Four secondary teachers, long accustomed to working in isolation, joined forces to provide an interdisciplinary program with flexible scheduling and common planning periods. This article describes their school-within-a-school program, its acceptance by the Coalition of Essential Schools, and the program's benefits. A sidebar provides restructuring…

This report contains the results of a formative evaluation of the subschool system at Hamilton Senior High School in the state of Western Australia. To implement the subschool system, the school, housing grades 8 through 12, was divided into smaller administrative and social units. In the final stages of reorganization, the school was made up of…

The second year of operation of Hilo High School's "School-Within-A-School" [SWS] program is evaluated in this paper. Planning, training, and program implementation are described in the document. The following are the results of the program: There was an improvement in attendance among project students when compared to their record in…

Covers camping out for credit; racing for credit; choosing from the seven "schools" in Quincy (Illinois) High School; and developing the Colorado College block scheduling plan under which students take only one course at a time. (Author)

Fast tracking and construction management resulted in a less expensive and rapidly completed high school for the Cumberland Regional High School District in New Jersey. (MLF)

Des Moines, Iowa's School within a School is locally funded program of instruction in basic skills, career guidance, and counseling support to meet needs of at-risk seventh- to tenth-grade students attending city's comprehensive middle and high schools. Program evaluations indicate declining dropout rate, increased attendance, and progress toward…

Proposes a modified English "house system" to personalize American high schools, thus increasing individual guidance and student sense of belonging. (DW)

This newsletter briefly discusses the question of whether or not large secondary schools suffer from more problems than smaller schools and then examines the possibility of subdividing large schools through use of the "school-within-a-school" approach. Two different variations on the school-within-a-school approach are described, including…

Attempts to determine whether behavior problems were as great a concern in schools-within-a-school as they were perceived to be in regular high schools. Uses student and teacher ratings as criteria for evaluating behavior problems. (Author/RK)

Describes the advantages of the small school-within-a-school plan for students having difficulty growing in an ordinary large secondary school. Uses the example of Santa Maria High School in California and how it gives students an opportunity to study a curriculum suitable for their future expectations. (RK)

Large school size adversely affects attendance, school climate, student involvement. Dividing large schools into small units creates a learning and teaching context that is more stable, intimate, supportive, interdisciplinary. Kohn-Holweide, a comprehensive German secondary school, groups all students at a given grade level with the same teachers…

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)

This practicum report describes a year-long effort to reorganize a large urban junior high school according to the "house plan" concept, in which the school is organized administratively and geographically by grade level, rather than by academic department. The reorganization plan involved five major changes, including relocation of departments…

The major problem area of humanization and involvement in the New York City high schools is the focus of this report. In this area a most promising trend is the emergence of the school-within-a-school and the small-unit school. This report surveys the various units which have been established, their roles in the high school system, and some of the…