Believing that far too many students still exist in “factory model” educational settings where things are standardized and impersonal, the Learning Policy Institute’s (LPI) new report, Redesigning High Schools: 10 Features for Success, provides insights to build more equitable and empowering school systems.
For high school students, shuffling between seven or eight 45-minute classes a day, having superficial relationships with their teachers and trying to be seen by overburdened counselors is often the norm, the report asserts.
And while some educators and local educational agencies have made efforts to change the realities of their students from those adopted roughly a century ago, “the fundamental features of the factory model live on in both our policies and many of our practices.”
“There is a growing realization that many of our schools are not designed to educate the next generation to face the challenges of our time. In the face of a global pandemic, it has become clear that most schools must be better able to personalize learning and create caring spaces for students to address the effects of trauma, meet their needs, and support their learning,” the report states. “And schools must do more than weather a crisis; we need our young people prepared with the knowledge and skills to face even greater challenges in the years to come.”
As the field has deepened its understanding of the science of learning and development over time, research points to the kinds of learning conditions that are most impactful.
The report provides examples of schools that have successfully transformed that can serve as a blueprint for other LEAs as well as the 10 features of redesigned schools.
Features
The features of successfully resigned schools, detailed in the report, include:
- Positive developmental relationships
- Safe, inclusive school climate
- Culturally responsive and sustaining teaching
- Deeper learning curriculum
- Student-centered pedagogy
- Authentic assessment
- Well-prepared and well-supported teachers
- Authentic family engagement
- Community connections and integrated student supports
- Shared decision-making and leadership
“While successful schools include all these elements, they enact each feature in distinctive ways. There are many initiatives underway to transform secondary schools so that students have opportunities for meaningful learning, personalized supports, and connections to their futures: Linked Learning and other college and career pathway models that offer experiential learning; Early College and other dual enrollment opportunities; community schools that organize supports and connect learning to community concerns; and strategies that support social and emotional development through restorative practices, service learning, and civic engagement,” according to the report. “Schools need to create means for enacting their goals that respond to their local contexts and work for the students, parents, and faculty members of their communities.”
Local examples used to illustrate each of the features outline initiatives from California campuses.
The use of teaching teams by Vista Unified School District’s Vista High School and Oakland USD’s Oakland International High School are presented as case studies for establishing smaller learning communities in support of creating positive developmental relationships. In that chapter, Los Angeles USD’s UCLA Community School serves as an example of “continuity and personalization in a large school” and San Mateo Union High School District’s Hillsdale High campus is recognized for its efforts in redesigning for rigor and relationships.
Knowing what has already taken place in the state and what is possible can be especially helpful for LEA leaders.
The report also considers factors such as how to sustain the changes implemented.
“If redesigned schools are to become the norm, districts and states must move beyond the pursuit of an array of ad hoc initiatives managed by exception or waiver to a vision for whole child reform that guides fundamental changes in district operations and policy,” according to LPI. “Both school districts and state agencies need to take a systemwide view of redesign, rethinking regulations while building capacity and allocating resources in more equitable ways.”
