SRN LEADS/Stanford University: School Redesign Network — Leadership, Equity & Accountability in Districts & Schools

Small Schools Tours

No tours are currently scheduled. Access past events, below.

Hillsdale 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.

2008 Study Visits
January 29-30
February 20-21
April 30-May 1
Learn more

 

Small Schools Study Tours

Small Schools Study Tours are for school communities that are redesigning large schools or creating and sustaining small schools. Building on the success of previous SRN LEADS-sponsored Small Schools Study Tours, these unique learning opportunities do the following:

• Highlight the design features of highly effective small schools through two day visits to Landmark, Vanguard and International High Schools in New York City.
• Take participants inside the Julia Richman Education Complex, a formerly failing comprehensive high school that today thrives as a complex of autonomous small schools.
• Engage participants in conversations with national small school leaders.
• Provide a rich library of resources assembled for leadership teams that are in the process of restructuring their comprehensive high school into small learning communities.
• Launch a professional development relationship with SRN LEADS and other restructuring high schools, including additional site visits, symposia and summer institutes.

Why explore small schools?

"Small is a necessary condition for effective schooling, but it is not enough."

—Linda Darling-Hammond

What makes a small school successful? In Redesigning Schools: What Matters and What Works, Linda Darling-Hammond details 10 key design features "that have been observed in successful small schools [but] that are conspicuously absent in those that have failed."

On the Small Schools Study Tour, we will visit high schools that have incorporated these features into their design. As a result, they have been extraordinarily successful in serving "African-American, Latino, and recent immigrant students from low-income communities — students who routinely drop out of traditional [New York City] high schools at rates above 50 percent." At these schools, we will meet with school leaders, teachers, and students to learn more about how these schools consistently graduate and send on to college approximately 90% of their entering ninth graders.

SRN LEADS 10 Features of Good Small Schools

Personalization

Continuous Relationships

High standards and performance-based assessment

Authentic curriculum

Adaptive pedagogy

Multicultural and anti-racist teaching

Knowledgeable and skilled teachers

Collaborative planning and professional development

Family and community connections

Democratic decision-making

What issues will the study tour examine?

Through a series of observations, conversations and readings, the Study Tour will examine how the experiences of small schools can inform the development or transformation of your school. Using the guided exploration questions below, we will consider the big picture.

• How does instruction drive the schedule, the organization of teachers, the class assignments of students, professional development, shared governance, etc.?
• What evidence do we find of teachers knowing students well and how do they achieve these personal relationships?
• What evidence is there that all students have access to challenging curricula?
• What evidence is there that students are supported to achieve at high levels?
• What evidence is there of professional collaboration focused on student learning?
• What do adults do together to sustain the ongoing development of the school?
• How does this school support instruction?
• What does classroom practice look like?
• What will the study tour look like?

Before departing, SRN LEADS will provide your team with selected readings to provide contexts for your learning experience. You will also meet with SRN LEADS staff (in person or via conference call) to review the week's agenda and to discuss your team's needs and goals for the study tour.

After arriving in New York on Sunday afternoon or early evening, your study tour will begin on Monday morning with a 7:30 An orientation breakfast meeting. You will then spend two full days at each of two high schools where you will have an opportunity to observe classes and to meet with school leaders, teachers, students, and parents (where possible). At the end of each day, your team will debrief with SRN LEADS staff on the day's experience and review your district or school's particular needs. Throughout the week, you will collaborate with teammates to create an action plan for sharing and applying your study tour experience to your school/district's contexts upon returning home. Friday will be spent visiting the Julia Richman Education Complex where you will meet with school leaders, learn about the complex's successful redesign process, and tour the facility's small, autonomous schools.

On the schedule is an evening conversation with Dr. Jacqueline Ancess, a national leader on school redesign and Co-Director of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST) at Teachers College, Columbia University. All other evenings, participants are free to explore the city.

