“Building a system of schools that can educate peoplefor contemporary society requires two things that U.S.schools have never before been called upon to do:

To teach for understanding. That is to teach allstudents, not just a few, to understand ideas deeply andperform proficiently.

To teach for diversity. That is, to teach in ways thathelp different kinds of learners find productive paths toknowledge as they also learn to live constructively together.

I suggest that this task will require a new paradigm foreducation policy—one that shifts policymakers’ efforts fromdesigning controls to developing capacity among schools andteachers to be responsible for student learning and to beresponsive to students and community needs and concerns.”

Linda Darling-Hammond The Right to Learn: A Blueprint for Creating Schools That Work

Small Communities of Learning forSecondary Schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District:

A Concept Paper

Los Angeles Unified School DistrictInstructional Support Services

January 8, 2003

2

Document Development InformationJanuary 8, 2003

This report was prepared under the direction of Merle Price, Deputy Superintendent,Instructional Support Services, and Kathy Lesley, Assistant Superintendent. Kathy Rattay,Director of Professional Support and High School Reform, directed the project and worked withthe writing team: Cris Gutierrez, High School Teacher-Scholar and Consultant, TheAchievement Council; Penny Laurice Sommers, Coordinator, High School Programs, and Dr.Todd Ullah, Director, Technology Applications. The writing team worked closely with focusgroup members, who graciously devoted many hours to share their knowledge, experiences andinsights to guide the development of the document.

Dr. Grace Arnold, Director, Charter Schools, LAUSDCynthia Arceneaux, Coordinator, Office of the Deputy Superintendent, LAUSDJoseph Braun, Executive Director, DELTA and Professional Development, Los

Angeles Educational PartnershipDr. Barbara Brooks, Senior Associate, America’s ChoiceDanny Corwin, Director of Career Academies, Los Angeles Educational PartnershipKirsten Hibert, Coordinator, Local District H, LAUSDDr. John Hyland, Annenberg Consultant, Local District B, LAUSDBud Jacobs, Director, High School Programs, LAUSDJim Konantz, Assistant Superintendent, Instructional Technology Division, LAUSDEvelyn Rey, Specialist, Local District D, LAUSDEdmundo Rodriguez, Coordinator, Local District F, LAUSDSunshine Sepulveda-Klus, Specialist, Educational Options

The project is dedicated to all who share a passion for elevating the educational experience foryouth.

3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction 4

II. Background 7

III. A Cultural Definition 11

IV. Characteristics of Effective Small Schools or Small LearningCommunities

12

V. Recommendations 15

VI. Acknowledgements 19

VII. Bibliography 20

VIII. Glossary 21

Appendix A

Appendix B

4

I. INTRODUCTION

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is taking bold action to transform its highschools into dynamic learning environments to support all its youth to excel academically andpersonally. For students to excel, their learning and development need care and support. If webelieve all students can learn at high levels, we can build the environments and conditions tomake that possible. Our commitment is a matter of our choice. That choice is based upon fourkey principles underlying all of LAUSD’s systemic school improvement strategies:

1. Personalization;2. Equity and Access;3. Teaching Quality; and4. Leadership and Vision.

These principles bear special significance to the contexts of secondary schools. Given thedemands of students meeting higher expectations, the needs of diverse learners, and the complexchallenges youth confront in their lives, our democracy and the world today, secondary schoolsrequire a significant shift in their cultures and organizations. Based on what we know andunderstand today about youths’ needs and the conditions of high-performance learningorganizations, the district needs to transform its secondary schools from large industrial-likefactories into small communities of learning.

Transformation requires LAUSD to build new small schools or to convert comprehensive highschools into small learning communities (SLCs)1. These are two different but complementarystrategies. Both share many cultural norms and qualities centered on offering all studentsrespect and support in environments organized for quality teaching and learning. Each hasunique challenges. For LAUSD both strategies are important as they offer practical solutions,complementary to each other in a large system seeking to provide all youth with a setting withinwhich they can thrive.

The purpose of this concept paper is threefold:1. To outline the best thinking from the national consensus on new small schools and

SLCs for LAUSD students, staff, parents and communities to make deep, meaningfulchange in secondary schools.

