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…

Although magnet schools were created in the 1960s to integrate schools, their policy, legal, and demographic context has changed dramatically, making it more difficult for them to integrate. As it becomes more difficult for magnet schools to integrate, other benefits, such as improved student achievement, become more important. At the same time,…

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…

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…

Given the widening achievement gap between whites and students of color in US schools, Small Learning Communities have emerged as a reform measure claimed to boost achievement in general and among racial minorities. This article examines this claim by reviewing the major policy documents and literature on SLC and analyzing SLC using Frank's (1972)…

Granby High School in Norfolk, Virginia, is a large comprehensive high school restructured into four smaller academies that allow students a more personal learning environment. Positive growth is shown in test scores, dropout rates, and the narrowing achievement gap between minority and majority students. (MLF)

Searching for ways to help students feel more connected to one another and to the school community as a whole, a junior high school implemented the social house approach. Social houses divide students into multiple social units, rather than into separate academic entities. Each unit has its own identity and theme.The different groups mix during…

Longitudinal data from two cohorts of over 4,000 students, followed from grade 7 through grade 9, reveal that schools differed in track structure, criteria for student assignment, assignment flexibility, and the effects of tracking on student growth in achievement over time. Implications for the school choice debate are discussed. (SV)

Five years into an eight-year study of its high school improvement efforts, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is shifting its strategy for evaluating the $1.3 billion grant program. The foundation's initiative, which is underwriting change efforts in more than 1,800 schools, is the nation's largest privately funded attempt to improve high…

Consistent with the Williams v. California suit, our focus in this article is on educational equity, particularly the interface between equity and school organization. We concentrate on two structural issues, school size and school overcrowding, and one specific school structure, schools-within-schools. We organize the article as an interpretive…

Between 1997 and 2001, an elementary school on the south side of Chicago was reorganized to improve student achievement. By 2000, students at one small school (referred to as CASE) showed achievement gains, while students at other small schools within the host site did not. Teachers at CASE could not account for its success. During 2000-2001 a…

This paper analyzes the study of the impact of recent changes in the curriculum and enrollment policies on the academic achievement of ninth graders at Hartford Public High School (HPHS), Connecticut. The most notable recent changes include establishment of the Academy for Excellence and Career Exploration for ninth graders and the…

The effects of a "school within a school" on the academic achievement of high school sophomores were studied in a Chicago (Illinois) inner-city public school, the Tilden Community Academy and its Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) program (school within the school). Of the 228 tenth graders, 49 were enrolled in the JROTC…

This study reports the results of 3 years of implementation of a Partnership Academy, a restructuring model for at-risk high school students at J. Sterling Morton East High School in Cicero, Illinois. Based on the California model, the partnership academy is distinguished by four features: a multi-year, school-within-a-school structure from 10th…