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In the past, Horace has most often focused on classrooms and schools where the daily push, pull, relationship building, resistance, revelation, and other elements of teaching and learning happen. But in this issue, Horace takes a wider view, asking what kinds of systems, particularly school districts, do Essential schools require to emerge, grow, thrive, adapt, and sustain?
Horace 21.3 looks at four school districts, each at a different stage of developing small high schools dedicated to personalization, equity, and academic intensity and excellence: Boston, Massachusetts; Humble, Texas; Mapleton Public Schools, Colorado; and Indianapolis, Indiana. Taken together, these districts' stories demonstrate compelling contrasts and similarities in the attempt to bring small schools - small schools that take advantage of their smallness to create academic engagement and achievement - to scale.
In addition, three education reform leaders provide perspectives on the role of the district. CES's Ted Sizer, Warren Simmons of the Annenberg Institute, and Eric Nadelstern, a leader for school change in New York City's public schools, don't always agree, but their views serve to challenge and deepen CES ideas on what districts supportive to Essential schools should do.
For the most part, this issue focuses on what school districts are doing to improve high schools. Many of us can't help but ask, "Why isn't there more emphasis on change throughout the system? How should preK-8 experiences prepare students for academically challenging high schools?" In particular, high school improvement ought to raise the question of how districts can create educational pathways and craft a coordinated experience from grade to grade and school to school. Taken this way, high school reform should be not only an end unto itself but also a lever on the entire system.
This issue is truly a result of many collaborations, both with those interviewed and quoted in these pages and many others who shed light and helped me understand the role of the district in Essential school change. Many thanks to all to whom I spoke for your generously shared experiences, which will push other districts to consider how they, too, will scale up and make the most of small schools. For those of you focused on district level change, if this issue resonates with you - or if you don't agree with what you find here - let us know by emailing your comments and experiences to jdavidson@essentialschools.org.
As always, many thanks to Horace subscribers and CES affiliates. Your commitment to CES makes it possible to share practices and ideas to strengthen our work, our schools, and the CES network. For more information on CES affiliation and Horace subscriptions, visit us online at www.essentialschools.org or call 501/433-1451.
Jill Davidson
Editor, Horace