2. To recognize and build on accomplished practice in LAUSD as the foundation forsecondary school transformation

3. To guide secondary school transformation.

The Case for New Small Schools and Small Learning Communities

Currently, high schools in Los Angeles, as throughout the country, have become so impersonalthat the faculties have trouble knowing each other’s names, let alone being able to know andattend to the 175 or more students who pass through each teacher’s classroom throughout the

1 The concept of small learning communities (SLCs) is characterized by specific cultural attributes. These qualitiesmay be realized in a variety of structural designs, or entities, such as houses, academies, magnet programs, coring orteam teaching programs, schools within schools, or options schools.

5

school day. Within such a structure, the high school institution was designed “to focus on the20% of the students who excelled in academia… minimally educating the other 80%... However,the problem of the past is evolving into a crisis of the future.”2 This leaves 80% of high schoolstudents disconnected from the very mission of education, leading to lackluster performance,emotionally damaged or alienated youth, and an unacceptable drop-out rate. As a result, theachievement gap persists, API targets go unmet, and poorly educated children become adults,inadequately prepared to participate in today’s economy, unable to go onto high education or toreach their dreams.

This leaves 80% of youth disconnected from the mission of school finding little to connect with,only to fall through the cracks and chasms. A growing movement and a substantial body ofknowledge call for the development of new small schools and SLCs. Learning flourishes in anenvironment where trust and respect forge real connections between students and the school andyouth are apprenticed to the roles and responsibilities as members of a community.

Small size alone is insufficient to provide the conditions for quality teaching and learning. Smallschools or SLCs do not endorse any particular instructional strategy. Instead it is that they offer"opportunities for faculty, parents and youth to create lively educational environments filled withinnovation and a sense of accountability."3 Youth realize they are valued and come to identifywith pursuing academic accomplishments that reflect who they are. "In our school, they all knowmy name and my game. They know I 'm the mischievous one--they know what's good andwhat's bad about me. I like how I experience it; I feel at home.”4

Various studies have documented “that those attending these small schools achieve at higherlevels than do students in large schools, both on standardized achievement tests and othermeasures.”5 These findings have been corroborated to show that “compared withdemographically similar students in large schools, the school performance of poor and minoritystudents in small schools was not only better, but ‘significantly better.’ ”6. Given that we havethe imperative to close the achievement gap, we have a moral responsibility to heed the researchon the effectiveness of smaller learning environments. It is as Michael Fullan states in Leadingin a Culture of Change, “…it is a particular kind of reculturing for which we strive: one thatactivates and deepens moral purpose through collaborative work cultures that respect differencesand constantly build and test knowledge against measurable results...”7

What matters is developing "learning communities with cultures that support high expectations,inquiry, effort and persistence by all" held together by the caring relationships and a clear sense

2 California Department of Education. Aiming High: High Schools for the Twenty-first Century. (Sacramento, 2002)12.3 Michelle Fine and Janis Somerville. Small Schools and Big Imaginations: A Creative Look at Urban PublicSchools. ( Chicago: Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform, 1998) 3.4 Fine and Somerville, 1.5 Kathleen Cotton. New Small Learning Communities: Findings from Recent Literature. (Northwest RegionalEducational Laboratory, 2001) 13.6 Cotton, 14.7 Michael Fullan. Leading in a Culture of Change. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001) 44

6

of personal responsibility to be accountable for what students achieve.8 Making a cultural shiftmeans changing the pattern of high schools from “sorting and stratifying” students to ensuringthat everyone learns at high levels. Such a cultural shift also develops the capacities of teachersbecause, as Linda Darling-Hammond suggests, what happens is that such a culture creates “… aprofession of teaching to ensure all teachers have the knowledge and commitments they need toteach diverse learners well...” 9 One approach is to create new small schools that stand on theirown. A second, more difficult approach is to transform large comprehensive high schools intonew or renewed SLCs sharing space and other resources. The caveat in the second undertakingis to avoid superimposing or layering SLCs onto already complicated secondary schoolstructures and schedules. Deep changes are needed. We must make the commitment to extirpateineffective structures or practices and to build the conditions that facilitate new SLCs withtransformed culture and instruction.

We need not only to revolutionize secondary schooling but also to generate new infrastructureswithin the entire LAUSD system to share knowledge and to operate as nested learningorganizations. Our goals of excellence and equity in secondary schools are imaginable andattainable when personalization is at the heart of quality instruction and the conditions exist tocreate and sustain an academic culture that values and empowers youth.

8 Steinberg, Adria and Allen, Lili. “From Large to Small: Strategies for Personalizing the High School.” (Jobs forthe Future, 2002.) 10.

