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Showing posts from January, 2015

Size Matters And Small Is The Big Idea

     In education, I have always loved BIG. I have embraced big ideas, big resources, big tech, big budgets, big plans, big dreams or big projects. But as much as I love BIG, I now need to formally advocate for small.      Size Matters. And although big has its rewards, much of what we want to accomplish in education will only be possible if we think small. That’s right. Small works and it works well.      The research for small has been evident for some time. Core benefits from small schools include increased student achievement, increased attendance, higher teacher satisfaction and improved school climate (Supovitz & Christman, 2005: Howley, et al., 2000).      Indeed, the case for smaller learning communities and environments can be made from all learning perspectives and applications (see latest Hechinger Report article What Big High Schools Get Wrong to find out more).      Let’s extend from schools to classrooms. Ask any teacher about their effectiveness, as well as stude