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Creating and Sustaining Small Learning Communities

Strategies and Tools for Transforming High Schools

Second Edition
By: Grace Sammon

Transform your high school into a high-performing environment for teaching and learning!

High school reform expert Grace Sammon offers school leaders a step-by-step approach for redesigning high schools into small learning communities (SLC) that cultivate good instructional practice and personalized learning environments for students. This fully revised edition presents a hands-on process for addressing data, personalization, partnerships, curriculum, and instruction. Research-based and results-oriented, the text provides:

A CD-ROM tool kit with over 30 planning templates and data collection and assessment tools
Frequently asked questions about how SLC benefit students and schools
Procedures to jump-start and sustain data-driven discussions and decision making

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Product Details

Grade Level: 9-12
ISBN: 9781412937900
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2007
Page Count: 248
Publication date: September 13, 2007

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Author(s) Table of Contents Reviews

Description

"Creating and sustaining small learning communities is not for the faint of heart. Without this invaluable resource and the talents and expertise of the writer, we likely would have done neither."
—Cynthia Conwell, School Improvement Facilitator
Houston Independent School District, TX

"Strikes the right balance between theory and practice. This extensive text and impressive electronic tool kit reflects a national perspective on school reform gleaned from the author's many years of partnering with school systems for success for all students and teachers."
—Gary Norris, Superintendent
Sarasota County Public Schools, FL

"Builds capacity in applying research to practice, providing strategies to improve teaching and learning that maximize student achievement, and using tools and techniques that enable staff to implement, share, and sustain new learning."
—Kent Mathers, Assistant Superintendent
Yukon Public Schools, OK

Transform your high school into a high-performing environment for teaching and learning!

This research-based, fully revised edition of Creating and Sustaining Small Learning Communities demonstrates how to empower school teams and foster the professional practices that create a true climate for success. Author Grace Sammon offers school leaders a step-by-step approach for redesigning high schools into small learning communities (SLC) that cultivate sound instructional methods and personalized learning environments for students.

Presenting a hands-on process that addresses data, personalization, partnerships, curriculum, and instruction, this book moves educational leaders and school reformers from an appreciation of SLC to the nuts and bolts of collaborating and doing the work of improving school culture and academic achievement. With a focus on getting results, the text offers:

A CD-ROM tool kit with over 30 planning templates and data collection and assessment tools for developing, sustaining, and evaluating a successful school transformation to SLC
Frequently asked questions about how SLC benefit students and schools
Procedures to create school-based teams to jump-start and sustain data-driven discussions and decision making

This resource and collection of tools is ideal for school leaders who are serious about continuous improvement to ensure success for all students.

Key features

Full CD-ROM "tool-kit" for creating, redesigning, sustaining, and assessing a small learning community
The latest research in high-school reform and small learning communities
Used in all 50 States and internationally

Author(s)

Grace Sammon

Grace Sammon, president and founder of GMS Partners, Inc., is an educator, school reformer, consultant, “coach,” speaker, and internationally recognized author. She has spent nearly twenty years working in one of the United States’ toughest institutions, the American high school. She has inspired change and fostered improvement in schools, districts, and government organizations nationally through her upbeat advice and sound, practical recommendations. GMS Partners, Inc. is an educational consulting firm dedicated to enhancing school communities through a focused effort on vision, alignment of resources, planning, coaching, professional development, and a commitment to continuous improvement. Under Ms. Sammon’s leadership, GMS Partners, Inc. has worked in thirty-two states across the nation, with a focus on whole-school improvement. She is the cofounding director of the National Career Academy Coalition (NCAC) and the Executive Director of the Business Institute for Educators. Her clients have included schools and school systems at the state and district level, nonprofits, and the U.S. Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, and Navy.

Ms. Sammon has authored Battling the Hamster Wheel:TM Strategies for Making High School Reform Work, eight manuals on school-to-career transition, and articles on organizational change, school partnerships, and staff development. She created Metro MANIA: The Great Train Ride Through Washington, a board and street experience game to facilitate student use of public transportation while they gain an appreciation for the employment and cultural offerings of the nation’s capital. She has also authored five integrated curricular pieces for use in middle schools and a teen pregnancy prevention curriculum and training manual.

She earned her Master’s Degree in Education at The Catholic University of America. She has ten years’ experience in higher education administration and has served as an adjunct university professor and a long-term substitute teacher. Her professional notes include listings in Who’s Who in American Education and being named Outstanding Business Person of the Year by Future Business Leaders of America. In the spring of 1996, she was appointed to the U.S. Secretary of Defense’s Joint Civilian Orientation Council. She has two children, Brian and Kate Loewe, who continue to inspire her with their commitment to justice and equity, and to improving the communities they serve.

