 |
|
 |
| In America's Choice middle schools the principal builds a team of highly capable faculty who share leadership responsibilities and oversee the implementation of the America's Choice design. |
|
| The Leadership Team |
| The team includes these positions: |
|
| • |
 |
Principal |
|
| • |
|
Design Coach to help the principal coordinate the implementation of the design throughout the school |
|
| • |
|
Literacy Coach to implement the America's Choice English language arts curriculum in all English classes |
|
| • |
|
Math Coach to implement the America's Choice approach to teaching mathematics in all math classes |
|
| • |
|
Heads of subject-area departments to help implement the design in their departments |
|
| • |
|
Parent Community Outreach Coordinator to help parents understand how to better support higher student achievement |
|
| • |
|
Head Teachers, in large schools, are responsible for the small learning communities; they also help with the implementation of schoolwide design elements |
|
|
| Small Learning Communities |
| America's Choice schools create learning communities where students are known and cared about by adults, where they sense they and their work are valued. |
|
| Several elements of America's Choice middle schools help create such a community: |
|
| • |
|
They are clean and safe. |
|
| • |
|
They are small. We try to divide large schools into several small, autonomous schools of 300 students, with about 100 students per grade level. Each of these schools is served by a team of teachers who cover the core subjects of English, social studies, science, and mathematics. If that cannot be done, we establish in large schools administrative units called houses, each with no more than 300 students. Each house functions in much the same way as the autonomous school just described. |
|
| • |
|
Each student is assigned a faculty member who functions as an advisor to that student. Each advisor has a maximun of 25 advisees. |
|
| • |
|
Teachers or teams of teachers in America's Choice middle schools stay with the same group of students for two to three years. |
|
|
| Continue to Professional Learning Communities… |
