Essence: Go Back to Go Forward

1. VSAA ‘01 - ‘02 Essence: Go Back to Go Forward

2. Student Centered Collaborative VSAA is: Interdisciplinary Art-Centered Small

3. Smaller schools are more productive work places for both adults and students, and student achievement is more equally distributed. (Lee, Bryk, and Smith 1994) VSAA has been recognized by the Gates Foundation and the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory as an outstanding example of a small school that works. Small

4. A student’s intelligence is not fixed and unitary. . . (Gardner et al. 1991) A sense of mission or ethos that defines the school con-tributes to higher student achievement. (Bryk et al. 1993) You have at your center students who have art in their hearts. (Kawazoe, 1998) Art-Centered

5. Students learn best when learning is embedded in authentic contexts. (Collins et al.1991) At all achievement levels students prefer an active classroom role and this is particularly important to non-traditional students, who generally fail to thrive in teacher-dominated classrooms. (McLaughlin, 1993) Interdisciplinary, Project-Based

6. Any number of restructuring moves that. . . make schools less bureaucratic and more “communal” contribute to student achievement gains across the spectrum of socioeconomic and other differences. (Lee and Smith, 1994) Networks of all kinds - among schools, among teachers exploring new practices, among students - contribute to deeper student learning. (McLaughlin, 1993) Collaborative

7. Student Centered How personal the secondary school is matters more than any other single factor. . , (McLaughlin, 1993) By itself, implementing more challenging, higher quality academic content will accomplish little if students do not feel connected to the school. . .(Lee & Smith 1994)

8. Advocacy & Convocation Team Meeting Time VSAA has: Interdisciplinary Core Artist-Teachers Generalists & Mixed-Age Groupings

9. VSAA Schedule