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By Suzie Boss

AMERICA'S COUNTRY SCHOOLS
(University Press of Colorado, 1996) chronicles in words and photographs the history of a fast-fading landmark: the one-room schoolhouse. Author Andrew Gulliford notes in the introduction to this third edition that interest in country schools is soaring at the same time that their numbers are declining. From the mid-1980s to 1995, he writes, the number of one-room, one-teacher public schools dropped from 1,200 to 428. (Today, it's slipped below 400.)

Gulliford makes a case for preserving not only the architecture of America's country schools, but also the lessons they offer about how to teach children. "So many excellent ideas came from one-room schools," he writes, "such as students helping students, oral recitation of selected lessons, pupils working in teams, and true community involvement by children of all ages. …Tomorrow's workplaces will focus on team management and team work groups, much as harried country school teachers insisted rural pupils rely on each other to build consensus for learning schoolwork and sharing in playground games. … Such opportunities for creative cross-learning must be continued."

An historian and director of the new Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Colorado, Gulliford takes aim at the competing myths that have grown up around one-room schools: "One is that country schools are the poor stepchildren of American education—primitive buildings where, under intolerable conditions, young, inexperienced teachers try to instill in their students a modicum of knowledge. Another is the myth of the little red schoolhouse pleasantly situated beneath shade trees and full of bright, young students eager to learn their lessons and please their teacher." Neither myth, he concludes, "is wholly true nor wholly false."

America's Country Schools takes a thorough look at this subject, exploring everything from the role one-room schools have played in their communities to a description of schoolhouse architecture to a look at the changing lifestyles of rural schoolteachers.

Preservation is a special focus, with discussion of how historic school buildings across the country are being restored as community centers, living history museums, and learning communities for a new generation of American students.

Along with Gulliford's insightful, well-researched text, the book includes dozens of photos that portray one-room schools, inside and out. Residents of the Northwest will find their communities well-represented. In a photo from 1893, students and teacher gather on the steps of their board-and-batten schoolhouse in Hecla, Montana. A photo taken a century later shows students gathered around the piano for a music lesson at Springhill School in Gallatin County, Montana. A series of photographs taken at Atlanta School in Idaho captures turning points of the school day, from the morning Pledge of Allegiance to the afternoon ringing of the school bell.

For those who want to explore one-room schools for themselves, the book also includes a state-by-state listing of the nation's remaining country schools.

THE BENEFITS OF SMALLER CLASSES,
especially in the early elementary grades, have been well-documented by research. Charles M. Achilles, in Let's Put Kids First, Finally: Getting Class Size Right (Corwin, 1999), surveys what he calls the "knowledge base" about class size that has been growing since the late 1970s. His conclusion: "A solid foundation for lifelong learning begins in small classes in public elementary schools."

Achilles begins with a look at Tennessee's Student Teacher Achievement Ratio, better known as Project STAR, a scientifically designed, longitudinal experiment that involved more than 11,000 students and 1,000 teachers from 1985 to '89. (Achilles was principal investigator on Project STAR.) Not only did the project demonstrate clear gains for students in their academic achievement during kindergarten and the first three grades of elementary school, but follow-up studies have shown that benefits continue at least into eighth grade. Project STAR also showed that students in smaller classes (15 students to one teacher) were better behaved, more engaged in school, and less likely to be retained than students in either regular-sized classes (averaging 25 students) or regular classes with a full-time instructional aide.

Looking at the classroom as an environment where learning takes place, Achilles points out the benefits of giving small children more "space." He notes, "A class-size reduction from 30 students and one teacher to 15:1 immediately influences environmental variables such as space and fresh air per occupant, crowdedness, materials per pupil, noise levels, and teacher time for each student. … Teachers report that in small classes, discipline is better, and classroom management is less troublesome. …Teachers and students help each other. The classroom climate changes."

Noting that a variety of studies have documented similar benefits of smaller classes—namely, better classroom management, active instruction, individual attention, and lots of time on task—Achilles goes a step further to describe how teaching practices change in smaller classes. Drawing on class-size reduction studies such as Project SAGE and Success Starts Small, Achilles notes that teachers are better able to individualize programs for students, vary reading instruction, increase time on task, and bond with students. Specific changes in curriculum and instruction include more frequent reading and writing conferences; more hands-on activities, especially in math and science; and added use of portfolios to assess student growth. Because parents are more likely to get involved with school when their children are assigned to smaller classes, teachers also make more use of volunteer time.

In addition to highlighting research, Achilles also quotes extensively from teachers. One educator explains why smaller classes seem to be especially powerful for closing the achievement gap: "Small class size has leveled the playing field for all children. All children have the opportunity to be honored each day." Another adds: "If I had 28 students as I did in my practice teaching, and had them all in rows, I could not accommodate the five very low-functioning children. …I can see that they are learning; they see themselves as successful, vital persons in our class."

