Chapter 2
22
Personalizing school experience makes a difference for students, both socially and
academically. More personal attention and adaptation of schooling practices to individual
needs influence students’ attitudes, commitment to school, and their willingness to take
risks in their learning. Teachers who know students well, who take time to explain and
reteach as needed, encourage and support students’ efforts to learn—in other words, “do
what it takes”—make a difference. In their study of fourteen alternative schools, Wehlage
et al. (1989) report that “effective schools provide at-risk students with a community of
support.” The schools that successfully reduce or prevent student dropout create a
“supportive environment that helped students overcome impediments to membership and
engagement” (p. 223). Because students are particularly vulnerable during transitions
between schools, educators “must create friendly and supportive school environments and
pay close attention to students’ needs” at these times (Lan & Lanthier, 2003, p. 327).
Teachers and staff in smaller school environments have more opportunity to personalize
schools than do teachers in large schools. Researchers who have looked at private
independent and Catholic schools cite school size as instrumental in the relationships that
develop in them (Lee & Burkam, 2000; Woods, 1995). Personalizing schools, however,
requires more than simply reducing the numbers. Small numbers make the task of
personalization more manageable, however, and provide opportunities to help “safeguard
against alienation (Newmann, 1989, p. 161). Other changes must occur including more
positive interactions between teachers and students, supportive school climate, and
enhancing student capacity to succeed in school (Cotton, 1996, 2001; Raywid, 1999).
A national effort to personalize high schools through small learning communities was
initiated in 2000 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The initiative supports the
startup of new small schools and conversion of existing large high schools into autonomous
small schools that may share a building. In addition to size, the Foundation’s program
expects schools to offer challenging, inquiry-based curriculum that is motivating, rigorous,
and preparatory to college. Because the initiative is relatively new, statistics on dropout
rates in these schools do not exist. However, preliminary findings from a comparative
survey of several grant schools indicate that small schools appear to improve the
experiences of young people. Specifically, relationships between adults and students were
deeper and more supportive, both academically and personally, in small schools than in
pre-conversion large schools. These findings, however, cannot be seen as evidence of a
causal connection between school size and student outcomes (AIR and SRI, 2003).
Small School Environments. Creating and constructing small school buildings are, of
course, one means of providing small, personal learning environments. However, small
buildings may not always be viable. Therefore, programmatic strategies have been devised
to work within the context of large comprehensive secondary schools. Three strategies
illustrate the possibilities for creating small learning environments.
1. Schools within a school. This strategy was found effective in countering dropout
(Woods, 1995, p. 5) and is implemented in various ways. Some examples, found
generally in large comprehensive schools, include separate “academies” around
career oriented themes, “houses” for a targeted grade level such as 9
th
grade, and
“alternative” classes for targeted students.