Asset Mapping: Too often we take a deficit approach to community planning by listing all the things that need fixing instead of tabulating the resources available to change them. The first step in creating a good small school may be to map the assets of the school and its community. These include people, places, and things. People: a retired scientist who worked for NASA, a retired teacher who wants to mentor part-time, the head of the local bank who could encourage her employees to volunteer. Places: the river that runs through the town, the old mill that once ground flour, the factory where artists now rent studio space, the school cafeteria. Things: the collection of yearbooks going back eighty-five years, the work of a local artist, the memories and skills of older people in the community. These are all assets that can be tapped to build and sustain a school and its community, but they must be inventoried and become part of a holistic plan.

Working Together: A school is a major asset in its community; a community is a major asset to its school. They must work together, or neither will work as effectively as possible. Schools such as Camino Nuevo, The Met, and IDDS tap the resources and goodwill in their communities to the benefit of all. At Laurel Concord, partnerships made it possible to create a fine library, a computer center, and a fitness center available to students and members of the community. In Hollywood, South Carolina, local residents have a program and facility for recreation that would have been impossible if the school and community had not shared in the cost.

Building Relationships: How can a small school build relationships with its community? WOO, for example, has 100 people from the community on its board. Though the working board is much smaller, the general members serve as ambassadors for the school, widening the circles of people who support it. The Met invited its community to name the four schools that are now an important part of the neighborhood and welcomed its neighbors into the school to use the facility in ways that add to the quality of their lives. Some of these people also volunteer at the school, serving in a variety of ways, and all become eyes watching over its security. Schools can also introduce students to the community. FALA students volunteer at The Peaks senior living center, the Museum of Northern Arizona, and in the community. Students from The Met, Truman, High Tech High, and Avalon, who work in internships and on projects, also heighten the awareness community people have of their schools.

Schools must work to open their doors, not to close them as they have for too long. There are many excuses for not being open--union rules about paying janitors overtime, liability fears, security concerns--that make it hard for schools to be open to their communities. Without regular access to a school facility, it is difficult for people who do not have children in the school to feel welcome and to participate in sustaining it, not only with their votes on budgets and bonds, but with their talents and energies. The old saying that it takes a village to raise a child is a cliché, but it is true, and schools and communities need to work together to make that possible.

Valuing Parents: Schools like Oak Valley that have found ways to work with parents have created a structure that supports not only the child, but the parent as well. The written agreement Camino Nuevo has with its parents spells out the expectations the school has for the parent. If parents falter in fulfilling these expectations, the school gives them extra support, which helps their children succeed. The result is that students at Camino Nuevo are learning well in an environment where there are clear expectations for good behavior--the Camino Nuevo Way--that they know are shared by everyone in the school. Students say they appreciate having their parents at school--knowing that their parents value their work helps children succeed. Parents make a significant contribution to the schools in such activities as supervising the playground and cafeteria, helping teachers in the classrooms, and by working as receptionists and assistants in the office. Not coincidentally, working in the school gives parents the opportunity to improve their own skills. It also gives parents time to socialize, to exchange ideas about child-raising, and to share concerns they have as immigrants to a new country. If parents at Camino Nuevo, most of them new immigrants unfamiliar with the language or customs of this country, can be a key ingredient in their children's success at school, so can parents anywhere and, in fact, everywhere.

Looking Around: When schools search for new ideas and ways to change, it is very easy to look only at models that are nearby, familiar, and perhaps not so challenging. The principal at H.S. Truman High School assessed her program and found it was failing her students at an unacceptable rate. She resolved to find an alternative, and, with the help of her superintendent, was able to look at several innovative programs, including the Big Picture Schools. She convinced herself and her district to make a radical change. Making the change that permits this success took courage, determination, energy and time.

It takes courage to contradict ideas in which one has a vested interest and to learn from alternative models. One can learn what others are doing by looking at very different schools on the Internet and at existing research, but to really understand other options, a group should visit a number of very different schools. This requires funding, lots of planning and coordination, and considerable reflection, but it is worth the effort. Seeing a school in a different place, one that offers a different model, is a good way to open one's eyes to things that are happening in one's own school. With advance notice, all the schools in this report welcome visitors.

