This study examines student perceptions of classroom climate at a school-within-a-school (SWAS) elementary school located in the southeastern United States. The elementary school contains a school for students identified as highly gifted within a neighborhood school. Researchers utilized drawings to determine students' perceptions of their…

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…

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,…

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…

This study was initiated because the author believed that the house system in the comprehensive schools of England has elements that could be adapted into many American schools to help personalize education for each student. The house system and its place in the comprehensive school is examined with reference to the general organization of the…

Topeka West High School has approximately 1,500 students divided into four houses of 375 students. An effort is made to randomly distribute the incoming sophomores equally among the four houses. Each house has an assistant principal, a counselor, and a staff of 8 to 10 teachers representing the instructional areas of English, social studies, and…

This digest summarizes research in the affective and social realms that overwhelmingly affirms the superiority of small schools. Findings on the affective and social effects of school size are extensive and highly consistent, while the research base on outcomes of schools-within-a-school arrangements is smaller and less conclusive. While many…

As part of a multi-phase, multi-method study of the House Plan at Cypress College in California, this study surveyed three student populations as to various House Plan aspects. Questionnaires were given or mailed to 135 students attending graduation rehearsal in June 1976, 256 students eligible for graduation, and 280 alumni who graduated in June…

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds a 5-year program supporting the start-up of new small high schools of no more than 400 students and the conversion of larger high schools into smaller, more personalized schools or learning communities. This report focuses on the program's first year and compares new small schools, large high schools…

Project ORDER is a pilot project tested in an urban middle school in Houston, Texas. The program was intended to improve the general school atmosphere; to improve students' attitudes toward the school, its program, faculty, and administration; to show significant improvement in pupil behavior; and to substantially improve teaching-learning…

Project Achieve was designed to improve the attendance and academic performance of at-risk students. In 1993-94, the program was in the first year of its second 3-year cycle, and operated in 34 New York City public high schools. The program has focused on restructuring the standard grouping of grades into "houses," small units that offer…

Although it deals with both years of the program, this report is primarily concerned with the second year of Project ORDER. The program's objectives were to improve the general school atmosphere, including teacher, student, and parent attitudes toward the school; to show continued significant improvement in pupil behavior; and to substantially…

This report presents and analyzes data gathered as one part of a multi-phase, multi-method, comprehensive study of several aspects of the House Plan as it exists at Cypress College. All day (458) and evening (128) students, entering February 1976 and registered for six units or more, were surveyed. The survey instrument tested students' general…

This report is a preliminary study of the counseling aspect of the House Plan at Cypress College in California. For the study, all House counselors kept records of how many students they saw for a nine-day period in May 1976 and indicated why they felt students came to see them. In addition, three groups of students (graduation attendees, those…

The School Within-a-School Program (SWAS) of the Kansas City (Missouri) Public Schools was established as an intervention/reform program, which became part of the court-ordered desegregation program, for at-risk students in grades 7 and 9. In the last year of evaluation, the group consisted of 678 students. This summative longitudinal evaluation…