High Schools on a Human Scale: How Small Schools Can Transform American Education

Abstract

707 Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 17 No. 2 (2007) ISSN: 1546-2250 High Schools on a Human Scale: How Small Schools Can Transform American Education Toch, Thomas (2003). Boston: Beacon Press; 141 pages. $15. ISBN 080703245x. Since 2001, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested more than $700 million in high school reform efforts focused primarily in urban districts around the United States (Miner 2005). With the funding has come much publicity highlighting the merits of small high schools – defined by the Foundation as schools with fewer than 400 students – and emphasizing the inability of the nation’s large, comprehensive public high schools to meet the needs of most students today. What the majority of urban comprehensive high schools lack, the Gates Foundation asserts, is the means to deliver the essential “three R’s” of the 21st Century: rigor, relevance and relationships. In High Schools on a Human Scale, the publication of which was underwritten by the Gates Foundation, education writer Thomas Toch adds his voice to the litany against large high schools, making the case for a more intimate secondary education that connects students with the skills, motivation and support they need to succeed in college and in life. Toch has become a leading proponent of school reform, having written about education policy and trends for U.S. News and World Report throughout the 1990s and served as writer-in-residence at the National Center on Education and the Economy. This is his second book on the subject, and it wholeheartedly supports the Gates Foundation’s mission to replace the nation’s comprehensive high schools with small, specialized schools. It serves to augment the promotional efforts of the Foundation more than to provide a critical, research-based perspective on the high school reform debate. Teachers in training and experienced educators interested in small schools, members of school boards, parents of high school students, school facility designers, and others with an interest in school reform trends will appreciate the book for its emphasis on 708 practice and its clear writing. In his introduction, Toch describes how American high schools ballooned throughout the 20th Century in the name of efficiency, and how isolated small-school reform successes in the 1980s inspired the current effort that has gained widespread support, thanks to an influx of funding and research. The heart of the book is comprised of separate profiles of small high schools that have received Gates Foundation funding: Julia Richman Education Complex in New York City; Urban Academy, located within the Julia Richman complex; High Tech High inSan Diego, California; The Met in Providence, Rhode Island; and Minnesota New Country School in Henderson, Minnesota. The profiles highlight ways in which each individual small school approach has produced results around student and teacher satisfaction, educational achievement and the creation of real-world opportunities that help students find their talents and build relationships with adults in their communities. In an epilogue, Toch reiterates the essential qualities of successful small high schools and makes the case for “Scaling Up” school reform efforts. The appendix lists model high schools nationwide. The case for connecting American high school students with their abilities, their teachers and their communities has been convincingly made by many in recent years, including environmental psychologist Herb Childress (2003), and educator Dennis Littky (2004), whose book, The Big Picture: Education is Everyone’s Business, describes in detail the progressive philosophy and approach of The Met, one of the schools Toch profiles. But the concept that small schools can help students achieve their potential by becoming an indispensable part of a close-knit community is nothing new. In response to the high school consolidation drive of the 1960s, researchers Roger Barker and Paul V. Gump conducted a series of studies in urban and rural areas of the country to find out whether student experiences in large high schools and small high schools differed significantly. They found that students in small schools generally had richer experiences: Good facilities provide good experiences only if they are used. The educational process … thrives on participation, enthusiasm, and responsibility. Our findings and our theory posit a negative relationship between school size and individual student participation. What seems to...