(NAME-MCE) CES Summer Institute July 14-18 Portland OR

[Anselmo Villanueva]

The Essentials of Small Schools: Principles and Practices for Equity and
Achievement

In partnership with Employers for Education Excellence (E3) and the
Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) at the University of Oregon,
the Coalition of Essential Schools invites you to learn about small school
planning, design, and implementation at its 5th Annual Summer Institute,
which will take place July 14-18 in Portland, Oregon.

This week-long institute features workshops and facilitated conversations
with some of the most effective small school educators in the country,
including those from CES Mentor Schools Urban Academy, Eagle Rock School,
Boston Arts Academy, Quest High School, Wildwood School, and Fenway High
School, among others.

The Summer Institute is open to individuals and school teams who are
starting new small schools, working in large schools converting to small
autonomous schools, or who are looking to share best practices with a
community of effective educators.

Please join CES, E3, and EPIC for a week of powerful work and fun in the
great Pacific Northwest.

Online registration opens May 1st. For complete details, visit
www.essentialschools.org/events.html.

CES Small Schools Network

The CES Small Schools Network is a group of exemplary small mentor schools,
new small schools - both start ups and conversions - and small school design
teams. The Network brings together some of the nation's best small school
educators and schools, all organized around the Common Principles of the
Coalition of Essential Schools.

More information about the CES Mentor Schools can be found at
www.ceschangelab.org.

Registration Opens May 1st!

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The CES Common Principles

Elementary and Secondary School Inclusive

The Coalition of Essential Schools' Common Principles, based on decades of
research and practice, reflect the wisdom of thousands of educators
successfully engaged in creating personalized, equitable, and academically
challenging schools for all young people.

*Learning to use one's mind well*
The school should focus on helping young people learn to use their minds
well. Schools should not be "comprehensive" if such a claim is made at the
expense of the school's central intellectual purpose.

*Less is more, depth over coverage*
The school's goals should be simple: that each student master a limited
number of essential skills and areas of knowledge. While these skills and
areas will, to varying degrees, reflect the traditional academic
disciplines, the program's design should be shaped by the intellectual and
imaginative powers and competencies that the students need, rather than by
"subjects" as conventionally defined. The aphorism "less is more" should
dominate: curricular decisions should be guided by the aim of thorough
student mastery and achievement rather than by an effort to merely cover
content.
  * The Common Principles* (abbrev.)  1. Learning to use one's mind
well  2. Less
is More, depth over coverage   3. Goals apply to all students   4.
Personalization   5. Student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach   6. Demonstration
of mastery   7. A tone of decency and trust   8. Commitment to the entire
school   9. Resources dedicated to teaching and learning   10. Democracy and
equity

*Goals apply to all students*
The school's goals should apply to all students, while the means to these
goals will vary as those students themselves vary. School practice should be
tailor-made to meet the needs of every group or class of students.

*Personalization*
Teaching and learning should be personalized to the maximum feasible extent.
Efforts should be directed toward a goal that no teacher have direct
responsibility for more than 80 students in the high school and middle
school and no more than 20 in the elementary school. To capitalize on this
personalization, decisions about the details of the course of study, the use
of students' and teachers' time and the choice of teaching materials and
specific pedagogies must be unreservedly placed in the hands of the
principal and staff.

*Student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach*
The governing practical metaphor of the school should be student-as-worker,
rather than the more familiar metaphor of
teacher-as-deliverer-of-instructional-services. Accordingly, a prominent
pedagogy will be coaching, to provoke students to learn how to learn and
thus to teach themselves.

*Demonstration of mastery*
Teaching and learning should be documented and assessed with tools based on
student performance of real tasks. Students not yet at appropriate levels of
competence should be provided intensive support and resources to assist them
quickly to meet those standards. Multiple forms of evidence, ranging from
ongoing observation of the learner to completion of specific projects,
should be used to better understand the learner's strengths and needs, and
to plan for further assistance. Students should have opportunities to
exhibit their expertise before family and community. The diploma should be
awarded upon a successful final demonstration of mastery for graduation - an
"Exhibition." As the diploma is awarded when earned, the school's program
proceeds with no strict age grading and with no system of credits earned" by
"time spent" in class. The emphasis is on the students' demonstration that
they can do important things.

*A tone of decency and trust*
The tone of the school should explicitly and self-consciously stress values
of unanxious expectation ("I won't threaten you but I expect much of you"),
of trust (until abused) and of decency (the values of fairness, generosity
and tolerance). Incentives appropriate to the school's particular students
and teachers should be emphasized. Parents should be key collaborators and
vital members of the school community.

*Commitment to the entire school*
The principal and teachers should perceive themselves as generalists first
(teachers and scholars in general education) and specialists second (experts
in but one particular discipline). Staff should expect multiple obligations
(teacher-counselor-manager) and a sense of commitment to the entire school.

*Resources dedicated to teaching and learning*
Ultimate administrative and budget targets should include student loads that
promote personalization, substantial time for collective planning by
teachers, competitive salaries for staff, and an ultimate per pupil cost not
to exceed that at traditional schools by more than 10 percent. To accomplish
this, administrative plans may have to show the phased reduction or
elimination of some services now provided students in many traditional
schools.

*Democracy and equity*
The school should demonstrate non-discriminatory and inclusive policies,
practices, and pedagogies. It should model democratic practices that involve
all who are directly affected by the school. The school should honor
diversity and build on the strength of its communities, deliberately and
explicitly challenging all forms of inequity.