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THE TEN
COMMON PRINCIPLES OF THE COALITION OF ESSENTIAL SCHOOLS
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The school should focus on helping adolescents learn to use
their minds well. Schools should not attempt to be "comprehensive"
if such a claim is made at the expense of the school's central
intellectual purpose.
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The school's
goals should be simple: that each student master a limited
number of essential skills and areas of knowledge. While these
skills and areas will, to varying degrees, reflect the traditional
academic disciplines, the program's design should be shaped
by the intellectual and imaginative powers and competencies
that students need, rather than necessarily by "subjects"
as conventionally defined. The aphorism "less is more"
should dominate.: Curricula decisions should be guided by
the aim of thorough student mastery and achievement rather
than by an effort merely to cover content.
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The school's
goals should apply to all student, while the means to these
goals will vary as those students themselves vary. School
practice should be tailor-made to meet the needs of every
group or class of adolescents.
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Teaching and
learning should be personalized to the maximum feasible extent.
Efforts should be directed toward a goal that no teacher have
direct responsibility for more than 80 students. To capitalize
on this personalization, decisions about the details of the
course of study, the use of students' and teachers' time and
the choice of teaching materials and specific pedagogies must
be unreservedly placed in the hands of the principal and staff.
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The governing
practical metaphor of the school should be student-as-worker
rather than the more familiar metaphor of teacher-as-deliverer-of-
instructional-services. Accordingly, a prominent pedagogy
will be coaching to provoke students to learn how to learn
and thus to teach themselves.
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Students entering
secondary school studies are those who can show competence
in language and elementary mathematics. Students of traditional
high school age, but not yet at appropriate levels of competence
to enter secondary school studies, will be provided intensive
remedial work to assist them quickly to meet these standards.
The diploma should be awarded upon a successful final demonstration
of mastery for graduation - an "Exhibition." This
Exhibition by the student of his or her grasp of the central
skills and knowledge of the school's program may be jointly
administered by the faculty and by higher authorities. As
the diploma is awarded when earned, the school's program proceeds
with no strict age grading and with no system of "credits
earned" by "time spent" in class. The emphasis
is on the students' demonstration that they can do important
things.
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The tone of
the school should explicitly and self-consciously stress values
of unanxious expectation ("I won't threaten you, but
I expect much of you"), of trust (until abused) and of
decency (the values of fairness, generosity and tolerance).
Incentives appropriate to the school's particular students
and teachers should be emphasized, and parents should be treated
as essential collaborators.
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The principal
and teachers should perceive themselves as generalists first
(teachers and scholars in general education) and specialists
second (experts in but one particular discipline). Staff should
expect multiple obligations (teacher-counselor-manager) and
a sense of commitment to the entire school.
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Ultimate administrative
and budget targets should include, in addition to total student
loads per teacher of eighty or fewer pupils, substantial time
for collective planning by teachers, competitive salaries
for staff and an ultimate per pupil cost not to exceed that
at traditional schools by more than 10 percent. To accomplish
this, administrative plans may have to show the phased reduction
or elimination of some services now provided students in many
traditional comprehensive secondary schools.
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The school
should demonstrate non-discriminatory and inclusive policies,
practices, and pedagogies. It should model democratic practices
that involve all who are directly affected by the school.
The school should honor diversity and build on the strengths
of its communities, deliberately and explicitly challenging
all forms of inequity.
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THE TEN
COMMON PRINCIPLES OF THE COALITION OF ESSENTIAL SCHOOLS
(Elementary Version)
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The school should
focus on helping young people develop the habit of using their
minds well. Schools should be learner-centered, addressing
students’ social and emotional development as well as
their academic progress.
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The school’s
academic goal should be simple: that each student master a
limited number of essential skills and areas of knowledge.
Curricular decisions should be guided by student interest,
developmentally appropriate practice, and the aim of thorough
student mastery and achievement.
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The school’s
goals should apply to all students while the means to these
goals will vary as those students themselves vary. Teachers
who know their students well can individualize instruction.
Strong habits of mind are necessary for all.
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Teaching and
learning should be personalized to the maximum extent feasible.
Decisions about the details of the course of study, the use
of students’ and teachers’ time and the choice
of teaching materials and specific pedagogies must be unreservedly
placed in the hands of the principal and staff.
-
The governing,
practical metaphor of the school should be student-as-worker
rather than the more familiar metaphor of teacher-as-deliverer-of-instructional-services.
Enable students to understand how they learn and thus to teach
themselves and each other as members of a community of learners.
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a. Teaching and
learning should be documented and assessed with tools based
on student performance or
real tasks.
b. Students should have opportunities to exhibit their expertise
before family and community.
c. The school’s program proceeds with no strict age-grading
and with no system of credits earned by time spent in class.
The emphasis is on the students’ demonstration that
they can do important things.
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a. Families should
be vital members of the school community. Close collaboration
between home and
school yields respect and understanding.
b. The tone of the school should explicitly and self-consciously
stress values of unanxious expectation
(“I won’t threaten you, and I expect much of you.”),
of trust (until abused), and of decency (the values of fairness,
generosity, and tolerance).
-
The principal
and teachers should perceive themselves as generalists first.
Staff should expect multiple
obligations (teacher-counselor-manager) and have a sense of
commitment to the whole school.
-
Ultimate administrative
and budget targets should include substantial time for collective
planning by
teachers, competitive salaries for staff and an ultimate per
pupil cost not to exceed that at traditional schools by more
than 10%. To accomplish this, administrative plans may have
to show the phased reduction or elimination of some services
now provided students in many traditional schools.
-
The school should
demonstrate non-discriminatory and inclusive policies, practices,
and pedagogies. It should model democratic practices that
involve all who are directly affected by the school. The school
should honor diversity and build on the strengths of its communities,
deliberately and explicitly challenging all forms of inequity.
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