Less is more

For some members of the Healdsburg community who took pride in Healdsburg being a big school district, enrollment decline may seem unfavorable. However, the research over the last 30 years on school size has demonstrated over and over that less is more. HUSD’s current enrollment of 1,850 students is an advantage, not just because there is more money per student but also because of the more intimate, personalized learning environment it creates. Our students are not just a number, but individuals with strengths, talents and challenges.
The research on the impact of school size on learning has been ongoing and definitive. In the 1980’s educational research on teaching and learning soared. A key finding was the importance of providing a highly personalized environment. Obviously, smaller schools can provide more intimate learning environments in which every student is known. Teachers can then create meaningful, authentic learning experiences to match the students’ interests, abilities, and personalities.  Large schools even formed “schools within a school” to provide this more personalized environment.  
In order to have authentic learning experiences which engage the student in problem solving, which make learning meaningful to the individual, a paradigm shift in how teachers teach was required. To make this shift, the teacher has to behave as a coach; a “Guide on the Side,” rather than the traditional paradigm of the “Sage on the Stage.” The student does the work, collaborating with other students, participating in interactive small group discussions and research projects.  
With the implementation of the Common Core standards, we understand that enriched content taught with authentic, meaningful teaching strategies will only have significant impact in a highly personalized environment. And that is precisely what is occurring for the students of HUSD as described by Superintendent Jeff Harding and Board President Judy Velasquez in the March 20-26 Healdsburg Tribune.  The students of HUSD are indeed privileged.  They are benefitting from a personalized educational learning environment and they are also benefitting from the opportunities provided by public education – the ability to grow and learn in a true local community, a community made up of children from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures.
With HUSD’s dynamic Common Core standards based curriculum, the architectural redesign of the junior high and high school campuses, and additional funds coming into the District from local property taxes and from the Healdsburg Education Foundation, Healdsburg Unified School District will gain statewide, and I predict, national recognition for its innovative, personalized, authentic approach to education.  The story has begun and will only continue to grow.  Most importantly, these changes are absolutely fantastic for the students of HUSD.
Mary Burke, Ph.D., served as an HUSD School Board member and President and is currently President of the Healdsburg Education Foundation. She was Head of Whitfield School, (coed, grades 6-12) in St. Louis, MO from 1984 – 2004.