School Sites

International High School — Queens

The International High Schools (Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx) specifically target English language learners and currently have students from 47 countries that speak 35 different languages. International graduates 90-95% of its entering ninth graders sending 85-95% to college. The school's Performance Based Standards for Graduation drive its interdisciplinary curriculum. The faculty is a mix of seasoned veterans and younger teachers. Visit the school web site. http://www.globalkids.org/Schools/academic/internationalhigh.jsp

Landmark High School

Landmark is a small, 10-year-old school located in a converted office building just off the southern tip of Central Park on the west side of Manhattan. The vast majority of Landmark's students take the subway from Washington Heights, a low-income neighborhood on the northern tip of Manhattan. The school is focused on preparing its students for college with 85-90% of its students enrolling in college and 70% going to four-year institutions. The school is driven by portfolios/exhibitions and makes use of advisories, block scheduling, and team planning. The faculty is largely young, but highly talented and dedicated. Visit the school web site. http://landmarkhs.org/

Vanguard High School

Vanguard High School helps its students become intellectually powerful, creative, and resourceful members of society. Most students attending Vanguard are low income students. Students living in upper Manhattan and the Bronx flock to Vanguard whose reputation for safety, caring and high school completion is well known in those communities. Students demonstrate mastery through portfolio presentations and exhibitions. Team planning, advisory and block scheduling supports the delivery of instruction and the connectedness of students and faculty. Vanguard graduates and sends on to college more students at a rate exceeding that of schools with a comparable population. Visit the school web site. http://schools.nyc.gov/OurSchools/Region9/M449/default.htm?searchType=school

The Julia Richman Education Complex

One school that has been particularly effective redesigning itself to meet the needs of all its students is the Julia Richman Education Complex (JREC). A decade ago, it was a comprehensive high school with 2600 students and a 33% graduation rate. Today JREC is a highly successful complex of six small, autonomous schools with student populations similar to those of Landmark and International and comparable success rates. Its four autonomous high schools graduate 90% of its graduates On our visit, we will consider the successes and challenges of JREC's redesign and tour the complex to better understand how six autonomous schools are successfully sharing one facility. Visit the school web site. http://www.jrec.org/

Who should participate?

The study tour has been designed specifically for educators, parents, and students who are in the process of redesigning large schools and/or creating/sustaining new small schools. Each school team should include at least two participants. Teams might find it desirable to send three or four participants who represent different roles within the school community (teachers from different disciplines, administrators, parents, students, etc.). In our experience, teams that have included both teachers and administrators (ideally the principal and a district administrator) have found the most success on the study tours. Preference will be given to teams that apply with this composition.

Please also note that strict space limitations are in effect due to the small size of the schools we are visiting and the agreements we have with these schools. Larger teams may apply, but please be aware that, if accepted, we may not be able to offer you slots for all of the participants you requested.

Costs
The program fee is $950 per participant. Participants are responsible for travel and lodging expenses (hotel rooms are available at discounted rate of $229-235/night when reserved through SRN LEADS).

Products
Each team receives complimentary copies of Solving the Puzzle: Redesigning Large High Schools Together Study Kit and The JREC Story case study kit following the study tour (a $135 value).

Register

Fall 2007 Small Schools Study Tours

Tour dates:October 15-18, 2007

Cost: $950 per individual team member, plus travel and lodging (a block of rooms are available at a discounted rate of  $309-$349/night)

Registration Deadline: noon, September 21

Questions? Contact us.

To receive information on upcoming events, join our mailing list.

successful small schools

Vanguard High School helps its students become intellectually powerful, creative, and resourceful members of society. Most students attending Vanguard are low income students. Students living in upper Manhattan and the Bronx flock to Vanguard whose reputation for safety, caring and high school completion is well known in those communities. Students demonstrate mastery through portfolio presentations and exhibitions. Team planning, advisory and block scheduling supports the delivery of instruction and the connectedness of students and faculty. Vanguard graduates and sends on to college more students at a rate exceeding that of schools with a comparable population. Visit the school web site.