School Design for Small Learning Communities

Jeff Lackney of School Design Studio facilitated a month long series of design workshops with students and teachers from West High School in Madison, Wisconsin aimed at creating smaller learning communities within the large 2,000 student school. This process was one of many activities involved in a planning grant awarded the school in 2003 by the U.S. Department of Education. Lackney argues that direct student engagement, often left out of educational planning models, is central to the successful implementation of the smaller learning communities since it is the students themselves that are subject to change.
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