Integrated Holistic Approach to Planning: It is important to get people from as many different backgrounds and a wide a range of expertise together in thinking about a school and its role in the community. Planning for a new school should gather people from the cultural, educational, and business communities, as well as include representatives of as many constituencies as possible from the general community. Students can and should play a major role. Planning for schools has often taken place in isolation from planning for other infrastructure, such as roads, utilities, and recreational facilities. Planning for communities needs to happen together to assure that the impact of decisions is understood and that the school and community work together as well as possible.

The communities of Laurel-Concord and Hollywood South Carolina demonstrate the benefits of school-community partnerships. Together, the school and community of Laurel-Concord built the new library, computer center, and fitness center for everyone to use. At C.C. Blaney and R.D. Schroder in South Carolina, the schools and community built a new park and recreation center between the schools, as well as the new sewer and sidewalks that serve the schools and community. The result is that people in this community and these schools have much better facilities to enjoy than they would had they been planned in isolation. The best strategy for realizing school and community goals is to make connections between people and invite discussion about what might be possible.

Action Research: A tool for change

Action research is the systematic collection of information that is designed to bring about social change. (Bogdan and Biklen, 1992, p. 223).

Good research requires systematic, honest and rigorous inquiry. These elements are essential whether the research is conducted in the medium of numbers (quantitative research) or of words and observations (qualitative research). Though we usually think of research as the product of people highly trained in the specific skills of inquiry who dispassionately investigate hypotheses, in action research people who are directly affected by the outcome of what they are investigating conduct the study. People passionately invested can still be honest and rigorous researchers who produce informed reports and they may be in the best position to understand and investigate the problem. For this reason, carefully conducted action research, first described by Kurt Lewin in the 1940's, can be an important tool for advocates of good small schools.*

Action research should always focus on important issues and good models suggest ways in which to use it. The housewives who unearthed the problems at Love Canal, people in East St. Louis who continue to identify community problems and develop community solutions, people in the slums of Brazil working with Paulo Freire, the Children's Defense Fund that studied children out of school, and countless other action researchers have done credible, well-planned and carefully carried out investigations that have resulted in social change for the public good.**

Students, teachers, parents, and other members of the community can research concerns relating to their schools. For example, Rural Action in Appalachian Ohio organized a project in which students photographed things they liked and did not like about their school facilities. Their reports showed administrators and policy makers that students liked having water fountains close at hand, preferably in their class rooms, and that they were tired of malfunctioning rest rooms. Among other results, their well-documented report helped get the plumbing fixed.

Action Research is "deliberate, solution-oriented investigation that is group or personally owned and conducted," (Johnson, Beverly, ERIC355205, 1993).

People affected by a condition or situation gather, record, and reflect on data to find solutions based on their own research. Action research requires that people are systematic, and rigorously honest in gathering and reporting information.

In action research a group creates and then repeats a cycle of separate steps: identify a concern or project, plan how to gather data, gather data, and then reflect on what has been learned. It is essential to include as wide a range of participants as possible in the research team and to let each express his or her opinion in a safe environment. Starting with an open and even "agenda-less" meeting allows participants to identify and prioritize what they want to study, agree on a project, design a methodology, and assign roles and responsibilities.

Action researchers use the same methods as other researchers: observation, participant observation, interviews, surveys, focus groups, and document gathering. For each of these methods it is important to learn about guidelines for good practice. Critical reflection on "lessons learned" is an essential step after each segment of data collection. To keep discussion on course without confining it to a channel, the group may appoint a person to facilitate discussion, or hire an outside facilitator. Another participant must keep a meticulous record of discussion and decisions. Most important is that people feel comfortable contributing their ideas and concerns.

There is much more to learn before embarking on a project in action research, but doing so may be worthwhile to people considering the strategies presented in this report. Action research is a valuable tool for effecting change in education because participants directly affected by the issue they are studying use techniques of research that can produce informed and credible results. Their work can help policy-makers understand the necessity for change and provide evidence on which to base policy. Implementing change is never easy, but having invested members of the school and community directly involved in reporting on why it makes sense can improve the likelihood that people will accept it.

**Lawrence, Practice to Praxis, 1999.