The Challenges of Thinking Small

By Juliet McShannon
Staff Writer

Nov. 19 -- A leading educator lauded the recent division of SAMOHI's campus into smaller schools as a prototype for the future, but cautioned during a talk Wednesday that the transition would not be easy.

Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, an esteemed education expert and author who has served on numerous national education advisory boards, called the Santa Monica community "a prototype of our nation going into the twenty-first century."

SAMOHI -- which was broken up at the start of the school year into six smaller schools that mirror the makeup of the greater campus -- is the first district campus transformed under a plan spearheaded by Supt. John Deasy, who invited the guest speaker.

The new model is intended to better meet the new challenges facing California schools, including a huge increase in urban populations and a large influx of immigrants.

During her one-hour talk, Darling-Hammond emphasized the changing nature of education and educators in the new millennium, noting that seventy percent of available jobs today are 'knowledge based' as opposed to a mere five percent of non-skilled jobs.

"High school drop-outs have a one in two chance of getting a job," she told the audience assembled at Barnum Hall on the SAMOHI campus. "If you are Black or Latino, you have a one in four chance."

The new school model is a radical change from the old 1910 'Factory
Model' previously adopted by American schools, where the focus was on
utilization of space and a fragmented curriculum, Darling-Hammond said.

American schools lag behind their European and Asian counterparts in
achievement levels, she said.

"School work in other countries demands more writing, research and critical thinking," said Darling-Hammond, who went on to explain the importance of the pupil/teacher relationship in preparing students for the competitive job market.

"It's not just about getting through the book anymore, but teaching children
to actually learn," she said.

Smaller class sizes are important, she added, but a smaller "pupil load" is equally crucial in enabling teachers to effectively yield higher results. In California an average pupil load is 175 pupils per teacher.

Using a comparative study, Darling-Hammond demonstrated how even a big
multi-floor city high school in New York could achieve a reduction in class
size and pupil load by subdividing the school into smaller schools under
the same umbrella.

The stress of change and mixed feelings about the benefits of anonymity and personalization are among the initial problems facing many big comprehensive schools, including SAMOHI, when adopting a new small school model, said Darling-Hammond.

Teachers would need to spend at least two years with a class in order to
develop a more personal relationship that would help both teachers and
children become more goal oriented.

"Many students who drop out of school think that their teachers don't care," Darling-Hammond said. "That's not true. But on an 'factory model' system, how can one teacher care for over one hundred students effectively?"

Darling-Hammond criticized the 'old model' used by most California public schools for proliferating programs and rationing educational support, instead of expanding already successful programs.

"The problem is that the Master Schedule is 'the master' in many schools and can't get rearranged," she said.

In contrast, the new school model could introduce "more serious in-depth
learning focused on performance, with clear standards and opportunities for
revision and redemption."

Darling-Hammond closed by encouraging the community to help the reform by taking field trips to see other school models and not to be afraid of change.

"There is always going to be a certain level of discomfort around change, and the glitches that will occur," she said.

"It's important not to take your eyes off the big picture vision, where you want to be in five years, and the steps you need to take to get there to achieve it."