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Community Connections > Community Collaboration
Eleven Structural Guidelines for Small Schools Concerned with Equity
Type: Horace Feature
Source: Horace. Vol.18, #4. Summer 2002.
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Schools in the Small Schools Incubator, sponsored by Bay Area Coalition
for Equitable Schools, Oakland Community Organizations and the Oakland
Unified School District, use these guidelines as touchstones throughout
the proposal and planning processes.
- Simple structures work best: a cohort of students, a team of teachers
with full responsibility for student learning within a block of time
and/or over a span of years.
- Personalize the school to the maximum extent feasible. For middle
and high school teachers, a total student load of 80:1 or less, with
the lowest class sizes you can afford in elementary school. Establish
a physical place identifiable as the small school. Contiguous time,
space and a distinctive physical learning environment are critical to
creating a sense of safety and community.
- Create structures and practices that ensure multi-year relationships
with students and families.
- Establish clear leadership and participatory governance with substantial
power over the six autonomies* and rigorous use of data to set goals
and make decisions.
- Use heterogeneous grouping with differentiated supports for students
with special needs (supporting these students should not require segregating
them).
- Provide and protect dedicated time for teacher collaboration: with
each other, with students, with families.
- Think through and establish equitable admissions policies: make sure
that choice is aligned with advocacy for those who need assistance making
choices-recruit to your demographic targets.
- Ensure that each student has a school-based advocate; preferably one
that is consistent over all the years the student is in the school.
- Create frequent, scheduled opportunities for families, students and
teachers to look at student work together, define standards and goals,
and build strategies for supporting student learning.
- A deep commitment to continuous professional development for school
professionals should be reflected in time, calendar and budget.
- And remember this warning, the devil is in the details! Start simply
and prioritize. Think your ideas through to the nuts and the bolts.
Don't try to do everything all at once. If a design feature doesn't
have dedicated time, leadership, resources, and expertise, you won't
get the outcomes you want.
*The Six Autonomies: Based on work done by Boston's Center for Collaborative
Education, Bayces staff identified six areas that schools should be able
to control for themselves: staffing, budget, curriculum and assessment,
governance and policies, school calendar and schedule, and contiguous
space identifiable as "our school." For the entire text of the
Six Autonomies, see www.bayces.org/small_schools/creating/six-autonomies.htm.
For more information on the Small Schools Incubator and these guidelines,
please contact Madeleine Clarke, Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools
Director of Development, 510/208-0160 or madeleine@bayces.org
This resource last updated: July 31, 2002
Database Information:
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Source: Horace. Vol.18, #4. Summer 2002.
Publication Year: 2002
Publisher: CES National
School Level: All
Issue: 18.4
Focus Area: Community Connections
STRAND: Community Connections: community collaboration
Learning Structures: Small Learning Communities
Family Collaboration: Parent/Teacher Communication
Community Collaboration: Communicating Goals & Strategies
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