List of Artwork

List of Tool Kit Files

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Author

1. The Journey Begins

Background

The Mandate for School Reform

Benefits of SLC

Who Makes It Happen? The Practitioner's Role

Key Elements of Effective Redesign Efforts

Looking at Design Options

At a Glance: Summing It Up and Next Steps

2. Formation, Study, and Awareness: The Sum of the Parts

Understanding the Process of Change

What Do We Want a Graduate to Look Like?

What Does the Ideal Teacher Look Like?

Are We Producing That Now? The Data Discussion Begins

What "Real" Might Look Like

Building a "Commitment Framework": Agreements Needed for Success

Building Your Local Definition: Establishing Structures

At a Glance: Summing It Up and Next Steps

3. Leading an Improvement Process: Changes in Practice Are Inevitable

Creating a Theory of Change

Where to Begin With Building Capacity

Establish Relationships

At a Glance: Summing It Up and Next Steps

4. The Plan?s the Thing: Establishing Structures

Initiative Alignment and Partnership Audit

Creating Working Teams

The Punch List: 100+ Things for Teams to Think About and Work Through

How Much Will SLC Implementation Cost?

Reality Check: Strengths and Deficit Mapping

The Planning Stage

The Ninth Grade Experience

How Fast Do We Have to Go?

At a Glance: Summing It Up and Next Steps

5. Establishing SLC Teams: Developing the Mission, Culture, and Schedule

Creating Teams

Creating Specific SLC Teams

Building the Team

The Team Sets the Agenda

Mission

Commitment to Students and Families

Scheduling

School Practices

At a Glance: Summing It Up and Next Steps

6. Curriculum for College and Careers

Curriculum Defined

Understanding and Addressing Academic and Industry Skills Standards

From Goals 2000 to SCANS: What Work Requires of Schools

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Identifying and Honing the SLC Curriculum: Pathways, Courses, and Integration

'Quick Wins" Curriculum Tools

At a Glance: Summing It Up and Next Steps

7. Professional Practice

Moving Into Data-Driven Discussions

A Culture of Literacy

Data, Data Everywhere

Use of Time

Professional Development

Will This Impact Student Achievement?

Pulling the Pieces Together

At a Glance: Summing It Up and Next Steps

8. Powerful Partnerships

Partnership Defined

Partnership Possibilities

Business Basics

Key Ingredients in Creating and Sustaining Partnerships

Structures and Strategies

Work-Based Learning

The "Why" of Employability Skills

The "When" of Employability Skills

Developing Work-Based Experiences

At a Glance: Summing It Up and Next Steps

9. The Student Experience: Making It Personal

School-Based Structures

Personalizing the Learning Experience

Service Learning/Community Service

The Senior Experience

Student Voice

More About Work-Based Learning: Brief, Perform, and Debrief Everything

A Word About Placements

Job Shadowing

Mentorships

At a Glance: Summing It Up and Next Steps

10. Sustaining: The Experts Are Among Us

Revisiting the Practitioner?s Role

What Will It Take to Succeed?

What Do Success and Sustainability Look Like?

Taking Stock: Study Process and the Peer Review

Study Tools to Get You Started

At a Glance: Summing It Up and Next Steps

The Journey Continues

Resources

References

Index

Reviews

"Creating and sustaining small learning communities is not for the faint of heart. Without this invaluable resource and the talents and expertise of the writer, we likely would have done neither."

Cynthia Conwell, School Improvement Facilitator
Houston Independent School District, TX

"Strikes the right balance between theory and practice. This extensive text and impressive electronic tool kit reflect a national perspective on school reform gleaned from Sammon's many years of partnering with school systems for success for all students and teachers."

Gary Norris, Superintendent
Sarasota County Public Schools, FL

"Builds capacity in applying research to practice, providing strategies to improve teaching and learning that maximize student achievement, and using tools and techniques that enable staff to implement, share, and sustain new learning."

Kent Mathers, Assistant Superintendent
Yukon Public Schools, OK

I have learned so much through Grace Sammon’s work at our high school. Her vision, honesty and optimism are the ingredients that helped to make our program such a success. We know that we have a lot of work yet to do – but Sammon is the one who assisted a team of teachers with the most important step – that being the first.

Leesa B. Falterman, Special Education Coordinator and Life Skills Academy Director
Leesa B. Falterman, Special Education Coordinator and Life Skills Academy Director

Other Titles in: School Change, Reform, & Restructuring | School Culture & Climate

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Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.