are making much more progress when they are taking a class in the extended blocks. If this is true, what is the justification for offering some sections of the same course in block format and others in single periods at the beginning and end of the day?
2. What were some of the long-range benefits Mary gained from negotiating the long-term student assignment with the students rather than just handing it to them on a xeroxed assignment sheet? Would she have been just as able to obtain these benefits in a forty-five minute period?
3. Examine Mary's teaching and the three assignments with which she worked with the students in terms of the Coalition's nine Common Principles. For example, what examples are there of students being expected to use their minds well, of students being expected to be workers, of personalization?
4. What kind of help is needed for teachers who are still not able to make good use of the extended periods? Given the work routine for teachers, when can such help be provided? Who are the people in the best position to provide the help?
5. Could (should) adjustments be made in the schedule so that certain classes meet daily for shorter times and others meet less frequently for a longer time? Which classes seem to benefit the most from different class lengths?
6. Is it possible that teachers need to have classes of different lengths on different days? If so, is there a way to accommodate this need for differentiation?
7. Who will decide the fate of the new schedule? When will it be decided? What will be the criteria used for making the decision?

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The New School-within-a-school

The schedule is not the only thing which has changed. When we asked a central administrator about changes which had been made at Crossroads for 1993-94, the first thing which came to his mind was the new Crossroads Academy for the Performing Arts (CAPA). Our observations of this program, intended to advance students to mastery levels in the performing arts, helped us understand the enthusiasm of this administrator.

Three teachers with backgrounds in teaching and performing in drama, music, and dance formed this new academy. One hundred twenty students are enrolled as the first cohort. Currently, they can satisfy physical education and health requirements through the new program. Eventually, the teachers plan for the students to remain within the academy for all course work, except that in science and math. They hope students will be able to enroll in special sections of those subjects which are developed by the science and math departments with the CAPA teachers.

The teacher initiating this academy is recharged: "I don't feel like part of a labor force now, but like someone with my own program." Although the effort is on its way to becoming a semi-autonomous school-within-a-school, interaction between the teachers in CAPA and others in the school continues, as they send students from their classes to help other classes with video needs and to assist with schoolwide activities.

Brief observations of classes in this new academy were exciting. We watched as the dance teacher helped a large class master some of the fundamentals of the traditional soft-shoe routines. She capitalized on the talents of some students who had obviously studied dance privately and were able to recognize similarities between Spanish steps and some she was introducing. Simultaneously, she helped some students discover latent talent. This was particularly true for some boys, for whom a formalized notion of dance was clearly a new idea. She quickly introduced a number of new steps. In a remarkably short time, students exhibited reasonable representations of the desired routines.

Meanwhile, the music teacher was using electronic keyboards to introduce some students with no previous musical background to reading music. Mixing simple classical and popular jazz arrangements, he kept the students, even those who found rhythms and notes most perplexing, working hard and enthusiastically.

In the drama classroom, students were beginning to use cuttings from plays to learn characterization. Quickly, they learned that one had to understand the entire play to be able to interpret a scene adequately.

One student, with an anthology of cuttings in hand, soon learned that she could not know how one character related to another unless she knew more than was revealed in the cutting she had selected. Reading the line, "We are not going to suffer anymore; Martha is dead," she realized that she needed to know whether Martha being dead was going to be greeted with relief (Martha is finally dead and we don't have to suffer anymore) or sorrow (Martha is dead and the suffering we have shared with her is at an end).

Students seen reading rather passively in literature classes elsewhere in the school seemed to begin to understand some of the ways authors work with characters, setting, and plot to generate moods and meaning.

Students worked with excerpts from such plays as Taming of the Shrew, Comedy of Errors, and Crimes of the Heart. With guidance and coaching from the teacher and one another, they advanced from halting readings of the scripts at the beginning of the period to more sophisticated renditions by the end of the time. Along the way, the teacher described acting methods used by people such as Dustin Hoffman and Marlon Brando to help students understand different approaches to characterization.

Not all is roses for the new program. Some students formerly active in various components of the performing arts clearly are jealous of the attention the students in the new program receive. Launching the academy without any new resources has forced the teachers to seek grants to obtain the capital needed to initiate a program of the quality they desire.

