The Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation believes in small schools
so much that it funds the Small Schools Project, a group that
coaches schools that want to follow the small-school model. The
Gates Foundation also offers grants to new, small schools and to
old, large schools that want to create smaller schools on their
existing campuses. Among the efforts Gates supports is the Manual
High School in
Denver, which is in the process of splitting into
three schools, and a half-dozen high schools in Oakland,
California, that are in the early phases of splitting up, with the
help of the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools, a nonprofit
organization. Says Tom Vander Ark, executive director of education
for the Gates Foundation, "Size matters ... Creating smaller, more
personalized learning environments where every student is held to
high expectations works. Students stay in school, are more
motivated, and achieve at higher levels."
THE MODERN ART OF WORK
Businesses need grads schooled in the three Rs, sure, but also
practiced at today's way of work.
By Tracy Staton and Bill Marvel
Businesses and educators may wring their hands over math and
science shortfalls and literacy levels, but today's companies don't
just need kids who can figure statistics, design a circuit, or
write a decent proposal. The workplace has changed dramatically
since the assembly-line days, when most schools adopted their
hierarchical form, but many haven't changed their teaching methods
to fit the world outside the classroom. Some innovators, however,
are helping kids learn the skills their work life will demand.
Here's a sampling.
TEAMWORK
Why: Collaboration and team projects are the current management
zeitgeist. Students need to learn to pool their skills on teams,
whether as member or leader.
Examples: In Union City,
New Jersey, public school students
tackle learning projects as teams and make intense use of
technology to research and present their findings. Step into
Maryann Sakoutis' classroom today at Emerson High School in Union
City and take a look around: Sakoutis seldom lectures or assigns.
Instead, wandering among her students, who are seated at round
tables, she asks questions and makes suggestions.
"We really are preparing students for the real world," says Fred
Carrigg, Union City's executive director of academic programs and
architect of the new system.
People in real jobs don't sit at desks reading books and taking
tests, he points out. "They work in teams. What we're teaching is
what we believe the American corporate world and public world
want."
TECHNOLOGY SKILLS
Why: Web-based software, e-mail, the Internet - and
increasingly specialized technology on construction sites, in
delivery vans, on the factory floor - mean today's graduates not
only need to know how to type, but how to be comfortable with
technology in various forms.