9 Linda Darling-Hammond, The Right to Learn: A Blueprint for Creating Schools that Work. (San Francisco:Jossey-Bass, 1997) 6.

7

Figure 1 The Relationship of New Small Schools and Small Learning Communities

II. BACKGROUND — LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

The question before us is “How do we serve all students in secondary schools to meet highstandards of academic and personal achievement?” For the past two decades LAUSD has beeninvolved in reforming its schools in small or large ways. The 1990s introduced standards-basedinstruction, which the district incorporated in various programs of reform, including those ofschool based management, LEARN and decentralization. Most recently, the district adopted thePrinciples of Learning10 for systemic improvement. These endeavors are part of the first stage ofdevelopment toward equity and excellence in public education in Los Angeles.

In addition, various endeavors have been underway since the 1980s to develop personalizedinstruction in secondary schools. Many of these undertakings became renowned nationally fortheir successes with youth in urban areas because the students experienced emancipatory

10 Trademark of the Institute for Learning under the direction of Lauren Resnick. University of Pittsburg.

CULTURE OF SMALL COMMUNITY OF LEARNINGDefinition, Dimensions, and Characteristics

STRUCTURENEW SMALL SCHOOLS SMALL LEARNING

COMMUNITIES• Houses • Academies• Magnet Programs• Coring or Team Teaching• Schools Within School• Options Schools

8

opportunities to learn. These LAUSD experiences have been made available to students throughprograms or efforts such as Humanitas, career academies, magnet schools, California PartnershipAcademies, Small Learning Community Grant participants, as well as through instruction inindividual classrooms throughout LAUSD meant to empower youth. The success stories sharesignificant qualities with what we today understand to be the features of new small communitiesof learners or SLCs.

Reflecting on the value of the Humanitas community of scholars, one former student, AlbertSanders, Jr, who is now a second year law student at the University of Pennsylvania, remarks,

“. . .What we had in Humanitas was not only students who werecoming to three or four of the same classes everyday, butwe—even though a lot of us wouldn’t admit it—we believed thatwe had a greater responsibility and a deeper debt to society, whichwas the whole reason why we were in school. At least through myeyes, it was the whole reason why we were being educated; whyindividuals decided to donate this money for the program; why ourteachers would stay until seven or eight in the evening working onMock Trial or organizing all of us together on Saturday morningfor the AIDS Walk or, . . . putting together different programs oncampus. Because we believed that our education wasn’t just in abox in school, our education was something that we needed to get,understand, and apply, not only to ourselves but to society as awhole.

“We always believed through what we were taught andthrough our interactions with each other, . . . through the societyand the environment that we were in—in the inner city, across thestreet from drugs, across the street from homelessness, . . . acrossthe street from poverty and all those different types ofthings—characterized what we were learning. [We] saw, well,we’re the individuals that are in school; we’re the individuals thatare graduating. We’ve absolutely got to learn what we can learn sowe can . . . make something of this, make this situation better thanit is.”11

However, beyond these pockets of success, too often isolated, the large impersonal high schoolremains the norm.

In the second stage of development of the standards movement, we recognize that we cannotreach new heights of equity and excellence while confined by a bureaucracy with a tendency toconserve customs or practices that work only for a small fraction of the student body.

By leveraging existing district knowledge and accomplished practice, using research thatdocuments SLC success, and learning from the national movement for new small schools orSLCS, LAUSD must: 11 Albert Sanders, Jr. Personal Interview, April 2001.

9

Create nested learning communities for students and teachers in a personalized, caringenvironment organized to support student learning.

Establish new small schools. Transform from the inside and reform from the outside to give birth to a new culture and

direction for secondary schools. Bring its disparate instructional efforts together in a systemic district commitment and

join the national leadership to serve all youth well.

As we create new small schools or SLCs from existing institutions, it is critical to assess thestatus of individual high schools, while identifying, honoring and building on what works andrefining what could work better for personalized academic achievement and development. Thisincludes the many early forms of SLCs that exist although they may bear different names.These actions will accelerate the achievement of the Superintendent’s Strategic Plan, Goal # 11,for creating new magnet and academy programs. 12

Based on the national research on secondary schooling, the district’s history, and our urgency toclose the achievement gap, we are compelled to do what is right for all students.

Figure 2 on the next page lays out the conceptual mapping of LAUSD’s secondary schooltransformation.