The program is attracting students from Main High School, the original public high school in the same city. This is a mixed blessing ,since it requires time to coordinate efforts with the programs at that school and to provide assurances that the CAPA does not want to put music and drama programs at Main out of business.

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New, Well-equipped Classrooms

When we arrived, a new wing was nearly completed on the school. It houses science, business, and technology classrooms as well as several general education rooms. The chemistry teacher showed off his new combined lecture/lab room with great pride. Glitches in clock systems and other minor construction problems did not dim his enthusiasm for the spacious, well-equipped facilities. The preparation room adjacent to the classroom, separated from that room by windows, enabled the teacher to set up experiments, as well as to oversee students working on special projects. Hooded, vented work stations, computers and files for teacher use, even the telephone in the office adjoining the classroom, were among the features of this state-of-the-art room, which in its completeness also served to highlight the inadequate supply budget of the school.

Teachers and students expressed appreciation for the four rooms in the wing equipped with extensive arrays of computers and office equipment. When viewing these facilities, however, one could not help reflect on the dismal pay levels for professionals in the school. As is the case in several parts of the country, the community in which Crossroads exists is allowed by the state to raise funds for capital expenditures. The community is more severely limited by state laws and regulations, as well as its own desire (or lack thereof) in the contributions it can make to the operating budget to support public education.

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Changes Being Developed

When we came in October, advisory periods and new kinds of assessments were being developed, but there was still considerable confusion and uncertainty about their implementation.

Advisory Periods

As we noted in our last snapshot, the school had intended to initiate an advisory program in the fall of 1993. Summer 1993 plans announced to the faculty by the principal and the school's Re:Learning Committee called for the advisory to meet for fifteen minutes each day. Friday of the second week of school was to be devoted to a full-day advisory meeting for parents, to help orient them to changes being made in the school.4

The first advisory class for 1993-94 met on Friday, October 29, 1993. By that time the decision had been made to hold advisory for thirty minutes but to meet just once a week. During our visit at the beginning of October, there was considerable confusion regarding the status of advisory.

In spite of the mailing during the summer, some teachers claimed they had received no information about advisory during the summer. That claim, the large number of new teachers, and internal disagreement over the frequency and the length of advisory sessions all contributed to the principal's decision to delay implementation in the fall.

Not all faculty members were happy with this decision to delay the advisory program. As one teacher put it,

We all knew what was going on, and when we were interviewing new teachers, we told the new people the new things that were planned, and they accepted the job. They should have been ready. We went with the block schedule right away; why not advisory?

Several straw ballots were taken to choose the approach which would be implemented regarding advisory. The option of not having advisory was not reviewed again because, by the fall of 1993, the program had won support from the central administration as well as from the school's administration. Administrators clearly hoped that the greater attention to individual students, provided by advisory sessions, would help deal with problems of attendance and dropouts, which were of increasing concern to parents.

Meanwhile, students, parents, and teachers all told us they were unsure what the plans were for the advisory--why it was being initiated and what would actually happen when it was started. Student names were drawn for each teacher, but plans to assign advisories to counselors and administrators were abandoned. Special education teachers expressed concerns that their students would not be mainstreamed for this activity, because they were not included in the draw.

Some teachers were worried that they would be expected to engage the students in "touchy-feely" activities that were outside of their expertise. As one teacher commented sarcastically, "We will use it for love and hugs!" Another said,

The whole thing has created so much confusion for the kids that they view it as one more unorganized thing. . . .A lot of teachers complain about this counselor role. It's more bookkeeping.

Students used their usual blunt language to express their concerns:

"The stupid advisory--they are going to give us fifteen or thirty minutes. I think it is the student's responsibility to keep up on those things like credits earned."

"This will be a talking period."

"It should be for certain students and not for everyone."

"Teachers are trading names to get the students they want."

"It will be like the homeroom period was in junior high."

Portfolios and Exhibitions

If there was confusion concerning advisory, there was even more uncertainty about the use of portfolios and Exhibitions to assess student learning. Some students insisted they had heard nothing about them. Other students said teachers were keeping portfolios of their work. Some said this year's seniors had to have portfolios.

