FAYETTEVILLE — Administrators at Fayetteville High School have changed the way the student body is organized for the new school year, eliminating so-called small learning communities for the school’s upper grades.
Freshman and sophomore classes are each divided into four teams of about 175 students. Teams are named for the school’s colors: Purple A, Purple B, White A and White B. Juniors and seniors no longer are organized into small communities with the rest of the student body, said Deanna Easton, director of student programs.
“We’re refocusing,” Easton said. “We can be successful in ninth and 10th grade.”
This is a shift from the initial implementation of small learning communities that had divided all grade levels into three groups of students sharing similar interests. The idea of breaking students up into separate communities was an integral part of how the newly rebuilt high school was designed.
Breaking up large high schools into small learning communities gained momentum in the mid-2000s because of support from grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Education and from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said Becky Smerdon, a senior fellow at the University of Chicago who specializes in high school reform.
In many large high schools, students enter a large building and go from one class to the next class, taught by separate teachers and with different groups of students, but without anyone tasked with checking on how they are doing overall, Smerdon said. In a high school with small learning communities, the idea is students might walk into a wing of a large school where they have a personal connection with a group of teachers who know their names and their interests.
Research, including studies involving Smerdon, found mixed outcomes from the concept, Smerdon said. Researchers observed improvements in student interest in school and feelings of belonging, but no differences in teaching or instruction, and no changes in the toughness of the curriculum or in making learning more relevant.
Small learning communities are difficult to implement, especially with the established culture and expectations of a large traditional high school, Smerdon said. High schools have struggled with scheduling. Small learning community models that have succeeded in some high schools have been difficult to replicate, she said.
“You have a history and a culture that you’re trying to then change,” Smerdon said.
Many large high schools in Northwest Arkansas have some form of small learning communities, said Sarah McKenzie, director of the Office of Education Policy at the University of Arkansas.
A study by the U.S. Department of Education in 2001 found small learning communities often need to have some separation, with autonomy, a separate budget and their own staffing, McKenzie said.
If they are more expensive and with research showing a lack of evidence of a persistent academic benefit, McKenzie said, she would want to see an analysis of the costs and benefits and would wonder how they are justified.
TRYING THE CONCEPT
When the Fayetteville School Board was in the early stages of considering rebuilding the high school as a ninth- through 12thgrade campus, school leaders and community members gave considerable thought to how having 3,000 students on campus would affect learning, said board member Steve Percival.
School Board members, administrators and parents learned about the small learning community model and visited high schools where they were in place, Percival said. They saw that students remained in a smaller environment during the school day and that environment provided for more personalized learning.
The model was adopted early enough for architects to design the school to accommodate that philosophy, Percival said.
The high school was designed with groups of classrooms located near a large open lab, an area for group presentations, with a gathering area for students and administrative offices.
The spaces, however, are flexible enough to accommodate a variety of learning styles, Percival said.
High school staff worked to group teachers who teach the same group of students and give them time during the school day to meet for planning and discussing their experiences with the teenagers, Easton said.
“We wanted to make sure we kept track of our students,” Easton said.
From 2012-13 to 2014-15, the student body of 10th- through 12th-graders was divided into three communities. One group focused on community and relationships, environment and nature, and wellness and healthy living. Another group focused on the arts, humanities, and applied science and design. A third group was interested in global infrastructure, entrepreneurship and modern communication.
But Fayetteville High students have long enjoyed the ability to take a variety of courses, and students could take courses offered in any community of the small learning communities, Easton said. Staff had an easier time scheduling classes within the small learning community for 10th graders who were taking more required courses, but the process was more difficult for 11th- and 12th-graders because they often were taking classes in more than one community. Too few students shared the same teachers, Easton said.
The high school didn’t offer enough deep programs of study that are in place at other high schools with schoolwide small learning communities, Easton said. For groups of upperclassmen to share the same group of teachers, Fayetteville staff would have had to limit their choices, she said.
MAKING ADJUSTMENTS
After four years, staff members weren’t seeing the benefits other high schools with small learning communities had experienced, Easton said.
“It just did not fit the students we have at Fayetteville High School,” Easton said. “To do something like that would be a radical shift in the courses we offer, the faculty we have.”
Maintaining a variety of classes was important for keeping 11th- and 12th-graders interested in school, former Fayetteville High School Principal Steve Jacoby said.
“We always know that a road not traveled many times has a bump in the road,” Jacoby said. “One aspect about successful schools is not to follow a course or concept that’s not working.”
The spaces built for small learning communities still are useful and provide flexibility for teachers, Easton said. Ninth- and 10th-grade teams are located near portions of the campus built to accommodate small learning communities, Easton said.
What did work well was an advisory program that was implemented with the small learning communities, Easton said. Adults in the building are assigned to students in an advisory class that remains together from ninth through 12th grade, Easton said.
“It’s getting to know them, understanding what makes them tick, what motivates them, helping prepare them to be successful adults,” Easton said.
As students and the community adjust to the flow and feel of the new building, Percival said, he thinks the philosophy will settle into a look and feel that suits Fayetteville.
“We’re pretty good at that,” he said.