After receiving the results of a school culture study in the spring of 2017, staff at a rural high school in a Midwestern state wanted to change the negative perception of the school's culture into a more positive one while also creating more student success. The school decided to implement 4 changes: Care and Connect, a house structure, a…

The author outlines the many ways in which schools may partner with businesses, higher education institutions, and nonprofits to provide students with training, jobs, and enrichment that that otherwise would not receive. The author speaks from her experience as founding headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy and years of working to effectuate…

Despite many reform initiatives, including the federally funded initiative titled the Smaller Learning Communities' (SLC) Model, many students are still underexposed to comprehensive guidance programs. The purpose of this mixed method project study was to examine which components in a comprehensive guidance program for the learning academies at a…

I'll never forget my amazement when my favorite jazz vocalist, also my teacher, revealed that even as a veteran musician, she still gets nervous on the stage. "Nervous energy encourages me to take chances" she said, emphasizing that taking chances is key to the musical improvisation for which she is known to this day. I enjoy finding…

School reformers are often searching for a program that will have a positive and far-reaching effect on a school campus. Researchers and writers have described the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB DP) as a largely positive influence on a school campus, providing a rigorous and standards-based curriculum to IB DP students. However,…

Public high schools today are faced with the challenge of preparing a diverse student population for both post-secondary education and entering the work force. However, they are doing so under the constraints of an educational structure that was developed years ago and one that has failed to adapt to the many changes in society. Schools are…

This dissertation explores unexamined assumptions linking the context of small learning communities to the outcome of quality civic education. Civic education scholars and advocates for small learning communities espouse similar visions of education based on democratic ideals; the purpose of this study was to explore whether and in what ways small…

This dissertation examines how eight urban high schools responded to mandates to raise graduation requirements in mathematics. The change process was complicated by challenges such as the conditions of poverty, lack of adequate financial support for schools, and large numbers of students who come to high school with inadequate preparation in…

This qualitative multisite case study examined how three high schools within one large urban district supported ninth-grade students' needs through interdisciplinary teaming. Data collected during the 2006-2007 school year included observations, interviews, and archival evidence of 67 participants. Findings suggest teacher communication as a…

Although the number of high school students not graduating is alarming, a successful transition from middle school to high school can place students on the path toward graduation. In 2009, a large, suburban high school implemented a school-within-a-school program to help ease this difficult transition for incoming, at-risk freshmen students. The…

Background/Context: There is general agreement that most public high schools should be smaller than they are. Although the small-schools movement attracts considerable support, there is a general reluctance or inability to close large schools and to build many new small schools. A more cost-effective approach is to divide larger high schools into…

No study has comprehensively examined what types of students are attending new small schools in New York City and whether these students have different characteristics, on average, than students at the schools they replaced. This study fills this gap by comparing the characteristics of entering new small high school students with those of all…

This case tells the story of James Madison High School, which became the epicenter of a debate over the future reorganization and control of large secondary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The LAUSD, recently taken over by the newly elected mayor, was fighting for control of this 3,000-student high school with a charter…

There is minimal research on the schools-within-a-school model, however, the research on small schools is abundant. According to the research, when determining how a school should be structured, some guiding questions should be asked and answered before a program is established. Those questions are listed in this paper. The size of the school…

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study that explored knowledge sharing among members of a community of practice (CoP) in a large, urban high school. Findings suggest that social relationships, informal channels, community culture, levels of trust, and spatial factors influence knowledge sharing, and that CoPs have the potential to…