YOUNGSTOWN Grant will train administrators on establishing smaller schools

Research shows that small schools have fewer dropouts, higher graduation rates and less violence.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- In Apple Valley, Minn., high school juniors and seniors study in the School of Environmental Studies at the zoo.
In Chicago, high school students might choose to study at the School of the Arts or the School of Entrepreneurship.
In West Clermont and Cincinnati, they could select the Human Kinetics & amp; Wellness School, the International Baccalaureate School or the Business and Technology School. And in Rhode Island, many select one of The Met's campuses.
These schools are all part of a growing national trend toward "small schools" in which public high school students are made part of a small school community -- where they are challenged with a rigorous curriculum, develop relationships with teachers and other students and are able to apply their education to hands-on and real-world activities.
The idea is now coming to Youngstown, where city schools officials have received a $2 million High School Transformation grant from the Cincinnati-based KnowledgeWorks Foundation, as part of a nationwide effort by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The goal is to create smaller schools of no more than 400 students each within each of the district's three high schools -- Wilson, Rayen and Chaney. Each small school would have a dean that would work with teachers, students, parents and community partners to create a focus, schedules and curriculum.
What's planned
Beginning this fall, administrators will begin a one-year training period through KnowledgeWorks. Schools will begin in fall 2004.
Though one of the small schools will likely be at Youngstown State University and focus on giving students a head start on their college careers, the focuses of five other small schools have not been decided.
A look at some of the options across the country shows what other districts have done with the concept.
The School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley, Minn., was conceived in the 1990s when Minnesota started the "school choice" concept, said SES Principal Dan Bodette.
The board of the Independent School District 196, in a Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb, was interested in building a fifth, 2,000-student high school. Instead, it decided to build five smaller schools of 400 students each.
So far, SES, which is ending its eighth school year, is the only one. It was built on 12 acres in a remote part of the Minnesota Zoo with the help of the city, which backed the bonding needed to fund construction, Bodette said.
"We did a different approach and, frankly, we've been very successful at it," Bodette said. "A lot of kids don't get excited by the traditional learning environment. They get more excited about learning and because they're excited, we can raise the bar and demand more."
No more than 400 students are admitted, and they study core academic topics focused and built around the core element of the environment.
Students must complete long-term projects, demonstrate their work to experts or government or community agencies and often interact with professionals in relevant fields of study.
Their grade-point averages are similar to other district high schools, but standardized test scores are higher, Bodette said. Average ACT scores are 23.9 -- above the state and national averages. About 90 percent to 94 percent go on to a two- or four-year institute. Dropout rate is zero.
How it's done
In Ohio, West Clermont Local School District transformed its comprehensive high schools in Batavia and Cincinnati into schools with small communities last fall. It is finishing its first full school year of its five-year transition process.
Each school had 1,300 students; now, each has five small schools with programs that were driven by teachers who were told, "dream your best dream," said Sue Showers, the district's project director for small high schools.
The Glen Este Campus offers the School of Communications and Technology, Institute of Performing Arts, Human Kinetics & amp; Wellness School, School for American Studies and School for Scientific Studies.
At the Amelia Campus, choices are the School of Creative Arts & amp; Design, Math, Science & amp; Technology Academy, School for World Studies, Business and Technology School and an International Baccalaureate School -- a pre-university school that promotes intercultural understanding.
Various courses are often integrated, and each school has community connections. The Kinetics and Wellness school, for example, partners with groups such as health-related departments at the University of Cincinnati, a local hospital, a sports medicine office, and child- and senior-oriented social service groups.
The schools offer basic academics as well as integrated topics. Kinetics and Wellness topics include fitness, dance, nutrition, physiology and science labs.
Schools also have a "keystone" program that focuses on character education, conflict resolution, time management, career education and study skills.
Students have a community of about 15 teachers vs. 80. And teachers are also teaching differently. For example, in the School for Scientific Studies, language arts, social studies and science are taught together during a three-hour block period during which three teachers work together.
"Teachers get to know students better, they also get to know parents better," Showers said.
Chicago Public Schools have had small school options in various forms for 15 years. The new trend is toward "autonomous" small schools which have their own principals, faculty and budgets, said Tamara Scheinfeld, of the district's Office of Small Schools. Staff has control over schedules and curriculum as long as they fall within state and city standards.
The district received two grants from the Gates Foundation that were matched by funding from six local foundations to turn five large high schools into 20 small autonomous schools sharing five buildings.
Caring community
Plans were created by a board of local foundations, the Gates Foundation, the city, the board of education, the school district and parents.
"Rather than being one in 2,000, students are one in 400," Scheinfeld said. "Everybody knows their name. They're in a community that cares about them. There are fewer cracks to fall through."
The transition began with five new schools in three high schools this fall. Four more will start in fall 2004. Choices include the School of the Arts, School of Entrepreneurship, Phoenix Academy, Chicago Discovery and BEST Small School.
Research shows that small schools have fewer dropouts, higher graduation rates, less violence and slighter higher academic performance, Scheinfeld said.
"The focus is on innovation," Scheinfeld said. "Each new small school has the ability to make changes themselves."
The Met -- formally the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center -- is a small public high school with two campuses that are open to Rhode Island high school students.
It was founded by The Big Picture Co., an education reform group based in Providence, R.I., and is now finishing its sixth school year.
"Its success is the reason for a major Gates Foundation grant aimed at creating similar high schools across the country," reads the school's 2001-02 annual report. During that school year, the Met had a 95.5 percent attendance rate and a 1 percent dropout rate.
All students apply to college and 100 percent of the class of 2002 was accepted to at least one college, the report says. Seventy-three percent started college in the fall.
The class was 39 percent Hispanic, 37 percent white, 22 percent black and 2 percent Asian, the report says. More than half qualified for free or reduced school lunch; 42 percent lived in homes where English is a second language. Three-fourths lived in Providence.
Students write biographies, take part in internship activities, travel and perform senior thesis projects. Among the projects in 2001-02, students established an independent catering business, helped plan and start a school-based health center and traveled to Costa Rica to study Spanish and volunteer at an orphanage.
Each student is part of a Learning Plan Team that includes an adviser, parent and mentor who meet regularly.
The Met's annual report includes comments from many students: "So now I'm in charge of my own learning, and I love it," one student wrote.
viviano@vindy.com