Smaller Learning Communities The changes in conditions which have received the most attention are the new organizational structures for students—categorized most commonly as “smaller learning communities.” When this project began in 2003, Humble, Elsik, Hastings and Kingwood High Schools—four campuses in our group of 16—were ranked 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th in size among the 1,700 high schools in the state. All four high schools at that time included two physical campuses: a ten-twelve campus and a ninth grade center, but the 10-12 campuses themselves housed about 3000 students and the ninth grade centers about 1,000. The other campuses in the collaborative—all 9-12 campuses—had enrollments closer to 2,000 students. Almost all of the experts in high school reform agree that when schools are smaller, students are more likely to feel more connected to the school, and their learning environments and experiences are more personalized to meet their individual needs. Recognizing the economies of scale cited by many districts who would rather build one large high school than two smaller ones with duplicative staff and services, experts have long recommended restructuring large high schools we into smaller learning communities, each staffed by their own administrators, counselors and core teachers. Several schools in the collaborative network have reorganized in variations of smaller learning communities—most notably in Aldine and in Humble, with Humble ISD making a district-wide commitment to this model—and are experiencing benefits for both teachers and students. Students are generally benefiting from the fact that their administrators, counselors, and teachers have fewer total students, and students report in surveys and interviews that they believe their teachers know them better and care about them more than in previous years. In most schools there are also structures encouraging students within the communities to participate in community activities so that they are more likely to develop positive peer relations. Teachers in these communities are also given additional planning time during the school day when they are expected to meet with other teachers in the community—not just the ones who teach the same things they do, but ones who share the same students. Conversations in these Professional Learning Communities focus more on the needs of individual students—their behavior and their academic progress—than on the delivery of instruction which is the focus of departmental meetings. As we have seen in other discussions, changes in conditions resulting in smaller learning communities necessitated changes in school culture and required some different teacher competencies, especially in thinking about cross-disciplinary instruction that has become more possible and probable within the communities as teachers from different departments learn to plan together. Instructional Support Staff The third example of changes in conditions has been the addition of new kinds of staff positions to support instruction. These positions have different titles in different schools and districts—instructional coaches, interventionists, school improvement specialists—but they are generally filled by expert teachers who are given very few or no regular instructional duties so they can work directly with Making Our High Schools Work Houston A+ Challenge, June 2, 2008
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