A New American High School, David Douglas High School (Portland, Oregon), has a mentor program for freshmen and sophomores, who take career interest inventory tests and research career areas through job shadowing experiences. Juniors and seniors participate in work-based experiences, prepare portfolios, and take personal enrichment courses. All…

Explores how the physical condition and design of school facilities can shape a child's learning experience. Discusses school environments' connection to asthma, heating and ventilation problems, noise problems, full-spectrum lighting, trends in teaching methods requiring different building designs, optimum school size, portable classrooms, and…

A study of the financing of 96 small rural K-8 and K-12 Missouri school districts found that it was more difficult to support small rural high schools than small rural elementary schools. Small K-12 districts could convert to K-8 districts and contract with adjoining districts to instruct their high school students. (TD)

There is a vast body of literature on school size but comparatively few high quality empirical studies comparing outcomes in schools of different sizes. This systematic review synthesizes the results of the published research from 31 studies on the effects of secondary school size from OECD countries since 1990. Overall the directions and patterns…

Helping schools create environments where all students can learn is a worthwhile mission for schools big and small. Both multi and single site districts agree that providing equitable and meaningful learning opportunities for every student is essential, but find this challenging and difficult. What are the systemic factors that limit educators in…

This report uses data from the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (PEELS) to describe access for young children with disabilities in two specific domains: community activities, including extracurricular activities and family recreation, and kindergarten classroom experiences. While PEELS is a broad, descriptive study, the analyses…

The purpose of this publication is to provide basic descriptive information about the 100 largest school districts (ranked by student membership, that is, the number of students enrolled at the beginning of the school year) for the 2003-04 school year in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the…

The Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) documents dimensions of quality in legal education and provides information about law student participation in effective educational activities that law schools and other organizations can use to improve student learning. This paper presents select findings from the 2007 survey administration,…

The Urban Academy (UA), an ungraded New York city alternative public high school, is a school where structures for caring have been constructed to ensure that the young people who attend are surrounded by strong relationships that support their living and their learning. Over 90 percent of the school's students graduate, and over 95 percent of…

The theme of this inaugural serial issue is "Building a Community of Learners." The serial has been designed to address school restructuring and reform and the roles of teachers, administrators, and parents. The first essay, "Constructing Communities of Cooperation" by Anne Turnbaugh Lockwood examines structural change in…

In 1994, as Chicago (Illinois) completed the fifth year of school reform under the Chicago School Reform Act, the Consortium on Chicago School Research launched its third and fourth surveys of teacher and student responses to change. In all, 39,000 students, 6,200 elementary school teachers, and 2,600 high school teachers completed the surveys.…

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…

The West Virginia School Building Authority (SBA) was created by the state legislature in 1989 to carry out a mandate of the "Recht Decision," which found the state's school financing system to be largely unconstitutional. The SBA was created to sell bonds for educational facility financing and distribute the money to county school…

As many as 40 percent of America's school-aged children are at-risk of failure within the current educational system. Many factors outside of school, such as poverty and debilitating parent and family influences, contribute to student failure. Within the school, the most effective factor of intervention for at-risk students is the individual…

This research report presents data showing that overcrowding in the New York City public schools is having significantly negative effects on instruction and learning in the system. The impact is particularly strong in schools that have a high proportion of students of low socioeconomic background, where overcrowding is sharply linked to lower…