Holding the same variety of opinions as the students, teachers expressed opposing points of view with equal conviction. Parents generally indicated they knew nothing about portfolios. No one talked with clarity about why portfolios should or should not be kept or how they might relate to learning.

There was no differentiation by teachers between Exhibitions by seniors as a means of determining whether students had met the school's expectations for graduates and reports that students might make as part of a class project. In this case, at least, the Coalition's notion of "planning backwards," which involves envisioning a goal and then planning the school program to attain it, does not appear to have intruded into the everyday life of Crossroads.

Interestingly, several central administrators expressed the belief that the school was making real progress in authentically assessing student learning. These same administrators shared with us a new document describing outcomes expected of all graduates in the school district. Not one of the teachers, students, parents, or administrators whom we interviewed at the school identified these district outcomes as answers to our question of what should be expected of a graduate of Crossroads.

In fact, one teacher was observed looking at copies of the district document which appeared in the faculty room while we were visiting. She simply shook her head and said she wondered "where they get this stuff."

While a number of the people at the school perceived that portfolios and Exhibitions were somehow related to the planned advisory sessions, no one described the relationship in the terms outlined for them in the letter they had received from the school during the summer. These changes in assessment, which properly carried out are consistent with many Coalition principles, seem to have a long way to go before they can be said to have been implemented.

Reflections on Changes Being Developed

We asked the staff to think about the following questions regarding the programs and changes being developed at Crossroads.

1. Should the CAPA be a one-of-a-kind program? Does it suggest a possible trend toward the development of a campus of schools-within-a-school that are focused around career and academic interests?

2. How should students in the CAPA be integrated into the school as a whole at the same time they are developing a strong loyalty to their program?

3. How should the new advisory program be evaluated? What are the expectations of the program? Who will decide whether these expectations are met and what process will they use?

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Unplanned Changes, Ongoing Problems

During our visit we learned of some unanticipated changes, as well as several problems that continue to face Crossroads as it seeks to improve student learning.

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Unanticipated Changes

Not all changes at Crossroads are a result of intended innovations. Some of the unanticipated changes include the closing of the library, increases and discrepancies in class size, turnover among the staff, and failure to implement intended changes resulting from students' resistance to change.

The Closing of the Library
One big change at the school in October was a consequence of a series of unfortunate personnel decisions. A story in the local paper reported on October 7, 1993, "Crossroads High School students and teachers have been locked out of their own library for the better part of the school year, school officials said this week."

When the school's media resource coordinator took a leave in the spring of 1993, school officials thought this might be a good opportunity to test the role of the Governing Council in dealing with personnel matters and resource allocations. With the urging of the principal, the Council agreed to leave the position vacant and use an aide to run the facility. The resultant savings would then be plowed back into other staffing needs.

After at first agreeing to the arrangement, the aide decided that she was being asked to do a librarian's job for much less than a librarian's pay, and backed out of the arrangement. By the time of our visit, five weeks into the school year, a new person was not in place. Meanwhile, some teachers with keys to the library were continuing to bring their classes to it. For others, particularly new faculty, who were unable to use these resources, the library closing was particularly bothersome, as they tried to design instructional activities for the extended periods. Rumors abounded about teachers and students making off with books and equipment from the library without following the normal check-out procedures.

Most teachers were unable to access the distribution system, which permitted the central playing of video tapes for classroom observation, since it was part of the library complex. However, as with the use of the facility for classes, some experienced teachers were able to use this equipment, while newer ones remained unable to show video tapes.

When the parents arrived at the school for the fall open house, they were upset to learn of the library's closing, although some insisted that the collection at the school was so limited that their children relied on public library facilities anyway. Their reactions led to the news story quoted above and increased the pressure on the school to get a fully qualified librarian in place.

Without further consultation with the Governing Council about the matter, a new librarian had been hired and was to begin work the week after our visit. Arrangements had been made for the regular librarian to return to help the new person restore order to the facility, so that it could fulfill its essential function of supporting the instructional program.

