Download or read book Implementation Study of Smaller Learning Communities Final Report written by Lawrence Bernstein and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) program was established in response to growing national concerns about students too often lost and alienated in large, impersonal high schools, as well as concerns about school safety and low levels of achievement and graduation for many students. Authorized under the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act," the SLC program was designed to provide local educational agencies with funds to plan, implement, or expand SLCs in large high schools of 1,000 students or more. The SLC legislation allows local education agencies to implement the most suitable structure or combination of structures and strategies to meet their needs. This final report presents the findings from the implementation study of the Smaller Learning Communities program. The primary purpose of the study is to evaluate the implementation of the federal education law that authorizes funding for the federal SLC program, by describing the strategies and practices used in implementing SLCs. The study based its findings on data from 119 grantees from among those funded in 2000 in the first cohort of grantees and surveyed in the spring of 2002 and fall 2003. The report also used data from in-depth case studies of 18 grantees that intended to use freshman or career academies to structure a smaller learning community. The report contains six chapters. The first chapter presents an overview of the SLC program, the study, and related research. Chapter 2 presents an overview of the study design, as well as a summary of the demographic characteristics of the SLC schools described in this report. The remainder of this report describes the implementation of the federal SLC initiative. Chapter 3 focuses on what schools are actually doing as well as the factors facilitating and inhibiting implementation of SLCs. Chapter 4 is devoted to a discussion of the unique implementation features of the two most widely used SLC structures, career academies and freshman academies. Because there is so much interest in how SLC schools are performing, Chapter 5 is devoted to a discussion of student outcomes as reported by schools. Finally, Chapter 6 provides a summary of the findings from the previous chapters, and implications for further SLC implementation and research as well as further analyses for the follow-up report to be completed later this year. The following are appended: (1) List of SLC Cohort 1 Grantees; (2) Annual Performance Report; (3) Periodic Implementation Surveys, 2002 and 2003; (4) Site Visit Reports; (5) SLC Schools' Demographic Characteristics, 1996-97 through 2001-02; (6) Additional Exhibits, by SLC Structure; (7) Measuring Personalization: Technical Summary; (8) Career and Freshman Academy Overviews; and (9) Modeling of Pre and Post Differences in APR Outcomes. (Contains 86 exhibits.) [This report was prepared for the U.S. Department of Education by Abt Associates, Inc.].

Download or read book Implementation Study of Smaller Learning Communities written by Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development (ED), Policy and Program Studies Service and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 5 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) program was established in response to growing national concerns about students too often lost and alienated in large, impersonal high schools, as well as concerns about school safety and low levels of achievement and graduation for many students. This brief report presents highlights from the Final Report, which examines the principal strategies, models, and practices that these schools implemented, the factors facilitating and inhibiting implementation in SLC schools, and how outcomes for SLC schools, as measured by student achievement and school behavior, change over time. (Contains 1 footnote.) [For the full report, see ED501287.].

Download or read book Implementation study of smaller learning communities written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Implementation Study of Smaller Learning Communities written by Lawrence Bernstein and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Implementation Study of Smaller Learning Communities written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book New Small Learning Communities written by Kathleen Cotton and published by National Association of Secondary School Principals(NASSP). This book was released on 2004 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Districtwide Implementation of Small Learning Communities written by Temple University, Urban Education Collaborative and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last 10 to 15 years, a variety of efforts to transform American high schools have gained both public and private support. Significant among these are initiatives to implement Small Learning Communities (SLCs), part of a larger school reform and restructuring effort designed to address a variety of goals, including "downsizing large schools, meeting the needs of at-risk students, solving the problem of failing schools, modeling the process of school restructuring, personalizing education for all students, empowering teachers and extending their roles, preventing dropping out, and finding an equitable substitute for tracking" (Raywid, 1996a, p. 9). In 2004, the Christina School District (CSD) in Wilmington, Delaware, was awarded a three-year federal grant to implement secondary school reform as outlined in the district's Transformation Plan, which called for the implementation of small learning communities (via theme-based academies) in district high schools. The SLC grant was designed to "substantially improve the academic achievement, climate and potential for success for CSD's high school students." The effort would build on the Ninth-Grade Learning Community (Academy) piloted in 2003-2004 at Christiana High School (CHS) and would, by the end of the grant period, include SLCs, including 9th-grade and career-themed academies at all three district high schools; interdisciplinary teams of core subject teachers across all grade levels ("wall-to-wall" implementation) to foster personalized and continuous relationships between the team of teachers and their students; rigorous curriculum to meet the needs of all children; and provision of high-quality, sustained, intensive professional development in core academic subjects and SLC implementation. The three goals agreed upon by the school teams were to increase academic achievement, create a positive school climate, and increase parent and community involvement and engagement. Glasgow High School (GHS) and CHS added a fourth goal: to decrease the achievement gap. During Year 1 of the grant, each of the high schools developed its own set of three-year goals and annual measurable objectives. This report on the evaluation of the CSD's SLC implementation provides an overview of the SLC implementation both at the district level and at the three schools--CHS, Newark High School (NHS), and GHS--over the full grant period. Special attention is given to describing efforts to meet goals and their alignment to best practices in SLC implementation and how these best practices may be used to implement SLCs elsewhere. Appended are: (1) School Goals; (2) Research-based Practices in SLCs (by Oxley's Domains); (3) Delaware Student Testing Program Summary Results; and (4) Delaware Highly Qualified Teachers & Staffing Ratios. (Contains 1 figure, 2 tables and 2 footnotes.) [For "A Research Brief: Small Learning Communities--Recommendations for Success," see ED532061.].