12 Los Angeles Unified School District. Superintendent’s Strategic Plan. 2002. 15. (Internal document)

10

Figure 2 CONCEPTUALIZING LAUSD'S HIGH SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION

ComprehensiveHigh Schools

High School Accomplished Practices and Small Schools MovementNational Understanding of Creating Supportive Cultures, MeaningfulCurriculum, Instruction and Authentic Assessments Leads to Creating DynamicLearning Environments in Small Schools or Small Learning Communities,Generating Youth Excellence, Effective Practices, Research and Knowledge.

Early SLCs:Humanitas, CareerAcademies, MagnetPrograms , Theme

Academies, CommunityPartnership, No.rth

Hwd High, etc.

Charter SecondarySchools

Network of New Small Schools or Small LearningCommunities Providing Vision and Leadership,

Personalization, Equity and Access, Teaching QualityFocused on Student Learning, Autonomy, Accountability,

and Use of Space

LAUSD High School Reform:• Draw on Accomplished Practice;• Policy & Policy Support; and• Create Small Schools or SLCS.

• SLC Focus Group• 6 - 12 Curriculum. Team• 6 -8 Design Team• 9 - 12 Design Team

Continuous Learning: Prof. Dev. , ActionResearch and Symposia

Inform andCatalyze

Process to Transform High Schools

LA LeadershipAcademy, etc.

11

III. A CULTURAL DEFINITION

The culture of a new small school or SLC is based on a committed group ofstudents, staff, parents, and community members working together in teamsto make decisions to engage in practices that provide a safe and supportiveenvironment for youth to excel. With a focused academic identity,stakeholders share an educational philosophy and vision and buildrelationships of trust and respect to exercise the beliefs, knowledge,understanding and practices that develop habits of mind and nurtureemotional, physical, social and moral growth.

Structurally, new small schools are independent entities, while SLCs crafted from existinginstitutions may or may not be entirely independent. Culturally, however, both small schoolsand SLCs share internal essential norms and qualities that personalize pedagogy and schoolingfor youth. It is the culture of the learning environment and the community of learners we havedefined.

New small schools and SLCs have an ethos grounded in seven essential dimensions for supportand for opportunities to learn.

1. Caring relationships help young people build an attachment to the learning environmentand provide them with the support they need to overcome obstacles;

2. Cognitive challenges engage young people intellectually and help them to develop thecompetencies they will need for post-secondary success;

3. Culture of support for effort pushes young people to do their best work and be aparticipant in a democracy;

4. Community membership gives young people a feeling of belonging and a means toexpress their voice; and

5. Connections to high-quality post-secondary learning and career opportunities through anextensive network of adults expand options for success.

The “Five Cs”7 that have been codified by Jobs for the Future From the Margins to theMainstream Initiative are embraced by LAUSD. In addition, LAUSD recognizes two moredimensions for effective new small schools and SLCs:

6. Consciousness of self as a resourceful and capable human being develops self-efficacyand confidence to use knowledge and understanding meaningfully and ethically; and

7. Clarity of academic focus to increase opportunities to learn.

12

IV. CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE SMALL SCHOOLS OR SMALL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

Walking into a new small school or an SLC, what should a person see? The following essentialcharacteristics are interrelated in a transformed culture of learning in LAUSD. Stakeholders ofeither new small schools or SLCs may well go beyond what is noted here.

Figure 3 Interrelationship of the Seven Characteristics of an Effective Learning Culture

Vision and Leadership• The vision and mission, embraced by students, school staff, families and community

members, is to:• Ensure the academic achievement of all students at high levels;• Establish supportive rapport and positive relationships;• Empower students and staff to focus on instruction and youth development; and• Engage families and communities in supporting and sustaining dynamic learning.

• Everyone acts on the belief that all youth and adults can and will learn and perform athigh levels.

• The size of SLC is appropriate to its vision and mission, ranging from 100-500 studentswith a maximum population of 500 students.

13

• Leadership is individual and collective, distributive, and active among stakeholders torealize the vision and mission.

Personalization• All students are known and feel valued by their peers and staff.• Students connect to their learning communities and pursue rigorous academic

accomplishments that reflect who they are and what they care about.• Each student has an advocate and receives guidance.• Students’ experiences and cultures are important resources for learning.• Instructional practices address diverse learning styles and multiple intelligences.• Academic rigor incorporates in-depth projects reflecting students’ interests.• All adults act as mentors in their interactions with youth.• Students use their knowledge to assume a responsible role in the community.• Teachers follow or work with the same group of students for multiple years.• Additional time for an individual’s learning extends beyond the instructional day.• Counseling is organized according to the National Counseling Standards focusing on

student rather than institutional needs.

