Small Schools Work!

Stanford University Professor of Education Linda Darling-Hammond recently completed a study of Oakland's new small schools. She presented the much-anticipated findings at a standing-room-only school board meeting in September. We're happy to report that her conclusions came out in support of the small schools movement! "New schools are, on average, more productive than older schools at all levels, and especially at the high school level," says the report. "New schools become more effective and productive as they mature."

In other encouraging news, most of the schools in our network boosted their scores on the California Standards Test in both math and reading this year. Two of them -- ACORN Woodland and Sankofa Academy -- were singled out for their dramatic gains in a recent Oakland Tribune feature. In the piece, ACORN principal Kimi Kean sums up the results this way:

"It's fundamentally so affirming of what is possible for our kids. Our schools can do it, our kids can do it, and our district can do it."

Click here to read the article!

For more on ACORN Woodland and Sankofa, check out their school pages: