April 2003 — Features
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Redesigning Schools to Meet 21st Century Learning Needs
- Relationships between students and adults are more personalized, caring and continuous;
- Relationships with parents are strong and ongoing;
- The school's organization is flat, with broadly distributed leadership;
- Most small schools do not attempt to be comprehensive, instead focusing on key educational targets; and
- Professional development is ongoing, embedded and site-specific.
A growing body of research, including large-scale studies involving thousands of students and hundreds of schools, confirms that small schools lead to improved student achievement and enable educators to realize many of the other goals of school reform (e.g., increased attendance and higher grades). Evidence of student social development and parent and teacher satisfaction are equally compelling (Raywid 1997/98; Wasley and Lear 2001).
Adopting learning technologies. Technology has an important role to play in all areas of school redesigns. For example, technology is essential for bringing the positive attributes of large schools - diversity of courses, teaching expertise, students and extensive resources - to small schools. But the impact of technology g'es even deeper. Modern information technologies allow us to cross a threshold that will profoundly transform teaching. Technology is already making an impact in the following areas:
Presenting content in powerful ways. Technology can help students better understand and apply complex concepts or move beyond what have been intellectual stumbling blocks that hinder understanding. "Simulation and visualization tools can help students recognize patterns, reason qualitatively about physical processes, translate among frames of reference and envision dynamic models. These curricular approaches improve success for all types of learners and may differentially enhance the performance of at-risk students" (Dede 1996). Multiple forms of media can address the learning styles that work best for a particular student. The motivating aspects of interactivity can support student interest and effort.
Supporting just-in-time assessment, as well as personalized learning spaces and tools. Technology helps support learner-centered and assessment-centered learning environments by making it possible to collect and analyze multiple pieces of data about student progress in real time, on a continual basis. While observing students at work has long been a part of a teacher's day, the limits of paper and pencil make it cumbersome and time-consuming to conduct and record multiple observations of every student. Today's handheld tools and Web-based instructional managers enable teachers to track progress on a daily basis. They also let teachers collect work samples and compare these to what the student has done before. Teachers can then contrast the work against norms and goals set for the student, which are linked to state or national standards. Also, data can be assembled to review progress on an entire class. Internet-based instructional managers allow teachers to find instructional support that can help them adapt instruction to the needs of all students.
