Reading Response 1

Jason Gaylord
EDSS 530, Heil
February 2, 2010
Reading Response 1
Rethinking High School: Best Practice by Design

This chapter talked about the foundation of a new high school in Chicago, Illinois. The school focuses on “reading,” “writing,” and “thinking.” Not only are Best Practice High Schools supposed to produce students that were well versed in reading, writing, and thinking, but also, become a school were safety, personal attention, and extra help would be a staple. The book, in particular, speaks on reforming existing high schools, starting new programs within the larger school, breaking big schools into smaller ones, creating new public, charter or independent high schools, and starting to think about what these new choices mean in our own public school districts. Issues most significant in starting a new and effective school include size, climate, voice and leadership, teaching, curriculum, community experiences, scheduling, technology and materials, assessment, professional development, and finally relationships. This list was compiled by looking at several different factors that affect schools in the United States today. Several philosophies the first chapter discussed briefly were student-centered teaching, experiential, holistic, authentic, expressive, reflective, social, collaborative, democratic, cognitive, developmental, constructivist, and challenging learning.
Keeping this new model in mind, several schools have implemented several forms of this and been fairly successful; however, there is no way to be for sure since the ideas are fairly new and recently limited in funding. Right now, America’s high schools need to be reformed and brought into the future. We must challenge our students and hope that we will find the support we need. There is a great need to keep up with the times and further America’s education system into the future.