As educators explore strategies for improving student achievement, it is clear that our greatest challenge today is high school reform. Steeped in tradition for too long, high schools have become outdated, and ineffective. Problems such as poor attendance, discipline problems, dropout rate, failure rate, vandalism, classroom disruption, violence, drug/alcohol abuse, teacher burnout, and low teacher morale, which confront high schools today, are much more prevalent in high-poverty, urban neighborhoods than in more affluent ones.

In response to the evidence of academic and social benefits of small schools, government and private foundations are providing millions of dollars for large high schools to create “small learning communities” within the existing school buildings or campuses. Smallness, however, is not enough to improve student achievement.

It is critical that each classroom also be transformed into a “smaller learning community” which personalizes learning, is student-centered, success-oriented, and utilizes differentiated teaching and best practices for improving student achievement.

This workshop will show educators, step by step, how to transform their traditional high school classroom into smaller learning communities which are organized as professional workplace learning environments.