« Home: Key questions for SLC implementation
Getting Started: How can we best plan and prepare for SLC implementation?
Implementing effective small learning community practice involves a cyclical process of program improvement. All quality educational programs require continual reassessment to remain vital. Moreover, by regularly examining their practice, teachers model openness to learning that is important for students to observe and absorb.
Continuous Improvement Tools
- Small Learning Communities Self-Assessment Tool (PDF 4.39M)
Resources
The Knowledge Loom: Focus on Redesigning High Schools
The Knowledge Loom is a place for educators worldwide to:
- Review research that identifies promising practices related to various themes.
- View stories about the practices in real schools/districts.
- Learn to replicate the success of these practices in your own organization.
- Add your own stories, knowledge, questions to the collections.
- Participate in online events and discussions.
- Discover supporting organizations and resources, including annotated Web links.
"Transforming High School" Fall 2004 (Vol. 10, No.1), Northwest Education
This issue explores radically re-engineering large comprehensive high schools into smaller, more personalized academies and learning communities; encouraging all students (not just an elite few) to take Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses; tying curriculum to the world outside the classroom; and using data to drive decisionmaking.
Planning Guide For Career Academies, developed by the Career Academy Support Network at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Education.
Taking Stock of Existing Practice
- IBM Toolkit
- Design Studio Gap Analysis Instructions (PDF 28K) and Gap Analysis Action Steps (PDF 120K)
- SLC Program Planning Chart (PDF 40K)
- Self Assessment Guide For Career Academies developed by the Career Academy Support Network at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Education
- School Change Rubric Self-Assessment Tool developed by the Oregon Small Schools Initiative
Building an Action Plan
- Meaningful Goals and Objectives (PDF 48K) and Goals and Objectives Worksheets (PDF 28K) This guide helps teams write SLC goals and objectives that are useful for both implementation and evaluation. The materials were originally presented by Audrey Theis, Key Links, at the SLC Project Directors meeting in fall 2004.
- Action Planning (PDF 32K) This tool facilitates action planning linked to SLC goals and objectives. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, developed for SLC Leadership Institute, fall 2004.
- Implementation Benchmarks & Developing an Implementation Plan (PDF 28K) Use this rubric to determine the degree to which your Implementation Plan is clear and coherent. Does your plan include specific interventions and action steps that together are likely to significantly improve student achievement in the school's goal area(s)? Does your plan also include the professional development needed to help teachers learn individually and collegially, in order to improve practice and identify other necessary resources? Rate your plan on the criteria included. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, adapted from OTE II for SLC Leadership Institute, fall 2004.
Gaining Teacher Buy-in
- Understanding Motivation and Supporting Teacher Renewal (PDF 148K), Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2001
Understanding Motivation explores the variables affecting motivation—the influence of social contexts and the human need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness—and offers suggestions for creating conditions that spark motivation for professional improvement. Written for those who work outside the classroom in supporting roles (principals, service providers, policymakers and agents of change), the publication synthesizes over 100 studies in two areas of research: human motication in general and, more specifically, teachers' motivation to change practice. - Stanford School Redesign Network
- The Role of Teachers in Urban School Reform Stanford School Redesign Network ERIC Digest, by Laura Desimone
- Building Staff Support for SLCs (PDF 8K)
