The Small Schools Project provides support and assistance to high schools and districts committed to high school redesign and graduating all students college and work-ready. We work with both new small schools and those created by redesigning large comprehensive high schools into smaller, autonomous ones.
We work with schools and districts to help:
Change teaching and administrative practice to ensure all students graduate college and work-ready
Increase leadership capacity in teachers and administrators in order to support new instructional and administrative practices
Build a collaborative adult culture with high expectations for all students
Change structures to support personalization and collaboration
Align systems to support retaining students and graduating them college and work-ready
We work with schools and or districts to understand their current circumstances and build an image of a more successful way of serving students and families. Based on that initial image, we will craft a plan of support and assistance that will help our clients meet their goals.
Small Schools Project coaches offer support and assistance in the following areas:
General coaching for change
School/district change
Creating a college-ready culture
Distributed leadership
Effective data use
Using instructional frameworks to promote coherence
Critical Friends Group training and support
School redesign - creating new small schools or converting existing large schools into sets of small schools
Specific classroom-based strategies, including:
Project-based learning
Service learning
Differentiated instruction
Socratic seminars
Performance assessment
Portfolio use
Coaching fees vary depending on the location and duration of the contract. To receive an estimate of our fees, or learn more about how our coaching services can support your school and/or district's redesign efforts, please contact SSP Director Rick Lear.
Workshops and Institutes
We offer workshops for teachers and administrators at the school and district level on a variety of topics, which include:
Critical Friends Group leadership
Socratic Seminars
Leadership for small schools
Preparing students for college-level work
Service learning
Project-based learning
To learn more about how our adult learning activities can support your school and/or district's redesign efforts, please contact Jude Garnier, Director of Adult Learning
Documentation and Evaluation
We offer research and evaluation services for districts, buildings, and small schools committed to high school redesign.
SSP research is built on values of constructivist teaching and learning and collaboration. Encompassing both quantitative and qualitative methods, our research is practitioner-focused. We raise questions, provoke reflection and highlight areas for attention and work, rather than offer summative evaluations.
We describe the landscape of school and district redesign processes, including structural, instructional, and political aspects. As a result of long-term relationships with our clients we are able to delve into the "why" and "how" behind the numbers, to explain what is happening, how it is happening, and offer suggestions for change.
Our research serves redesign practitioners by creating a feedback loop in which the data that we gather is analyzed and reported back in the form of reports and resource tools which aid practitioners in reflection on their processes. Our research report topics arise out of the work we see being done so that each report is relevant to our clients' needs.
To learn more about how our research and evaluation services can support your school and/or district's redesign efforts, please contact Brinnie Ramsey, Research Coordinator.