Equity and Access• Students and staff are a diverse community of learners who are accessible, responsive,

and caring.• An open and inclusive admissions policy includes students from the local community and

recognizes student and parent interest and commitment to the vision and mission.• People work individually and collectively with openness, trust and respect.• Heterogeneous groupings of students support academic and personal development.• The curriculum and acquired knowledge empower everyone’s participation in democratic

processes.• Stakeholders readily seek and employ interventions to help all students succeed.

Teaching Quality — Focus on Learning for All Students• Students, staff, parents, and community share clear expectations that align with district

and state content and performance standards.• Youth and adults are intellectually engaged in rigorous work, organized for effort.• Teachers are part of a “professional community of practice” in which their pedagogy and

examination of student work are collaborative and public.• Teachers adapt pedagogy based on the needs of individual students, providing them with

multiple opportunities to learn.• Teachers explicitly model and instruct students in learning processes to develop students’

metacognitive skills.• Teams of teachers share students using time creatively to reflect, plan instruction and

develop curriculum responsive to the youth and their community.• Pedagogy attends to English language learners, standard English language learners, and

students with special needs.• Flexible scheduling facilitates learning.• Articulated curriculum and instruction provide a coherent educational experience and

results in students persisting towards graduation.

14

• Course offerings align to district graduation and university admission requirements.• Fair and credible classroom assessments, using multiple measures and student work,

document student progress over time.• Teachers and students use benchmarked interim assessments to inform instruction and to

make mid-course corrections in instructional practice.• Traditional subject areas are permeable, with curriculum and instruction organized

according to the SLC educational philosophy, which may involve thematic,interdisciplinary units.

• Technology enhances teaching and learning.• Parents and community partners are academically involved in student work.• Teachers design site-specific professional development to meet the needs and goals of the

learning community, reinforcing its instructional design, assessment of student work, andthe inquiry process.

• Service-learning affords students with opportunities to assume responsible roles in theircommunities.

Accountability• All stakeholders take personal and collective responsibility to be accountable to oneself

and to each other for all students succeeding.• People use internal and external school data derived from multiple sources to make

decisions.• Stakeholders critically examine their work and policies, incorporating new knowledge,

research, and ideas to advance the work.• Stakeholders manage all of their resources, funds, time, personnel, partnerships, and

facilities, to support the mission and vision of the school.• Benchmarked interim student assessments measure or demonstrate ongoing student

progress towards meeting or exceeding standards.• Multiple forms of assessment reflect personalized learning, where students demonstrate

knowledge and skills.• Decision-making and reporting processes incorporate the use of technology.

Autonomy• Students, staff, families and community share an educational philosophy• The learning community has a unique academic identity.• The learning community establishes distinct physical boundaries.• Within state education code and district guidelines, each learning community self-

determines issues of conduct, schedules, budget, curriculum, instruction, assessment,personnel, and facilities to align with its vision and mission.

• An administrator or teacher-director leads a self-selected cohesive faculty.

Use of Space• The architectural design and uses of space support the vision and mission.• When sharing housing, SLC teams cooperate to organize the use of school facilities and

schedules (daily, weekly, yearly).• SLC teams cooperatively design strategies for working together.

15

V. RECOMMENDATIONS

The following recommendations are presented to provoke thought, conversation, and action atevery level of the school district. The recommendations are not meant to be prescriptive.Depending on their own progress and capacity in the work of creating small schools or SLCs,readers will find that some recommendations are more salient than others. As the district nowbegins its backward planning towards the goal of achieving effective learning environments forour youth, these recommendations become critical considerations.

Establish an Advisory Team of National Experts• Seek the advice and support of the new small schools movement and national experts

from districts, institutes, universities, foundations, or other emerging networks.• Share our thinking and successes on a national level and learn from the experiences of

others.

Develop and Communicate a Clear Vision and Mission• Establish an advisory team of secondary stakeholders, including youth, to work with the

district's design team.• Outline a vision for a transformed system of secondary schools incorporating the

conceptual understandings outlined in the SLC paper to guide the development of SLCsor new small schools.

