| Major
Changes Underway at Crater
Crater alums who attended Crater in the
1990’s may have been enrolled in
one of several schools-within-a-school
that were created in the 1990’s.
These very successful and popular small
schools provided the catalyst for an Oregon
Small Schools Initiative grant that was
awarded to Crater this past spring. This
1.1 million dollar grant provides the
financial support for a re-structured
and re-energized Crater which should result
in all students having the same opportunities
and support that its school-within-a-school
students have received for the past 14
years
Crater Alumni Newsletter contributor
and former Crater principal, Mike
McClain, recently had the opportunity
to sit down with current Crater principal,
Kirk Gibson, and the Crater OSSI grant
coordinator, Bob King. The following are
their responses to a series of questions
he asked them.
This OSSI grant is for a
lot of money. Where is the money coming
from and what are you doing with it?
The Oregon Small Schools Initiative
(OSSI) originated from a 25 million dollar
grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation and the Meyer Memorial Trust
Foundation and was the source for the
Crater grant.
The Crater grant will be used for a variety
of activities over the next four years.
Year one (2005-2006) will focus on providing
time for teachers to explore other successful
small schools and in allowing teachers
to develop new teaching techniques and
curriculum to support a move to small
schools. Year two will continue with additional
training and curriculum development and
the designing of the new Crater schools.
Year three and four will see the opening
of the new schools, a review of what works
and what doesn’t,
and adjustments as needed.
I know that Crater currently
has three schools within a school. Why
should Crater convert entirely to small
schools?
We want to build on the success of the
Crater schools-within-a-school and the
district middle school teams. We pioneered
these three schools at Crater and have
a lot of graduates who did very well in
this setting. Even more than that, research
shows that smaller school units enjoy
a higher attendance and graduation rate
and more students go on to some form of
post secondary education than do students
in a general comprehensive
high school setting. Likewise, smaller
schools have fewer disciplinary referrals
and higher academic achievement. Finally,
these smaller schools experience strong
parent and community support.
How many small schools will
there be and how many students do you
anticipate being in each school?
A fundamental grant requirement is that
a school can not be larger than 400 students,
so with our current enrollment of approximately
1500, we will be looking at 4-6 schools,
all of which will be determined this year
and developed during the 2006-2007 school
year.
As you know, I spent 10
years at Crater, had three sons graduate
from Crater and still bleed Comet blood.
My question and concern is, what is going
to become of the Comets when you convert
to all small schools?
We assume by this question you are referring
to the Crater extra-curricular activities
like athletics, music and drama and to
traditional high school events like the
prom and graduation. Rest assured, Mike,
we are well aware that Crater High School
is the central unifying aspect of our
community, and we do not want to lose
any of the rich Crater traditions. While
we want our 4-6 small schools to have
their own identities, we will still have
campus-wide events like the prom and graduation
and the Crater Comets will still soar
as before. The goal is not to break up
Crater but to break up a very large group
of students working with a large number
of teachers. Too many kids get lost in
our current system; we want to develop
schools where all students are nurtured
and have success.
Over the years we’ve
worked hard to introduce and increase
the number of advanced and college prep
classes that are offered at Crater. Will
moving to separate schools be the demise
of these programs?
Because our goal is enroll more students
in challenging and advanced classes, we
believe that, by moving to smaller separate
schools, we can achieve this. Research
shows that all students, even academically
challenged ones, perform better and learn
more in advanced type classes.
I know that, because of budget
cuts, Crater has lost some electives over
the years but still retain some programs.
Won’t moving to the small school
model be the end of most electives?
No. We want all Crater students to be
able to take advantage of elective opportunities.
In addition, our current schools-within-a-school,
because of the flexible scheduling they
enjoy, offer many choices of activities
for their students. We hope to expand
this type of choice for all Crater students.
Granted, we may see fewer numbers of students
in say an art class, but the small school
setting will allow for a more in-depth
and personalized approach. As teachers
go about designing our new schools, an
idea might emerge for an elective that
doesn’t currently exist. This has
happened in other schools under the OSSI
umbrella.
Those who know me know that
I always believed that we should not pigeonhole
kids and instead should provide them as
much directed flexibility in their education
as possible. With this in mind and, realizing
that you are just in the planning stage,
will students, as freshmen, be picking
a school too early? The follow-up to this
question would be can students switch
between schools and, if so, how might
the process work? How will students pick
their school?
Wow! You are asking for a lot here.
Let’s break it down by question.
First, as to students picking a school
too early, every school will be responsible
for an agreed upon set of core standards
and expectations which will fully comply
with Oregon high school graduation requirements.
The schools will not be designed as career
track schools. If we chose to have themed
schools, say like our current School of
Business, the intent is for them to be
very broad so they appeal to a large group.
Our idea is to make education more relevant
to our students and not, as you put, to
pigeonhole them. As to students being
able to switch schools, we are only beginning
to talk about this, but our initial thinking
is that we need to have an avenue for
kids to change schools, and we need to
develop a process for this. Regardless,
we believe that it will need to be done
on a case-by-case fashion. In visiting
with other schools who have gone to a
small school format, we know that, after
a rather short period of time, most students
don’t want to leave their schools
because of the close and positive relationships
they have developed with other students
and their teachers. Regarding how students
will pick their schools, a process will
need to be developed, but, initially,
we don’t believe it will be much
different from how students chose classes
now. We will need a system that has a
fair and equitable distribution of students
across the schools.
If you are going to have
4-6 smaller schools, are you going to
physically divide the school in some way
so each school has some sense of physical
autonomy?
It would be best to have students of
a particular school in a central location.
The grant does not pay for any capital
improvements, so that will be a limiting
factor. Most small schools do not share
a common schedule other than starting
and ending times and usually lunch time.
This flexibility of schedule will provide
an additional element of autonomy for
the schools.
If Crater alumni would like
to learn more about the Crater OSSI project,
or, if they wish to get involved, what
can they do?
The first thing to do would be to check
out our website:
www.cratercomets.com/smallschools
or call the Crater OSSI Grant Coordinator
Bob King at 541-494-6371. We want to hear
from you. |
