Conference Sessions
Strands
Thursday, February 8
Preconference 1:00–4:30 PM
Friday, February 9
Session A 9:30–10:45 AM
Session AB 9:30 AM–12:15 PM
Session B 11:00 AM–12:15 PM
Session C 2:15–3:30 PM
Saturday, February 10
Session D 8:00–9:15 AM
Session DE 8:00–10:45 AM
Session E 9:30–10:45 AM
Preconference Sessions
PC1
Nine Phases of Transformation
Brooke Harms, President, Strategic Technology & Research,Inc.; Alan
Blanchard, President, Blanchard Educational Services & Technologies
Converting a large high school into a system of SLCs is a customized process with each school possessing unique strengths and challenges. Drs. Blanchard and Harms, authors ofthe popular book Transforming the High School Experience, present the nine phases that all high schools inevitably experience during planning and implementation of SLC strategies. This session is for those schools familiar with basic SLC concepts and for schools modifying their current SLC practices.
SESSION FEE: There is a $50 charge for this session. The fee will include handouts (copies of documents from the book) and a book for each person.
PC2
Project-Based Learning: Bringing Rigor and Relevance to Your Classroom
Arlene LaPlante, Greg Williams, Co-Directors, California League of High Schools' Small Learning Communities
Support Team
“Why do I have to know this?” “Is this going to be on the test?” “So why should I care?” How many times have you heard these questions from your students? Never again! Learn a step-by-step process for developing project-based units of study for classrooms that are standards-based, rigorous, relevant, and engaging for students. Research shows, and your experience proves, engaged students are better behaved, more motivated, and perform better. Join us to learn how to implement this dynamic, research-based instructional methodology to engage your students and raise their achievement.
PC3
What It REALLY Means to Know a Child Well
Eva Allison Frank, Director, CES EssentialVisions; Jay Feldman, Director of
Research, Coalition of Essential Schools National
Imagine schools where intellectual excitement animates every student’s face, teachers work together to improve their craft, and all students thrive and excel in an environment where they are known and known well. For over twenty years, the Coalition of Essential Schools has led the national movement to create schools that are personalized, equitable, and intellectually challenging. Explore the many directions a school can choose to take when it decides to “personalize” and “go small.” Participants will spend time immersed in the work of some ofthe best small personalized schools in the country, grapple with the challenges of doing this work at their own site, and leave with tools to continue moving the good work forward.
High School Reform
Featured Schools
This year’s Forum on High School Reform is highlighting high schools that are conducting exemplary work in implementing SLCs. The high schools invited to participate have been recommended by institutions that promote and advocate for SLCs and from practitioners working with SLC schools. These schools have demonstrated significant progress in specific areas of SLC and school improvement such as instructional focus, collaboration, interdisciplinary curriculum, and personalization strategies. Other criteria for selection of schools include meeting federal SLC program requirements, at least two to three years invested in redesigning the school, and a student body of 2000-plus.
The five sessions below will provide attendees an opportunity to visit and talk with representatives of several schools in one setting. It is recommended that attending school teams bring five or six members to the preconference and have each member attend one of the presenting schools’ sessions. Team members can then get together during the conference and share the information gathered from each school.
PC4
Rialto High School
Rialto Unified School District, CA
Rialto High School (San Bernardino County) will focus on the full implementation of their Career Pathway Academies that house juniors and seniors into SLCs. In addition, the school will discuss their 9-10 SLCs, strategies to support the academic program and raise student achievement.
PC5
Banning High School
Los Angeles Unified School District, CA
Banning High School will tell the story of its growth in the last six years, going from a special watch list due to its failure to meet AYP goals, to meeting all 18 of its AYP goals and improving on the API by 22 points. They will relate the SLC strategies used to achieve their plan of improvement.
PC6
Kearny High School
San Diego Unified School District, CA
Kearny High Educational Complex will focus on their collaboration with industry, creating an academy structure that also meets industry standards. Kearny was redesigned into four independent high schools modeled after the CTA program.
PC7
Montgomery High School
Sweetwater Union High School District, CA
Montgomery High School (San Diego) will highlight how shared leadership provided the foundation for the successful implementation of their SLCs. They will also discuss the four-year journey in redesigning their school. The principal, Karen Janney, was selected State Principal ofthe Year.
PC8
Lakewood High School
Pinellas County School District, St. Petersburg, FL
Lakewood High School will focus on the development of advisory and stakeholder engagement, along with its ongoing reevaluation process. Additionally, a brief history of the transition to SLCs will be included.