SUQUAMISH — Dr. Judith Gray’s visit to the North End Nov. 18 was somewhat coincidental.
As North Kitsap High School begins a plan to form its first small school, “Polaris International,” Gray, an expert and founder of many small learning communities, was praising one that already exists here.
“West Sound Academy is a model of what we’re trying to do everywhere else,” she said.
Gray, a consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on its small schools’ initiative, addressed a small crowd at WSA on what she said is the “future of education.”
Gray helped build a high school in the Everett School District that exists now as a small learning community. The focus is an integrated curriculum and teacher-as-facilitator mentality.
“The emphasis is on less is more,” she said. “It’s small, rigorous… (filled with) things that carry them beyond school.”
Another benefit of a small school is each student’s control over the pace in which they learn, a change from a degree earned by “seat-time” to competency. Depending on the student, it could take three to five years to graduate.
“High schools require four years (to graduate),” she said. “We may be looking at a whole new way to graduate kids.”
The small schools idea stems from the adult-student connection many school psychologists believe is vital for success. Students who are educated in large schools simply go through the motions, Gray said.
“There is a saying,” Gray added. “Public education is not about educating the public, its about creating the public.”
The Gates Foundation helps fund the Coalition for Essential Schools, for which Gray works.
“The Gateses insist that if you want to spend their money, you must keep a small, autonomous learning community,” she said.
Questions were also raised about the WASL achievement test, and the federal “No Child Left Behind” Act — mainly, if it was possible to pass those exams if students are not taught to do the tests.
“What we’ve found with WASL is that kids who pass it are well rounded and motivated, whose learning is personalized,” she said. “When schools implement these 21st century ideas, the kids will easily pass the tests.”
And students who graduate from small learning communities will be more desirable in the college and job markets.
“(Small schools) graduates will be immediately more hirable, and will meet the requirements that corporations would say they’re missing,” Gray said. “Pride in work. A team player … critical thinking adults who have a greater capacity for creativity and are articulate.”