• Obtain feedback for the vision from a range of internal and external constituencies.• Prioritize site transformation beginning with persistently low-performing schools.• Identify tiers of sites base on their need or readiness to transform.

Build Practitioner Support and Mobilize Accomplished Practice• Present the research of the SLC concept paper and the vision to a broad array of internal

audiences, e.g., central office leaders, local district superintendents, central officedirectors, principals, department chairs, chapter chairs, local district directors, nationalboard certified teachers ongoing teacher networks, etc.

• Incorporate SLC understandings in all current district instructional efforts, including RedTeam visits, analysis of data against national norms, learning walks, collaborativeplanning, Institute for Learning training, and ongoing professional development.

• Create an alliance with United Teachers Los Angeles and Associated Administrators ofLos Angeles to design mechanisms and structures for instituting the SLC work as adynamic process of school reform based on advancing accomplished practices.

• Involve SLC teachers and administrators in developing indicators of qualitative orquantitative data to document student progress in learning, understanding anddevelopment.

Build Parent and Community Support and Resources• Invigorate existing community partnerships to extend current work to apply the SLC

concepts and to reinforce the vision for transformation. Create new partnerships towardsthose ends.

• Identify community resources to continue learning beyond the school hours.

16

• Engage parents and community members in developing means to energize the processesof change and to help sustain expectations for quality teaching and higher achievement.

• Ensure that parents and community members or groups are part of school SLC designteams.

• Provide leadership for parents to support their children in their academic pursuits andgrowth.

• Publicize the stories and data (qualitative and quantitative) of effective SLC practices inthe district.

• Hold public forums to engage the community in discussions about the merits of SLCs foryouth.

• Work with the media to share SLC understandings.

Mobilize Youth and Youth Resources• Convene youth leaders in the district and the community to commence a dialogue on their

role in changing the culture of secondary schooling.• Ally with youth organizations to share the vision and SLC understandings.• Ensure youth are part of SLC school design teams.• Involve SLC youth in developing indicators of qualitative or quantitative data to

document student progress in learning, understanding and development.

Assess and Build Capacity for Transformation• Survey local districts to identify current SLCs. Assess where these practices are on a

continuum of SLC/small schools understanding.• Identify existing effective practices and accomplished practitioners that incorporate some

or most of the characteristics of the SLCs.• Draw on that instructional leadership to incorporate it into the design of new SLCs or the

refinement of existing SLCs.• Provide assessment tools.• Identify motivation to change.• Conduct a data analysis to assess the student body and their needs.• Refine current SLCs with additional knowledge for continuous improvement.

Create Incentives and External Pressure• Target large troubled schools to break up into SLCs or face possible forced

reconstitution.• Provide early implementation bonus.• Tackle tough issues of levels of SLC autonomy.• Initiate a process for request for applications or a request for proposals to authorize

stakeholders to design and create SLCs based on stated criteria. Fund only the numberthat can be supported and monitored each year.

• Secure funding from outside sources.• Initiate a request for proposals to authorize stakeholders to design and create new small

schools based on based on stated criteria.• Commit to support new SLCs that focus on ninth and tenth grade for year 1 with

expansions of existing SLCs, expecting to extend the transformation to 11th grade in yeartwo and 12th grade in year three.

17

• Create conditions and policies that give students the opportunities to learn in deep waysto close the achievement gap.

• Validate SLC indicators of student learning or accomplishment that go beyond test scoredata to benchmark progress.

• Provide incentives and external pressure to compel all high schools to examine andtransform their practice.

• Create a process to monitor SLCs that increases autonomy as they progress.

Provide Design Assistance• Provide time for research, reflection and planning of new or renewed SLCs or new small

schools with timeline expectations.• Provide various models for flexible use of time, pedagogy, curriculum, school

organization, roles and relationships for SLCs or small schools. Provide a forum forpeople to learn about effective existing models, e.g. America's Choice, TalentDevelopment, Schools that Work, Coalition of Essential Schools, as well as home-growndesigns.

• Address the needs of English learners, standard English learners, or students enrolled inspecial education.

• Create opportunities for design teams to visit effective small schools.• Enlist national support for local design teams.• Place the development of SLCs in the context of high school reform and quality teaching.