Class-size Issues

A reported increase in class size caused by district-mandated budget cuts also upset teachers. We do not have data to tell us exactly how class sizes in 1993-94 compared with the previous years, but students joined with their teachers in making complaints about the size of some classes. Analysis of class enrollment at the end of the first week of school in the fall of 1993 suggests, however, that there may be more factors than the budget at the bottom of the class-size problem.

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Class-Size Data: Fall 1993

Average (mean) class size: 25

Number of classes with 15 or fewer students: 21

Number of classes with 10 or fewer students: 8

Number of classes with 35 or more students: 9

Examples of teacher loads (total number of students for 5 periods) in Pathways: 109-147

Examples of teacher loads in PE: 152-186

Examples of teacher loads in foreign languages (.8 person): 75 -160

Examples of teacher loads in technology--business--Industrial Arts: 114-154

Examples of teacher loads in math/science: 105-144

The complaints were not about classes with the average of twenty-five students, nor about the total load for teachers of 125 students, which five average-size classes would produce. Obviously the complaints were coming from those situations where class sizes were much above the average. Total loads in excess of 140 students for teachers of basic subjects such as math, science, English, and history are clearly out of line with the Coalition of Essential Schools Principle of no more than eighty students for each teacher. They make it difficult to achieve the kind of personalization necessary to really help all students use their minds well or to have all students achieve common goals.

Students, as well as teachers, are aware of problems of class size. One told us,

In my Pathways class it's impossible to get an education. It is so loud I can't think. I think the teachers care here, but they have to care about so many people. How do you individually work with 150 students in one day?

To some extent the heavy loads for some teachers reflect lighter loads for others. Small classes in some subjects create large classes in others, as long as there is a finite number of teachers available.

Staff Turnover

Turnover in the faculty is another kind of unintended, ongoing change. One of the products of the turnover in teachers was the creation of a four-person Pathways team that consisted entirely of teachers who were new to Crossroads. While these teachers, as well as many of the other new teachers at Crossroads, appear to be adding strength to the faculty, the creation of a group with no experience whatsoever at Crossroads made it difficult to carry out the Pathways concept. The absence of sufficient textbooks and the closure of the library made their task even more difficult. This group expressed appreciation for the assistance they were provided by the Pathways teacher-leaders, but both they and the teacher-leaders acknowledged the lack of time within the workday to provide such mentoring.

Students' Resistance to Change

One of the unintended changes we continue to observe is the failure to implement program changes the school claims to have adopted. That is, the program is changed, but not in the way it is supposed to be. As we talked with students and teachers during this visit, we became more and more aware of the role that student resistance to change plays in making change difficult.

For example, students continued to tell us that they are not "really doing English" unless they are studying grammar and diagramming sentences. As one student observed, "Last year our teacher went back to grammar and I did learn some things, so it wasn't totally a waste." For such students, writing papers just isn't English. Math teachers tell us similar stories about their students who want to do worksheets because that is really "doing math" and working on cooperative learning activities is not.

Other students described with enthusiasm advanced placement classes where they spend full periods dealing with short recall questions asked by teachers about information in the text book. Teachers defended the approach as necessary to prepare the students for tests that will require them to recall information, rather than to use information for thinking. In contrast, students rejected as soft, or not "real work," courses in which they engage in cooperative projects.

It is this resistance to change by students (frequently reflecting views of their parents) that clearly leads some teachers to stop short of implementing new approaches. This becomes particularly true when students share with them the critical remarks about innovative approaches which they hear from other teachers in the school.

Students at Crossroads sometimes generalized this resistance to change in statements, such as the following, that we heard during our visit: "We all complain that the school should not make so many changes so often--no other school is doing Pathways as we have been doing it. Change is good, but not every single year." Others expressed their feelings by complaining about being treated as guinea pigs.

Reflections on Unanticipated Changes

We asked the staff to consider the following questions regarding unanticipated changes at Crossroads:

1. With the availability of new facilities, are all the school's classrooms and special facilities being used in an ideal fashion to support the instructional goals of the school?
2. As Crossroads develops its ability to make personnel decisions at the school level, what actions would prevent situations such as the closed library from occurring in the future?
3. What changes in utilization of staff are suggested by examining the current information on class size and teacher load?
4. What additional data concerning the use of teachers would be needed to make improvements in class size and teacher load?
5. How can Crossroads develop effective systems for mentoring new teachers within the time and resource limitations facing the school?
6. How can teachers, students, and parents be helped to understand the rationale for changes that are being made? What specific activities can be planned so that resistance can be changed to support?

