SCHOOL RESTRUCTURING

One of the main strategies by which CEI-PEA has helped lead the small schools movement in New York City is through the restructuring of large schools into sets of smaller learning communities. Through the CEI-PEA school restructuring process, large schools are divided into smaller learning communities (SLCs) that are often theme-based and provide students and educators with an educational environment that builds on their strengths and meets their specific needs. The CEI-PEA process re-energizes the entire learning environment by taking all of the physical resources that already exist in a public school (people and the building itself) and all the intangibles (ideas, time and relationships) and re-arranging them to free up the energy and creativity of the educators and students.

CEI-PEA developed its restructuring process in the mid-1990s when the organization entered into a partnership with three other nonprofit education reform organizations in New York City to form New York Networks for School Renewal—a five-year project funded through the Annenberg Challenge Project aimed at increasing the number of small public schools in New York City as well as creating networks among those schools. During the five years of the project, CEI-PEA helped restructure dozens of large middle schools in New York City, including every middle school in Brooklyn’s District 20. Since restructuring its middle schools, the District consistently outperforms citywide averages in student performance.

Five-Phase Restructuring Process

Since the Annenberg Challenge, CEI-PEA has worked with several other major school systems to initiate restructuring plans. Based on our experience, we have developed a five-phase process to help schools transform themselves into sets of smaller learning communities (SLCs) that operate autonomously, but in harmony, with one another inside of the school building. The process generates the benefits of SLCs, as well as public school choice by generating healthy competition among the SLCs. The process includes the following five phases:

1. Establishing Relationships –This phase sets the foundation for the restructuring process by helping foster strong relationships among the main stakeholders in the process, including the principal, teachers, students and parents, as well as school and district administrators.
2. Creating a Plan Together – During this phase, the school establishes a planning team to set the restructuring agenda, goals and benchmarks. The planning team is comprised of the principal, teachers from across grade, discipline and experience levels, parents, union representatives, and appropriate administrative staff. In order to create the restructuring plan, the team conducts focus groups, surveys and other forms of outreach to teachers, students, parents and the community so that the plan reflects the needs and desires of the community.
3. Preparing for the Launch – Once the agenda is set for restructuring, the planning team prepares to launch the restructured school by creating a student recruitment and admissions process based upon the tenets of public school choice, assigning staff to the smaller learning communities (SLCs), creating a utilization plan for the entire site that reduces hallway traffic and makes optimal use of common facilities (e.g. gym, cafeteria, library, etc.), and establishing an accountability plan for the SLCs and entire school.
4. Launching the Restructured School & Establishing Interdisciplinary Curriculum and Instruction – The second year of the restructuring process begins with “opening” the new school. CEI-PEA then helps staff map curriculum to achieve interdisciplinary teaching and learning, and assists schools in integrating comprehensive school reform models (CSRs) into the mission and themes of the SLCs.
5. Ongoing Improvement & Accountability - In the third year of the restructuring process, CEI-PEA focuses on helping the restructured schools to become sustainable. This includes ongoing improvement and accountability, networking and resource expansion. CEI-PEA’s assistance in this phase is based upon issues, concerns and needs identified through the annual self-assessment process that schools must conduct based upon the accountability plans developed during Phase 3.

Benefits of Restructuring

Restructuring into sets of smaller learning communities helps schools achieve the following benefits:

• Create momentum for school improvement - The restructuring process begins with school staff reviewing student outcome data, their existing curriculum and instructional strategies, and target outcome goals. This review creates a sense of urgency among teachers and school leaders that in turn generates momentum for improving the school. This momentum is necessary to turn around low-performing schools or take schools that have “plateaued” to the next level.
• Set a new tone in the school building and community - This is particularly important for low-performing schools that have developed poor reputations among students, parents, teachers and the community. For example, one of the first steps in the restructuring process is engaging students, parents and teachers to identify themes for the smaller learning communities. This process sets a tone among the school’s stakeholders that it is not “business as usual” at the school. It also establishes buy-in for the restructuring process—the school community owns the process and becomes committed to making it successful.
• Enhance instructional strategies - When a school restructures, school leaders and teachers must identify and develop instructional strategies that meet the specific needs of the students. This begins with establishing themes for the SLCs and carries through to the daily instructional strategies employed in the classroom.
• Better meet the needs of individual students - In large schools, too often students simply “slip through the cracks.” In restructured schools, the same number of students may inhabit the school building, but because they are part of autonomous smaller learning communities within the building, they cannot become anonymous.
• Meet the social and emotional needs of students - In small learning communities, teachers get to know their students better. They are able to identify and help address students’ social and emotional as well as academic needs. This enables them to establish better and stronger relationships with parents.
• Increase parent involvement - The entire school community is involved in the restructuring process, including parents. Concerned parents know better than teachers or school leaders how best to get other parents involved in the school and their children’s education. By having parents as partners in the school restructuring process, it is possible to integrate effective strategies for parent involvement in the design of the school and SLCs. It also sends a message to all parents that they are partners at the school, thus fostering a culture of collaboration.
• Improve teacher recruitment and retention - In restructured schools, teachers have the opportunity to work in theme-based settings such as environmental science, social justice, or technology. These theme-based settings allow teachers to explore particular areas of interest, providing them with a unique incentive to teach at these schools. In addition, because schools undergoing restructuring are engaged in a process of re-energizing the school environment, they attract highly motivated and committed educators.
• Foster interdisciplinary instruction - Themes motivate teachers to be innovative in their instructional practices. Each SLC within a restructured school has a theme around which the teaching staff can create interdisciplinary instructional strategies. Interdisciplinary instruction provides an integrated learning experience for students, which helps increase learning across disciplines.
• Establish friendly competition within the school and community - The SLCs within a restructured school take on specific missions aimed at realizing the overall vision of the school. Working side-by-side to accomplish common goals, these SLCs enter into healthy competition to provide unique educational opportunities and increase student outcomes. In addition, as restructured schools begin to improve and attract high performing students from their “feeder” schools, it encourages other neighborhood schools to raise the bar as well.
• Increase school safety - In restructured schools, the break-up of space among the SLCs is designed to reduce hallway traffic, which is where the majority of incidents among students take place. In addition, because teachers and students all know one another in smaller learning communities, incidents can be dealt with quickly and in appropriate ways, often avoiding the need for detention or suspension.
• Provide students and parents with choices - Restructured schools give students and parents the opportunity to select and buy into particular educational programs. In cases where the school district supports it, schools can also make their SLCs into official autonomous schools recognized by the state’s Department of Education. In all cases, student outcome data will be disaggregated according to federally recognized subgroups, allowing for accountability at the SLC level. This strategy will allow the district to increase compliance with the transfer option under the No Child Left Behind Act by increasing educational options for students attending low-performing schools.
• Improve student outcomes - Small schools have been shown to improve student outcomes because of the range of benefits described above. “Student outcomes” include grades, performance on standardized tests, attendance, and school safety as measured by the number of student incidents.

Resources & Technical Assistance

CEI-PEA has a team of field personnel who are equipped to help schools and school systems through the restructuring process. If you would like more information about our process and the resources CEI-PEA offers, please download our Guide to School Restructuring and contact CEI-PEA Senior Fellow Walter O’Brien.