Provide Support for Systemic Transformation• Align district policies to support SLCs.• Maintain self-examination of district practices to ensure they support SLCs or small schools.• Create a system for SLCs to learn from one another and to inform the mainstream.• Build relationships with national leaders of the SLC/small schools movement.• Build knowledge base with national leaders and models.• Use action research designs to document promising practices and to inform the learning

organization.• Link the high school reform with professional development and quality teaching strategies.• Create policies to support SLC transformation in conjunction with the Curriculum and

Benchmarking, the 6-8 Organizational Task Force and the 9-12 Organizational Task Force.

Monitor and Evaluate Progress• Authorize each SLC through a performance contract.• Augment test score with multiple sources of qualitative or quantitative data to document

student progress in learning, understanding and development.

Summary

Aligned with the four key principles underling all of LAUSD’s systemic school improvementstrategies, this paper describes the culture of small communities of learning no matter what theirstructures may be. Cultivating these cultural qualities will enable LAUSD to act on the beliefthat all students can learn and achieve at high levels in their academic work and their personal

18

development and build the conditions necessary to meet the urgent need to close the achievementgap. The paper creates a framework for LAUSD to take bold action to transform its secondaryschools into personalized learning organizations based upon research, current expertise, nationalunderstandings, and LAUSD’s historical successes in building small learning environments.The body of this concept paper identifies seven essential dimensions, gives a cultural definitionand names seven cultural characteristics of effective small communities of learning. As a resultof this group’s work, the recommendations lead the district to take decisive action intransforming its secondary schools. To assist schools along the journey of creating vibrantpersonalized learning settings for all youth, a Reflection Tool is appended to this document(Appendix A).

19

VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This concept paper reflects the understandings of practitioners and staff from the Los AngelesUnified School District and collaborative partners who have contributed to the thinking of theSmall Learning Community Team. These members have decades of experiences and an array ofexpertise working with or building small learning communities. The report draws on andextends the thinking from current research and knowledge about effective high schools. Amongthe many resources used, the following have been especially helpful and salient:

• Aspen Institute’s 2002 policy paper, “Transforming the American High School,” by MikeCohen from the Program on Education in a Changing Society, which highlights the workof Jobs for the Future and its project From the Margins to the Mainstream;

• Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform’s 1998 book, Small Schools BigImaginations: A Creative Look at Urban Public Schools by Michelle Fine and Janis I.Somerville;

• Northwest Regional Educational Lab’s 2001 publication, New Small LearningCommunities: Findings from Recent Literature by Kathleen Cotton

• California’s Aiming High 200: High Schools for the 21st Century; • Linda Darling-Hammond’s The Right to Learn: A Blueprint for Creating Schools that

Work;• “From Large to Small: Strategies for Personalizing the High School.” by Adria

Steinberg and Lili Allen Jobs for the Future, 2002; and• The material and support from Dan French at the Center for Collaborative Education.

20

VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY

California Department of Education. Aiming High: High Schools for the Twenty-first Century.Sacramento, 2002.

Cohen, Mike. “Transforming the American High School.” Aspen: Aspen Institute, 2002."Transforming the American High School: New Directions for State and Local Policy"http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ecs/index.html

Cotton, Kathleen. New Small Learning Communities: Findings from Recent Literature.Portland: Northwest Regional educational Lab, 2001.http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/nslc.pdf

Darling-Hammond, Linda. The Right to Learn: A Blueprint for Creating Schools thatWork. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.

Fine, Michelle and Janis I. Somerville. Small Schools Big Imaginations: A CreativeLook at Urban Public Schools. Chicago: Cross City Campaign for Urban SchoolReform, 1998. http://www.crosscity.org/

Fullan, Michael. Leading in a Culture of Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.Lawrence, Barbara Kent, et al. Dollars and Sense: The Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools.

KnowledgeWorks Foundation: 2002.Los Angeles Unified School District. Superintendent’s Strategic Plan. 2002. (Internal

document)Murphy, John et al. The Productive High School: Creating Personalized Academic

Communities. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, 2001.Steinberg, Adria and Allen, Lili. “From Large to Small: Strategies for Personalizing the High

School.” Jobs for the Future, 2002.

21

VII. GLOSSARY

For terms designated with an asterisk, this glossary uses definitions that have been set forth inKathleen Cotton's New Small Learning Communities: Findings from Recent Literature (8 - 12).All definitions help codify what is currently meant by a variety of terms used when referring tothe structure of secondary schools as a baseline of understanding. Designing new small schoolsor SLCs, and focus on their culture and pedagogies, will lead to new knowledge and language.