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Ongoing Problems

Several ongoing problems continue to present serious challenges for the people at Crossroads. These problems, some of which are interrelated, concern the school's identity, tracking, dropouts, and attendance.

Seeking Identity in a Changing Community

I'm new here. I used to go to Main High School but Crossroads blows the doors off Main. (Student quoted in the September 1993 issue of school paper)

If I had my choice, I would rather have my child in Crossroads than Main. (District administrator interview, October 6, 1993)

Not everyone in town agrees with this student or this administrator. Some cling to the notion that Main is still the school where students desiring to be challenged academically should enroll.

Crossroads' image does not seem to have changed significantly during the years we have been observing at the school. A part of the reason Crossroads has been slow to catch on with some elements of the community is that it has been known from its beginning as a school which seeks to be innovative, and from the outset, as the school with a higher percentage of so-called "at-risk" students and a higher percentage of Hispanic students.

As one central administrator said during an interview:

Parents are bailing out of Crossroads because they are unhappy with enriched courses in English and social studies. They have lost some quality students to Main because there will always be some who disagree with heterogeneous groupings.

The city in which Crossroads is located is changing. As newcomers have begun to discover the climate and the cultural riches of the community, Hispanics have lost their position as the majority ethnic group.5 Still, Hispanics continue as the major group within Crossroads and the public school system of which it is a part. While the city searches for its new identity, Crossroads, serving a population which is more than 75 percent Hispanic, continues to seek its own. As one teacher said in an October 1993 interview, "We are still trying to find our identity. All we know is we don't want to be like Main."

Tracking--Another Cultural Question

One difference between Crossroads and Main relates to the issue of tracking. From the school's beginning, tracking has been officially opposed at Crossroads. In light of that official position, consider the following exchange among teachers--an exchange which captures the tensions expressed by many at the school around this subject:

First teacher:

I'm a true believer in heterogeneous classes, but we need help. When is this district or this state ever going to look at the nine Common Principles?

Second teacher:

First of all, heterogeneous grouping is bullshit. Therefore, you have to fit it into what you are doing. It can be a dumping ground. Instead of saying this or that subject area lends itself to heterogeneous grouping, we do it for all subjects.

First teacher:

But I don't want to see tracking here. It breaks down on cultural lines.

Second teacher:

Let me ask you a question. What if one year, all Anglos can swim and all Hispanics can't. Shall we force them all out into the same ocean?

First teacher:

That's not a good example. If you look at all our schools, it breaks down along ethnic lines. If you were to look at Main High, you would see tracking all over the place.

As the school continues to search for its identity, resolving the issue of whether to track students does not seem like an imminent possibility. If anything, supporters of tracking seem to be gaining power. As the preceding comments suggest, issues of race, cultural biases, and community politics are deeply entangled in this issue. As too often happens, intellectual considerations tend to give way to emotionally packed dialogue.

Dropouts--A Third Cultural Issue

Some other aspects of Crossroads are not changing. Student attendance and dropouts, for example, continue to be a problem. Consider what one teacher had to say about the matter: "The central administration and board of education are so concerned about lowering the dropout rate that they don't care what is going on in the classroom as long as the kids are there." Central administrators are indeed concerned about dropouts. We were told by one central administrator, "Thirteen percent of the boys drop out in the ninth and tenth grades. . . .Our dropout rate is around 50 percent by four years from when a class of students enters the ninth grade."

In spite of the severity of the problem, a teacher expressed the views of many of her colleagues: "The central office worries about dropouts at any cost--the cost is to us." Costs to more than teachers seemed to be on the mind of the central administrator who spoke of the severity of the problem: "We are still losing half of the population from the time they enter the ninth grade until they are supposed to complete the twelfth grade--a large percentage of these are Hispanic males." An article in the local newspaper confirmed the ethnocentricity of this problem:

According to a 1990 census survey of people older than 25:

86 percent of the people who dropped out of school before the 9th grade were Hispanic.

