Key Lessons From Carnegie's Schools for a New Society

Figuring out how to create a good high school isn't the problem: what's tricky is crafting an entire system of high schools that successfully educate all students at high levels. That's the assessment of Constancia Warren, director of the Urban School Reform Initiative of the Carnegie Corporation.

Working in concert with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie has awarded $60 million to educational partners to transform urban high schools in seven cities. According to Warren, the grants—which cover from five to two dozen high schools in each city—were driven by whether there was "enough traction on the ground for systemic reform." Warren points out that reforming high schools is as much about district reform as it is about school reform: looking at how districts manage and support high schools is critical in creating positive change.

Speaking at the Education Writers Association annual meeting in San Francisco in April 2004, Warren addressed six "key lessons" that the Carnegie Corporation has learned in the course of its initiative:

• We need to look at small learning environments. Warren says it doesn't matter whether schools are configured into small schools in freestanding buildings or autonomous schools that share space in a big building: What's important is getting away from large "factory model" schools.
• We need to pay attention to the instructional rigor and coherence of what goes on within those schools. "It's not just the structure of the school," Warren emphasizes. "If you only change the structure, you wind up with what one of my colleagues calls 'big schools in drag.'"
• We need to consider allocation of resources. Both fiscal and human resources must be equitably distributed; otherwise, there'll be a constant uphill battle in those schools that are at the bottom of the resource heap.
• We need community involvement. The community—government, businesses, universities, faith-based organizations, the grassroots public—must all be engaged for change to be significant and sustainable.
• We need student buy-in. Young people must be engaged as a critical constituency in the reform of high schools.
• We need to look at multiple indicators of progress. It's important to think about leading indicators and signs that you're on the right road, rather than waiting for test scores to come in.

Warren advocates a "portfolio approach" to high school rather than a single model. "We need different kinds of high schools and choice within a system... (to) address the needs of kids from those who are gifted to those who are ELL and who are arriving two years behind with interrupted formal education." Finally, she says, America won't make headway in changing high schools until we recognize underlying race issues, name them, and confront them head on.

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