Academy: An academy is a school-within-a-school with a particular academic focus and meansof creating co-curricular experiences for students beyond the instructional day. Teachers andstudents are self- selected.

Alternative School:* "Alternative school" may refer to any freestanding schools or school-within-a-school, but increasingly this term is associated with small schools for students who havebeen suspended or expelled from a regular school, or who have experienced academicdifficulties.

Career Academies:* A career academy is a school-within-a-school that focuses on a broadoccupational area, such as engineering, natural resources, or the hospitality industry. Teachersand students are self- selected. The career academy curriculum directs students' attention to theapplication of school-based learning by including in its curriculum work-based learningexperiences with businesses in the community.

Charter school: Usually but not always small, a charter school is a public school that operatesunder a contract which specifies its mission, program, goals, students served, methods ofassessment, and ways to measure success. Depending on schools, charters may be operated ,byeducators, parents, community leaders, educational entrepreneurs or some combination of these.The principal is granted some degree of decision-making freedom and is held accountable for theperformance of the school by the entity granting the contract, typically the state or the localboard.

Coring: Coring refers to a team of teachers who share the same students for the core courses.

Focus school (also "theme" or "theme-based" school):* Small school practitioners andresearchers use these terms to describe a type of new, autonomous, small urban school that wascreated with a "focus"—a theme around which teachers and students coalesce because of theirshared interest in it.

Freestanding School:* A school with its own space, budget, and principal, but not necessarilyits own building.

Historically small school:* This term denotes a small school that predates the new small-by-design schools in Chicago that are the focus of the P.A. Wasley and R.J. Lear large scale study.Such a school is also an autonomous small school.

22

House plan:* In a house plan, students and teachers are assigned to smaller groupings within alarger school. Students in each house may take some of their core courses together and share thesame teachers. Each has its own discipline policies and student government. The house planusually co-exists with the larger school's departmentalized structure and may share the school'scurriculum, instructional approaches and possibly its extra-curricular program. Houses are oftenorganized by grade level, such as the "ninth grade house plan" or vertically encompassing two ormore grades.

Interdisciplinary teaching: Pedagogy that integrates disciplines to make essential connectionsacross disciplines in order to pursue in-depth curricular themes, concepts, ideas, problems, orquestions. Interdisciplinary teaching may be team-taught.

Magnet School Magnet schools have an academic specialized focus and learning programthat draw students from the entire school district. There may or may not be admissionsrequirements. Historically, magnet schools began almost 30 years ago for the purpose ofdesegregation without forced busing.

Pathway, pod or cluster:* These terms usually refer to a sequence or career-related and/oracademic courses that lead towards graduation. Students may or may not be scheduled togetherin a manner that constitutes a small learning community.

Pilot School* "Pilot school" is the term given to new small schools in Boston, which, althoughthey are not charter schools, do have full control over curriculum, staffing and the schoolcalendar. Part of their purpose is to provide new models.

School-within-a-school:* A school-within-a-school (SWAS) operates within a larger "host"school, typically with their own personnel and program. Students and teachers are self-selectedand defer to the principal on matters of school safety and building operations. SWAS has oftenbeen used as an umbrella term for other kinds of SLCs.

School-within-a-building:* A school-within-a-building is a term that has been suggested byDeborah Meier and M.A. Raywid as preferable to school-within-a-school because it reinforcesthe concept of autonomy.

Small learning community:* Any separately defined, individualized learning unit within alarger school setting. Students and teachers are scheduled together and frequently have acommon area of the school in which to hold most or all of their classes.

Small school:* A new small school may be its own building or in a building with anotherschool(s), but is organizationally, fiscally, and instructionally independent. Its teachers andstudents are self-selected. In theory, a large school could create small learning communities thatwould be autonomous, but experience shows that this is difficult to achieve, and therefore, mosttruly autonomous small schools begin their lives with students and teachers who are new to thebuildings they inhabit. Many researchers and practitioners regard a high level of autonomy as aprerequisite for school success. They define an ideally autonomous school as one that controlsits structure, budget, and learning program. In addition, such an autonomous school establishes

23

its own transportation and school-day schedule; has its own teachers and students; and has itsown classroom space. Once basic agreements are struck with others in the building aboutschedules and facilities, this autonomous school's use of space and time cannot be infringedupon.

Team-Teaching: A team of teachers share students and collaboratively plan their instruction andcurriculum.

24