79 percent of the people who dropped out before the 12th grade were Hispanic.6

The Crossroads student newspaper added a personal touch to these impersonal statistics in a September 1993 story that related conditions of several students who had dropped out or were considering it. The paper quoted one student as saying, "I would do anything to get back into school and just be a teenager, but I can't; I have to support my mom and little brothers." Another student, currently in school, remarked,

This school year was supposed to be great, but now I am thinking about dropping out again. I don't want to; I love being in school, but I have to survive somehow. And I am not getting any help from anyone, so I have to help myself.

Seniors with whom we spoke were painfully aware that of the well over three hundred of them who began their careers at Crossroads four years ago (299 survived as sophomores when we first visited the school), there were now fewer than 150. In fact, several projected that the number graduating would be closer to 125. Of course, not all have dropped out. Some have transferred to other institutions, but still the toll has been high.

Attendance, A Related Problem

Concerned about this problem, the community has pressured the board of education to take action. Because the board and community sense that one of the reasons students drop out is that they skip school, fall behind, and give up, they want action taken to emphasize better attendance. The status of this effort to correct attendance during our visit somehow captures the difficulty the setting seems to have in attacking any problem. A central administrator explained to us,

The board is concerned with attendance and dropouts. They believe that parents are not pulled into the loop until it is too late, so they have set up stiff requirements that school be the reporting agency, with parents required under law to see that children attend school. The new policy requires that if a student is absent for one full day, then the parent has to be notified . . . absent for three days, the school has to send a certified letter notifying parents, with a copy going to the central office. This is not a policy yet. It has just been introduced for first reading.

We asked the administrator about the provision of resources to carry out the new policy:

Well, we have added some telephone lines. We have met with schools to find out what they will need. All of that is under study. The policy requires two readings before it is official.

A board member explained the situation:

The board had to do something about the failure of schools to notify parents of absences. The newspaper conducted surveys and reported an alarming number of students ditching and not coming to school. We need to keep kids in school after the first forty days because of funding. Parents are to be notified immediately. We are going to pursue that parents be held accountable, by jurisdiction of the courts, for their child's attendance.

When this board member was asked about resources, the response was,

Of course we did not provide resources. We didn't say they couldn't bring in resources of their own. Teaching--especially administration--is not an 8:00 to 5:00 job. Schools are griping because we did not give them resources. They are looking at this as the bottle is half empty, not half full. . . .This new policy passed about a month ago--September.

When asked how the schools knew of the proposed new policy, the board member explained,

There was a first reading--don't remember the exact date--then the next meeting there was a reading, then we adopted it. The schools knew this was going to happen. They had sufficient warning that we were looking for a policy. This was in the newspaper. Then there was discussion among board members, and then the administration came up with the policy that we wanted.

At the central office, in response to our request for a copy of the new policy, an administrator directed his secretary to give it to us. She gave us a copy of a new policy on teacher attendance instead.

School administrators' responses to the new policy included a resignation by the principal of Main, who cited this policy as the latest example of why he could not get his work done. At Crossroads, administrators provided us with a copy of a sheet that would be used to indicate to the central administration how they planned to comply with the new policy. The form, provided by the central administration, lists five requirements:

1. Daily notification of parents for all inexcused absences. (Documented phone call)
2. Notification of parents after the third absence (any type). (Documented phone call)
3. Notification of parent of required conference after the third inexcused absence from any class period. (Documented phone call or letter)
4. Referral to FINS and notice to parents after tenth inexcused absence from any given class period per semester. (Letter to FINS, certified letter to parents)
5. Notification of parent after tenth consecutive inexcused full-day absence. (Personal service or certified letter)

It was obvious to us that there was confusion. The version of the requirements shared at the school was different from the later version shared with us orally by the central administration. The board thought they had acted on second reading, while the administration thought that second reading was still to come. What, then, did the teachers have to say? "If there is [a new policy], I have not heard about it." "First I heard was rumor. This person was going to collect notes. Then I heard she was going to make phone calls." "Only thing I am aware of is an article in the local paper."