Download or read book A Research Brief Small Learning Communities written by Temple University, Urban Education Collaborative and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 2 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last 15 years, a variety of efforts to transform American high schools have gained both public and private support. Significant among these efforts are initiatives to implement small learning communities (SLCs). Like other reform efforts, SLCs have several goals, including "downsizing large schools, meeting the needs of at-risk students, solving the problem of failing schools, modeling the process of school restructuring, personalizing education for all students, empowering teachers and extending their roles, preventing dropping out, and finding an equitable substitute for tracking" (Raywid, 1996, p. 9). In 2004, Delaware's Christina School District (CSD) was among many high-poverty districts awarded funding for implementation in its three high schools theme-specific SLCs--at the time, an emerging model with a strong "theoretical" base. The district's 3-year federal grant, designed to build on a 9th-grade academy piloted in 2003-04 at one high school, would create 9th-grade transition academies and career-themed SLCs in all high schools. These reform structures were to be characterized by (a) interdisciplinary teams of core subject teachers across all grade levels to foster personalized and continuous relationships between the teams of teachers and their students; (b) rigorous curricula to meet the needs of all children; and (c) the provision of high-quality, sustained professional development in core subjects and SLC implementation. This brief provides an overview of CSD's efforts to establish SLCs, both at the district and school level, highlighting challenges to the SLC design and its implementation. [For the full report, "Districtwide Implementation of Small Learning Communities: A Case Study on Improving School Climate," see ED532051.].

Download or read book Smaller Learning Communities as Comprehensive School Reform written by Jerry B. Doss and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between student achievement and SLC (smaller learning communities) in a medium sized suburban high school district in order to determine whether SLCs accomplished the goals of school reform.

Download or read book Smaller Learning Communities written by Charleen Lohman and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book An Investigation of Implementations of Smaller Learning Communities in Florida High Schools written by Todd James Bondurant Sparger and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The issue of high school reform has received national attention during the first part of the 21st century. One idea brought forth in this restructuring effort has been the desire to create high schools with smaller student populations. However, in an era of tight budgets, where resources are not always available to build more schools, educators have explored the possibility of dividing existing large high schools into smaller units. This restructuring approach has many titles, but is frequently referred to as a Smaller Learning Community (SLC). Since 2000, the federal government has pledged $245 million to schools willing to create SLCs. This research has studied the schools in Florida that have received the federal implementation grant and have established SLCs. The 39 Florida high schools that were awarded the federal grant in 2000, 2001, and 2002 served as the population for this study.

Download or read book Learning Communities In Practice written by Anastasia Samaras and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-10-26 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most would agree that a learning community of practice cultivates social and intellectual development in educational settings but what are the other benefits and what does a learning community actually look like in practice? This book explores such questions as: “Are learning communities essential in education?” “How are they designed and developed?” “What difference do they make in learning?” The book contains contributions of educators who share their research and practice in designing and implementing learning communities in school, university, and professional network settings. It presents their experiences, and the “how to” of these educators who are passionate about building and sustaining learning communities to make a real difference for students, teachers, faculty, and communities. Combining scholarly and practitioner research, the book offers practical information to teachers, school and university administrators, teacher educators, and community educators.

Download or read book The Effect of Small Learning Communities on Academic Success written by Tina Ruggeiro and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Creating and Sustaining Small Learning Communities written by Grace Sammon and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CD-ROM contains: 33 planning templates -- data collection and assessment tools -- frequently asked questions.

Download or read book Transforming the High School Experience written by Alan P. Blanchard and published by Trafford on Demand Pub. This book was released on 2006-01 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essential guidebook for educators seeking a practical and effective method for transforming the large comprehensive high school into a successful system of small learning communities.

Download or read book Implementing Small Learning Communities written by Stacy Williams-Coca and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Impact of Smaller Learning Communities in High School on Student Performance written by Joseph Ruiz and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Students continue to fail in large, traditional American high schools (Wood, 1992; Raywid, 1995). The transition from small elementary/intermediate settings to large, impersonal secondary environments forces students to face many difficult challenges. A review of the literature has provided support that the implementation of Small Learning Communities has revealed that students who attend small high schools have better attendance and are more successful academically verses students that attend large high schools (Howley, Strange, & Bickel, 2000). The purpose of this research study was to determine if statistical significant differences exist in students' attendance and academic achievement as measured by TAKS subject scores for grades nine, ten, and eleventh in ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies between traditional high schools and a high school implementing a Small Learning Communities model. The five campuses that were used for this study came from the forty campus comparison groups report provided by the Texas Education Agency that compares the yearly performance of campuses that share similar characteristics. This study's research design utilized a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) test to measure for statistical significant differences. Out of the forty-one separate pieces of data reviewed for the three research questions for this study, only three areas of statistical significance were found. The researcher could not substantiate that the SLC model was the sole determining factor that contributed to the three significant results. Based on the quantity of significance found, there is not enough statistical data over the three year period that supports the hypothesis that the implementation of Small Learning Communities impacts student/student groups' overall academic performance on TAKS testing. Thus no correlation between SLC's and overall student academic performance on TAKS scores and attendance were found. Further research is needed to determine whether there is a correlation between the SLC model and the performance of student/student groups' academic performance and attendance in large high schools.