THE POWER OF THEIR IDEAS,
Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem (Beacon, 1995), is no longer new, but the observations and reflections of author and educator Deborah Meier remain worth hearing, especially as more schools move in the direction of smaller learning communities.

Meier, who won a MacArthur "genius" grant for her work as director of New York's famed Central Park East schools, knows firsthand the challenges of breaking up large institutions into smaller, independent schools where teachers can work collaboratively. She acknowledges her bias: "Large schools neither nourish the spirit nor educate the mind; except for a small elite who run the place and claim (falsely) to know everyone, what big schools do is remind most of us that we don't count for a lot."

In making a case for small schools, Meier does not mean tearing down existing facilities. "It doesn't depend on new buildings," she writes, "just using the ones we have differently."

She offers half a dozen compelling reasons in favor of downscaling:

• Smallness allows the faculty to self-govern, to make decisions about teaching and learning
• Small schools enable teachers to have access to each other's work and to be accountable for the collective work of the school
• Small schools enable teachers to get to know each student's work and understand the way he or she thinks
• Small schools offer safety—the safety of being where you are known well by people who care for you
• Small schools are accountable to parents and the public
• Small schools create opportunities for connections across generations

THE SCHOOL-TO-WORK REVOLUTION
(Addison-Wesley, 1997), by Lynn Olson, takes an indepth look at high schools that are restructuring by linking the worlds of work and learning.

Olson, a senior editor at Education Week, takes readers inside high schools across the country that are taking new approaches to preparing students for life after graduation. Among them: Rindge School of Technical Arts in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where "hands and minds work in harmony rather than in opposition." Students engaging in work-site seminars in their community also explore such thoughtful classroom topics as "What is work?" and "What is success?" Olson visits two Oregon schools: David Douglas High in suburban east Portland, and Roosevelt High, located in a working-class neighborhood in north Portland. Both schools are engaging students in real-world learning. (See a related profile of David Douglas.) She travels to Pasadena, California, to visit the small career academies that feel like "extended families" to participating students and teachers.

Although the book is strong on reportorial detail and weaves in the opinions of experts, its strongest passages may be the conversations Olson has with teen-agers. "I heard an almost constant refrain: Now I understand why I have to learn this," she writes. "The comments were the same, whether I was talking with a straight-A student who hoped to become a surgeon or a C-average student who just wanted to get out of high school and find a job." Both extremes, of course, are well-represented in American high schools.

Finally, Olson concludes with a set of basic principles to guide both school-to-work and high-quality education for adolescents in general, including:

• The central goal of school-to-work systems should be to help students achieve more academically
  
  
• All students should have the opportunity to learn by doing, to complete projects, and to apply their knowledge to problems beyond school
  
  
• Schools need to emphasize and demand basic work ethics and good citizenship from students
  
  
• All students should have opportunities for career exploration and a broad perspective on career options
  
  
• Every student should have the chance to be part of a small, supportive learning community and to develop close relationships with adults
  
  

THE MULTIGRADE CLASSROOM:
Although one-room schoolhouses have become more and more scarce over the decades, teachers in sparsely populated communities have continued to teach in classrooms that combine students of different ages and grades. Only recently, however, have researchers turned their attention to the benefits students receive in these classroom arrangements, and the strategies teachers employ to help their students thrive and their classes run smoothly. Now, interest in the multigrade classroom is increasing—not only in rural areas, but in a variety of educational settings.

To guide teachers to best practices, the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory has just published a seven-book series, The Multigrade Classroom: A Resource for Small, Rural Schools.

The series dates to 1987 when a group of rural educators raised concerns regarding resources and preparation for teachers providing multigrade classroom instruction. The Laboratory's Rural Education Program took on the topic for further study. NWREL's first handbook for multigrade educators was published in 1989. The same year, the Lab brought together multigrade teachers from throughout the Northwest and Pacific Island regions to expand the research base with insights from practitioners. The result of a decade's work is this series, designed to provide multigrade teachers with a thorough guide. The stand-alone books incorporate both research highlights and the common-sense solutions of teachers who have "been there."

Each book in the series presents information, strategies, and resources on a specific aspect of the multigrade classroom. The series begins with a review of the research on multigrade instruction (Book 1), moves on to classroom organization, management, and discipline (Books 2 and 3), and then to instructional organization and delivery (Books 4 and 5). The last two volumes cover self-directed learning (Book 6) and the use of peer tutoring (Book 7). The bottom line in each book is the same: helping the multigrade teacher be effective in meeting the needs of students.

Readers will gain insights into such practical matters as when to teach the total class, and when to use a more individualized approach; how to maximize cooperation and self-directed student learning; how to monitor noise level in a classroom where many activities are underway at once; how to use computers as an instructional tool; and how to schedule the day to make most-effective use of time.

Case examples from teachers illustrate how to put concepts to work in the "real world" of the multigrade classroom.

To order copies of The Multigrade Classroom series, call the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory at (503) 275-9519. The seven books can be ordered as a set, or purchased individually.

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