SRN LEADS/Stanford University: School Redesign Network — 
hillsdale study visit
Download flier (pdf)
Data on student achievement (pdf)
Pre-event materials for registered participants
Hillsdale featured as exemplary school in Newsweek
In its annual ranking of high schools, Newsweek has profiled SRN partner Hillsdale High School as an exemplary small school. Read more.
Comments about Hillsdale Study Visits
"I saw that once administration sees itself as a partner (and not top-down administrators) an SLC can truly become effective. When the administration sincerely shares decisionmaking, then an SLC can truly emerge."
"[Hillsdale staff] are truly awesome! I am highly impressed by their willingness to try and their openness and flexibility regarding what's possible. They have given me great hope about what's possible and our collective future as a society."
“In the five years of our partnership, Hillsdale has designed and implemented smaller learning communities that have the potential to significantly address issues of educational equity and serve as a model for conversion schools across the country. Their implementation plan is a blueprint for more powerful teaching and learning.”
— Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University Professor of Education and Co-Executive Director, School Redesign Network
2008 Dates January 29-30 (sold out) |
Costs$250 per participant. Fees include materials, snacks and light refreshments on Day One; breakfast and lunch on Day Two. Travel and lodging costs not included. |
Registration Information
Tours will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Teams should be comprised of 3-10 members holding diverse roles in the district (administrators, principals, teachers, school board members and parent leaders). Register here.
What are Study Visits?
Study Visits are inquiry-based tours to smaller learning communities (SLCs) conducted by the School Redesign Network at Stanford University (SRN) and a partner school. They are designed in careful collaboration with the school to create a meaningful exploration of key issues of school redesign and SLCs. The visits focus on the structures, practices, and instructional strategies of schools that have created environments in which all students succeed academically and move on to college and successful careers. SLCs have been found to be more effective than typical comprehensive high schools in educating all students, and especially effective for traditionally underserved minority and low-income students and English language learners. Along with providing an opportunity for participants to see effective SLCs in action, Study Visits provide time for participants to identify their own needs and goals and frame their own school context within the visit.
Why Hillsdale High School?
Hillsdale High School, an SLC located in the San Francisco Bay Area, is an excellent example of a teacher-led redesign effort guided by a commitment to providing more students, particularly students of color, with access to college. In 2003, with equity as a major cornerstone, Hillsdale’s staff began a process to reorganize their school of approximately 1,200 students into SLCs of 400 students each. Hillsdale’s redesign efforts have built teachers’ capacity to take on leadership roles and have dramatically increased the rates of students attending college. The school was one of the four schools featured in the SRN film and case study, Windows on Conversions, which will be used as a resource during the Study Visit.
What happens on a Study Visit?
The Study Visit will address such questions as: Why create smaller learning communities? What are the benefits for students? What does a smaller learning community look like? How do teachers interact and collaborate differently? What does it take to lead conversion and change from a comprehensive high school into a smaller learning community?
Day One takes place at Stanford University. This afternoon session provides participants with an overview of the school and the history of its conversion into smaller learning communities. Teams will reflect on their own experiences and goals in learning about Hillsdale High School.
Day Two takes place on the school campus, with observations of advisories, instruction, teacher collaboration, and sit-down sessions with teachers, students, and administrative leaders.
What are the learning goals of the Study Visit?
Participants will learn how a high school organized into SLCs works and how the Hillsdale process can effectively translate for their own redesign efforts. Using examples of effective practices at Hillsdale, the Study Visit will focus on the key practices of personalization, collaboration and academic rigor that provide the foundation for effective learning in SLCs. These practices will be evident throughout the visit as participants observe advisories, teacher collaboration, and instruction aimed to prepare all students for college. Along with observation, participants will have time to speak with and learn from educators immersed in the day-to-day decisions and experiences of staffing, resource allocation, curriculum, and use of teacher collaboration time.
what makes a small school successful?
Hillsdale High School, in the San Francisco Bay Area, has redesigned from a comprehensive high school to three smaller learning communities of 400 students each. It has transformed itself into a school whose aim is to motivate and educate all of its students to high levels of achievement and to ensure that the choice of attending a four-year college is available to all graduates. Hillsdale's redesign is notable for its commitment to shared leadership, democratic decisionmaking and collaboration. Hillsdale has used its structural changes to foster teacher collaboration across subject areas, chip away at student tracking and use performance-based assessments to help all students achieve at high levels. While the process of reform has been relatively long-term, Hillsdale has made significant changes to the school's structure and allocation of resources in order to deliver on its vision of a more personalized, equitable and rigorous education for all its students. These changes have yielded positive and powerful outcomes. The school has eliminated low-track science classes and now enrolls all students in 9th grade biology and 10th grade chemistry. As a result, 100% of African American and Latino 9th grade students are enrolled in biology compared to only 18% in 2002-03. Hillsdale also was recognized as a California Distinguished School in 2007. Read more.
© 2007 SRN LEADS
