High Schools as Communities
High Schools as Communities

Author: Thomas B. Gregory

Publisher:

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13:

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Urging new directions for American high school education, this book outlines problems with contemporary high schools and describes the experience of small high schools (those having approximately 200 students), designed in the past 15 years, that have developed excellent and diverse alternative programs within the constraints of existing district policies and funding formulas. Chapter 1 reviews educational criticism since the 1950s. Chapter 2 contrasts two high schools--one traditional, one nontraditional--in one community, focusing on the influence of school size and school culture. Chapter 3 outlines the benefits of small high schools for students and teachers. Chapter 4 discusses strategies for change at the technical, managerial, and cultural levels, noting that change at the cultural level is the most difficult to achieve and has the greatest effect. Chapter 6 describes "Mountain Open" High School, a model small high school program in Colorado. Topics include educational philosophy, individualized learning, student characteristics, teaching conditions, and curriculum. Discussion of curriculum covers the use of trips, community learning, community service, and the Walkabout--the culminating project in which students prove they can use their skills in real-world settings. Chapter 7 presents change strategies, emphasizing the need to address the problems of school size, structure, and culture. (JHZ)

Professional Communities and the Work of High School Teaching
Professional Communities and the Work of High School Teaching

Author: Milbrey W. McLaughlin

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2001-10-20

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9780226500706

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American high schools have never been under more pressure to reform: student populations are more diverse than ever, resources are limited, and teachers are expected to teach to high standards for all students. While many reformers look for change at the state or district level, the authors here argue that the most local contexts—schools, departments, and communities—matter the most to how well teachers perform in the classroom and how satisfied they are professionally. Their findings—based on one of the most extensive research projects ever done on secondary teaching—show that departmental cultures play a crucial role in classroom settings and expectations. In the same school, for example, social studies teachers described their students as "apathetic and unwilling to work," while English teachers described the same students as "bright, interesting, and energetic." With wide-ranging implications for educational practice and policy, this unprecedented look into teacher communities is essential reading for educators, administrators, and all those concerned with U. S. High Schools.

A Time to Learn
A Time to Learn

Author: George Harrison Wood

Publisher: Plume Books

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780452280281

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The principal who transformed a poor, struggling school in rural Ohio tells how to make what's wrong with schools right, in this vitally important book for anyone who cares about the future of education in this country.

Beating the Odds
Beating the Odds

Author: Jacqueline Ancess

Publisher: Teachers College Press

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0807743550

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Beating the Odds tells the story of how teachers, students, and leaders in three schools transcend obstacles to beat the odds of failure and achieve impressive success. The schools' a suburban vocational/technical school, an urban school for immigrant, new-English-language learners, and an urban second-chance school for students who have failed elsewhere, all operate as communities of commitment. With accessible language, multiple examples, and rich anecdotes, Ancess describes how these schools are organized, how they use adult-student relationships to leverage high levels of student performance, how they enact teaching and learning for making meaning, and how they confront the obstacles they encounter. Ancess also discusses the systemic conditions for sustaining and scaling up schools such as these three. The high schools described in this volume - Urban Academy, International High School, and Hodgson Vocational-Technical, have come to represent models of successful reform despite their challenging student populations. In addition to telling their story, this book provides samples of school documents that illustrate the day-to-day operation of the schools and can be adapted by practitioners to fit their own circumstances.

Schools as Imagined Communities
Schools as Imagined Communities

Author: S. Dorn

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2006-02-06

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1403982937

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Government forces mean the notion of a 'community' school has become less defined by decisions on core curriculum. This collection explores the extent to which collective notions of school-community relations have prevented citizens from speaking openly about the tensions created where schools are imagined as communities.

Public Schools that Work
Public Schools that Work

Author: Gregory A. Smith

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9780415905770

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First Published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Heart of a High School
The Heart of a High School

Author: Holly Holland

Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13:

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This is a rare inside look at an ambitious urban school reform initiative currently underway in a mid-sized American city. The reform, which was supported by one of the largest private donations ever given to a single high school, aims to make high achievement a reality for every student. Poignant, penetrating, and uplifting, this narrative account of the first years of the reform illuminates the difficult choices and challenges involved in educational change. Holly Holland and Kelly Mazzoli help readers come to understand the institutional nature of American secondary education, where almost nothing has changed in the past fifteen years. Many public high schools are large, impersonal places that are more interested in regimentation than achievement. In setting the stage for reform, The Heart of a High School describes some of the factors - high poverty, low expectations, inadequate teacher training, school district bureaucracy, and parental neglect - that challenge efforts to improve urban high schools. This story is important from a national perspective because it encompasses so many perplexing issues in education today: how to define and meet higher academic standards; how to counteract the corrosive effects of urban poverty; and how to help teachers, students, and communities embrace the changing educational requirements of the new world economy.