Activists and chroniclers of Chicago’s small schools movement, editors William Ayers, Michael Klonsky and Gabrielle Lyon have assembled fifteen uplifting, informative essays in A Simple Justice. Offering history, philosophy, cultural criticism, pedagogy and calls to action, the various contributors make explicit the connections among small schools, social justice and educational equality. Charles M. Payne’s examination of the socially progressive heritage
In Creating New Schools’s introduction, Evans Clinchy-Senior Consultant at the Institute for Responsive Education at Northeastern University -questions the possibilities of autonomy within large districts, specifically Boston and New York. Linda Nathan and Larry Myatt’s chapter on the history and trajectory of Fenway Middle College High School compellingly describes that autonomy, specific challenges to it and the exhilarating and exhausting
Architecture has many purposes. It keeps the rain off our heads, keeps our belongings secure, and brings pride and beauty to our lives. But architecture-and school buildings in particular-can do far more than that. Every building ever made carries within it the goals of its creators. Just as we can learn what was important about ancient societies by examining their
We shape our buildings: thereafter, they shape us. -Sir Winston Churchill You have to know a lot or else. -Elliot Washor Radiant streams of sunlight. Wireless networks and handheld computers. Window seats, balconies, triple-story atriums, curved passageways, upholstered furniture, multi-function meeting rooms, huge closets and rooftop gardens. So, what are you thinking of? Schools? If you’re not, a cadre of
In Making the Grade, Tony Wagner clarifies the need for school change in order to urge policymakers and school leaders to work concertedly on education’s real problems. Wagner, Co-Director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, distinguishes between entrenched threats (achievement gaps among different groups, outdated goals and obsolescent curricula) and the quick-fix (and therefore,
The book review that follows was written many weeks before the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Those events, I believe, highlight the importance of exploring hard questions in our classrooms. In 1993, I taught a unit on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that turned out to be a bit flat. During class discussion one morning, I made reference to
One Kid at a Time: Big Lessons from a Small School details the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center, better known as the Met. I’ll confess: sometimes when I read about great schools, I sense that I’m peering desperately through terrarium glass at a happy ecosystem, clearly successful but mysterious. I’m left thinking, “Well, that’s great, but what did it
What guidelines do schools follow when designing new space to support learning that reflects the CES Common Principles? Noble High School in North Berwick, Maine and the Julia Richman Educational Complex, six autonomous schools under one roof in New York City, provide examples of the operating principles that guided their planning and decision-making. Julia Richman Educational Complex The single structure
Architect and educator Jeffery A. Lackney, Assistant Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, created “Thirty-Three Principles of Educational Design” to focus school planners on the goal of creating intimate, human-scaled, flexible and enduring educational spaces. A handful of the principles, adapted here for use in Horace, can help schools take advantage of opportunities to create
Here are some starting points for funding, support and inspiration for schools planning architectural change to support personalization and more powerful learning. U.S. Department of Education’s Smaller Learning Communities Program Many schools find funds to support architectural restructuring through the United States Department of Education’s Smaller Learning Communities Program, a $45 million grant program aimed to develop, implement or expand