In light of this confusion and apparent lack of information, we were interested in finding hard data about the size of the problem. When we asked one of the administrators responsible for dealing with attendance at the school about the extent of the attendance problem, he replied:

I don't know what the average absenteeism is. One time I heard it was something like one hundred and another day a clerk said it is close to two hundred; might be around 10 to 15 percent [that would be 110 to 165 students]. I don't know the number of students who may be here for most of the day but miss one period, but we have to notify those parents.

We told this administrator that we had heard that the average student misses forty-four days a year. The administrator replied,

I disagree. I think the report from the end of last year was something like an average of twenty-five days a year. Problem is that we have some students with excessive amounts, so the average is not too meaningful.

Within a changing community the school continues to lack clear identity. Students--particularly Hispanic students--continue to drop out. Confusion continues to be the norm in efforts to deal with problems such as student attendance. Hard data continue to be scarce. There are still few signs that decisions are based on careful analysis of information. When decisions are made, communication about them is lacking. In some instances these difficulties in communication seem to be willful rejections of messages being sent from one party to another.

Reflection about Ongoing Problems and about the Snapshot

We asked the staff to consider the following questions about problems at Crossroads and about the snapshot as a whole.

1. What steps does the school need to take to develop clear agreement regarding its identity? Can available in-service days be used to gain greater agreement on issues such as tracking and dropout problems?
2. To what extent are teachers and parents who raise concerns that the school is not dealing adequately with its Hispanic students raising significant issues? What should be done about these expressions of concern?
3. What should be done to increase the amount of hard data used by the school in its decision making? For example: How many students really do drop out? What are the ethnic and economic factors involved in the dropout population? How many students are absent on an average day? What happens to students after they leave school by dropping out? What happens to students after they leave school by graduation?
4. Does this snapshot describe the school accurately? If not, what is missing? If so, does it raise questions that need to be answered? Should cultural issues of race, gender, and socio-economic class be considered? What should be done about the questions raised in this snapshot?

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Concluding Observations: The Study Themes

The School Change Study for which this snapshot has been prepared examines three major themes. We conclude this look at the school with some brief comments about where the school is in relation to those themes.

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Whole-school Change

We are interested in learning how schools move from partial support for change to whole-school change. Observers have noted that, particularly in high schools, change tends to occur within small units of the school: individual classrooms, teaching teams, or departments. This often leaves significant numbers of students untouched by whatever innovations are occurring.

One reason we chose Crossroads as a school to study, three years ago, was that it had already made considerable progress toward whole-school change by having created the Pathways program for all ninth-, tenth- and eleventh-graders. During our observations to date, other schoolwide changes have been implemented. The new schedule and advisory programs described in this snapshot represent the most recent of such changes.

In spite of such changes, much of the activity of Crossroads occurs in smaller units. For example, we have observed promising developments in the new performing arts program, changes in the approach to Pathways initiated by a team of four teachers, and an individual teacher's development of creative approaches in technology classes.

Some of these changes, like the CAPA and individual teachers' efforts, have led to real change in the learning experiences for students. Other attempts at whole-school change have been implemented so unevenly that the best we can report is captured by our subtitle for this snapshot: some things change and some things don't. In some teachers' classrooms, students' experiences are much richer because of opportunities afforded by the new schedule; in other settings the students continue to experience life much as they had before. For some ninth-graders this year, the Pathways program was considerably changed from previous years; for others, the teachers were struggling to figure out what was expected of them and to find the materials needed to provide the basic elements of the program.

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The Momentum of Change

Our second theme of the School Change Study is closely related to the first. We are concerned not just with whether change is occurring schoolwide, but how well the change effort is sustained over time. Do changes in administration and teachers affect momentum? How does external support influence the sustainability of change?

We began our work at Crossroads at the same time a new principal had been appointed. Shortly before we started our study, Crossroads' school district experienced the loss of a charismatic superintendent. During our study, several individuals in the central office have been charged with the overseeing of the school. There has been significant turnover of teachers each year at Crossroads, as well.7 Among those leaving the school have been some of the individuals who have played key leadership roles.

As we began the second year at Crossroads, the principal expressed considerable frustration because two of three individuals he had counted on to lead the development efforts for advisory programs and new work on student assessment had decided over the summer to leave the school. He had invested time in sending them to attend Coalition of Essential Schools meetings and to visit other schools, and then discovered that they would not be helping support change efforts.

