Small Schools Parent Q & A

The Heights High PTSA fall newsletter, the Tiger's Eye, will feature a Small Schools Q and A with questions submitted by parents. The following includes questions collected by PTSA co-president Rich Hoban and answered by Assistant Superintendent Christine Fowler-Mack. 

To submit questions to this format, call or e-mail Rich Hoban at
ermmie@aol.com or call 321-5592.

What are the criteria and measures of success for the Small Schools Initiative? How will we know when we've succeeded?

We've developed "Indicators of Success" to measure progress and evaluate success. A few of these indicators are:

*        Course participation rates.

*        AP / PRE-AP enrollment trends.

*        Small School enrollment trends.

*        Overall student achievement based on test scores.

Beginning in November, a data monitoring group comprised of teachers, an administrator, parents, the CH-UH director of testing and accountability and a John Carroll University Education Professor, will meet quarterly to look at baseline data in the defined areas. The group will draw conclusions from our data and suggest and prioritize goals for each Small School. The committee's recommendations and insights will be shared with each school's Shared Governance Committee, and those teams will help distribute the information. An annual report will be compiled and available for interested stakeholders. Our board members are kept up to date with monthly update reports. However, a formal 'Annual Small Schools Update' will be presented in the spring during a regular board meeting.

How and when will the Small Schools be physically separated from each other?

The physical transformation will take three to four years and is an ongoing process. Each year the physical environment will look more like an autonomous Small School setting. Phase I relocated staff to different physical spaces last summer. Phase II will make the boundaries of the Small Schools more distinct and might involve furniture, equipment, signs, defining entrances, etc. In October, we reconvened the planning process with the staff, stakeholder groups and architects to discuss changes for Phase II. We are working with our Alumni Foundation and other "friends of Heights High" to raise capital resources for the physical transformation.

Under Small Schools, who is responsible for maintaining order in the lunchroom and other common areas?

Heights High security and administrators are charged with the supervision of our students.  Our lunchroom expectations and general role responsibilities have not changed.

Many students have classes scheduled in each of the three Small Schools. Can we anticipate the same level of scheduling flexibility across schools next year?

In this first year of the transformation, we did not meet our desired goal of totally 'pure' classes, where classes are composed of students and teachers from only one Small School. (There is a very high percentage of upper classman and alternative program course sections that are totally pure.)

In the first week of school we realized that we could make the Small Schools more true to our goal, so we made some schedule changes. We spent most of the Labor Day weekend with counselors who volunteered their holiday to come into the school and hand-schedule 9th and 10th graders. We made approximately 180 course changes. We were able to achieve total 'purity' in some courses while minimizing the mix in other classes to students from just two different Small Schools.
The scheduling process for the '04-05 school year will begin in late January. Our goal is to have more 'pure' course sections. While we are still committed to making all courses available to each of our students, we realize that this level of choice causes complex and very challenging consequences. As we begin the scheduling process for next year, we plan to do the following differently:

*        We plan to review our course offerings. Some courses listed in our book have not actually been offered for several years. We also need to weight the offering in the following areas: graduation requirement, enrollment trend, alignment to state standards, and the schedule of when it is offered (every year vs. every other year). In order to add new courses in the Small Schools and achieve more pure schedules, we have to make some decisions about the vast array of courses presently offered at Heights High.

*        We will compile a 'profile' of students who select each Small School. We hope this will allow us to better anticipate what Small School courses ought to be offered and which types of combinations are being requested by our students.
*        We will begin the scheduling process earlier, allowing us to run computer simulations. This year, '03-'04, we had to design a new process. Now, we understand the complexities involved and we can work more on enhancements and less on design.

*        We will do more 'hand-scheduling' and rely less on the computer scheduling program.

*        Finally, we are working with consultants who are more familiar with Small School scheduling and with data programmers who design scheduling programs.

How is the average student's experience different in Small Schools? What changes can the average student expect in the months/year ahead?

From students I hear praise for simple things:

"My locker is closer to my classes allowing me to make it to class on time."

"My classes are closer together."

"My principal and teacher leader know my name."

"Our school did some fun activities so we could get to know each other."

"My teachers are trying new techniques."

In the future I think parents will come to see a different and more personal relationship between their students and the staff and between parents and staff. I am confident that the learning environment will be purposeful, related to the world and inclusive of our students' voices. Last but not least, I am confident that the instructional methods will emerge more and more.

How will parents and community members be encouraged to help in the development of the two additional Small Schools? When will we know what models these schools will embrace, and how will this be decided?

How will parents and others be invited to participate in the governance of our Small Schools?

We will send flyers home to parents, e-mail parents and community members, and use publications like this one. Small Schools parent liaison Joy Henderson and Heights Community Congress, our community partner, will help in this publicity.

Last year several parents and community members were involved in the Small Schools Design Team.  Now that three Small Schools are up and running, community and parent involvement will be more decentralized. Part of the goal of Small Schools is to encourage more parent/community participation within each school.

Please contact your Small School principal or teacher leader to learn about being a member of a governance team or other ways you can be involved, or call Parent Liaison Joy Henderson at 320-3052 or Heights Community Congress at 321-6775.