The ancient Athenian "agora" functioned as a marketplace for ideas and commerce and offered an ideal place for teaching and learning. This digest suggests adapting such a model to modern needs and describes successful small schools that have done so while reducing costs. Research shows that small schools offer many advantages for…

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…

This document discusses a reorganization plan by which one large 1,600 student junior high school is being divided into three "schools within a school". The reorganization is taking place with the hope that with three "little schools", each with its own faculty team, a greater focus can be placed on the individual. The document…

Research shows that small schools and schools within schools can yield positive outcomes for students and improved satisfaction and effectiveness among school staff. Small schools can be less costly than larger ones if judged by expenditure per graduate instead of cost per pupil enrolled. Examination of the policy environments of urban schools in…

Teachers at the Ganado Primary School in rural Arizona established an instructional team to form a "School-within-a-School" (SWAS). The school is located on the Navajo reservation and serves 450 K-2 students who are predominately "at risk" and limited-English-proficient. Over a period of 8 months, the faculty researched and…

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…

A Seattle (Washington) high school has been closing the achievement gap between White and minority group students by promoting a personalized learning environment. This has been accomplished by limiting enrollment, instituting a house plan for freshmen and sophomores, integrating the curriculum, mentoring, providing time for teacher collaboration,…

Principals must structure their schools' learning environments with high expectations for achievement and behavior and for positive student-teacher relationships to ensure safer, more inclusive, and higher achieving schools. Personalizing high schools as to size, groupings, schedules, tutoring, and conflict mediation is essential. (Contains 27…

Career academies are characterized by these three basic features: a school-within-a-school organizational structure, curricula that combine academic and career or technical courses based on a career theme, and partnerships with local employers. In a 10-year longitudinal study of the academy model, begun in 1993 in 9 schools around the country,…

This practicum was designed to integrate the use of computers into the curriculum of a ninth-grade interdisciplinary science academy through staff development and a management plan dealing with division of time and space. Inservice training in the areas of computers and interdisciplinary planning were provided and a management plan for students…

This book provides a rationale, model, and procedures for implementing change in high schools. Focus is on adoption of applied, context-based, community-based education that eliminates competition between academic and vocational education and promotes cooperation in creating career-based education. Chapter 1 provides a review of how this type of…

School within a School (SWS) is a locally funded program in the Des Moines (Iowa) Public Schools of instruction in basic skills, career guidance, and counseling support for at-risk 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th graders in comprehensive middle schools and high schools. In 1991-92, 323 high school students and 67 middle school students participated. As…

A federation of alternative schools called New Collaborative Schools (NCS) has been proposed to improve educational outcomes of academically able but low-performing high school students. The NCS model would combine the advantages of high school-college collaborations with the most effective practices for improving the educational experiences of…

The career magnet high school programs of the New York City (NYC) public school system were evaluated in an experimental study. The experimental design compared the ninth-grade performance of students randomly selected for magnet schools with those who "lost the lottery." It included 91 pools of students: 3,272 with average reading…