In this snapshot we noted that several of the new teachers appear to be people with much to offer the school. This has been true each year we have come to observe. However, faculty turnover of nearly 30 percent each year and the loss of established leaders create a situation in which the school is constantly starting over. Established people become frustrated with this lack of momentum and begin to withdraw into their own classrooms, offering less and less to schoolwide reform efforts.

The overall feeling generated by these conditions is one of an institution which jerks ahead for a little, then stops and appears to lose ground for a while before starting fitfully again.

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Idea-driven Change

Our third interest is in observing the extent to which a set of ideas drives the changes which occur in a school. Specifically, we are interested in the influence of the nine Common Principles on the school.

Crossroads was selected for study partially because it had formally adopted the nine Common Principles as its guiding philosophy. During our first year of visits, the faculty affirmed its support for these ideas by endorsing the Principles as a statement of their philosophy. However, for the most part, we have seen little direct influence from these ideas.

Generally, students and parents have been unaware of the Principles. When asked directly about one or the other of them, they tend to confuse them with specific instructional techniques, such as cooperative learning, or with the Pathways program. We have been told that prospective Crossroads teachers are frequently asked about the nine Common Principles during interviews, but when we talk with the new teachers, they display little awareness of the Principles.

Some Crossroads faculty have been outspoken in their opposition to certain of the Principles. Concepts associated with the aphorism "less is more" and "teacher as coach" receive particularly strong criticism, while teachers are quick to emphasize the problem of teacher load discussed in this snapshot. The ratio of one teacher for each eighty students, which the Coalition envisions, seems to be completely unattainable to the faculty, and they express little interest in assuming the "generalist" roles which would enable them to attain such loads within existing budget constraints.

The Principles suggest that the school should have high expectations for all students. At Crossroads, as we have noted in this snapshot in particular, students with Hispanic backgrounds and students from lower socio-economic classes are not expected to achieve as well as other students. In fact, many at the school believe that such students are as likely to drop out of school as to achieve even low academic goals.

Changes are occurring at Crossroads. The school is making many of the structural changes common in Essential schools and in other high schools throughout the country that are seeking to restructure. However, we do not see signs that the changes are occurring as a result of thoughtful reflection about the nine Common Principles or, for that matter, about any particular set of ideas or data.

We look forward to our next, and last, visit to Crossroads and to the additional opportunity that visit will afford us to understand schools that attempt to innovate. We will continue to seek information which helps us understand the school, enables us to describe the school in a way that is useful to the people in it, and helps us understand each of the three major themes we are exploring.

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Notes

1. The term Exhibition refers to a kind of assessment mentioned in the sixth Common Principle. It is a culminating, public demonstration of something a high school student knows and can do.
2. See Richard W. Clark, "Challenges and Incongruities," Studies on School Change (Crossroads No. 1), Coalition of Essential Schools, Brown University, February 1992.
3. The quotations from the following section are drawn from journals provided to the researchers, from the September 1993 issue of the student newspaper, and from interviews conducted in October 1993.
4. Richard W. Clark, "Possibilities and Realities: Facing the Obstacles to Change," Studies on School Change (Crossroads No. 4), Coalition of Essential Schools, Brown University, August 1993.

5. Local newspaper, page A-4, October 6, 1993.

6. Teacher-leaders seem to leave for two main reasons: they obtain leadership jobs elsewhere (e.g., as Re:Learning staff, as a principal, in another field), or they take a position in a school district in another state, where they can earn a more respectable salary. v

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The Crossroads research team was headed by Richard W. Clark, senior associate at the University of Washington Center for Educational Renewal and the former deputy superintendent of the Bellevue (WA) School District. The other members of the Crossroads team were Janet Miller, professor at National-Louis University (formerly National Teachers College) at the Beloit (WI) Academic Center and author of Creating Spaces and Finding Voices: Teachers Collaborating for Empowerment (1990); and Vicky Murray, who has worked as a teacher and administrator in Seattle and has done extensive work across the country on school renewal for the Panasonic Foundation.

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This resource last updated: June 11, 2002

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