The term Smaller Learning Community refers to houses and schools-within-schools, magnet programs, career academies, charter schools, and small learning communities.  Research and experience have led advocates of small learning communities and small schools to a shared, basic understanding of small unit schooling:

An interdisciplinary team of teachers shares a few hundred or fewer students in common for instruction, assumes responsibility for their educational progress across years of school, and exercises maximum flexibility to act on knowledge of students' needs.  (Oxley, Dec. 2005)

This workshop will draw on research and practice accrued to date to identify strategies that support key elements of smaller learning communities.

We will examine best practices in five interdependent areas:

1. Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Teams

2. Rigorous, Relevant Curriculum and Instruction

3. Inclusive Programs and Practices

4. Continuous Program Improvement

5. Building/District-level Support for SLCs

You will:

• Learn a seven-step cycle of continuous program improvement

• Identify more specific best practices.  These are supported by research which identifies these practices as having positive effects on student achievement.

In short, we will examine the question, "What constitutes optimal small learning community practice?"

Register for Virtual Classroom Courses here.