CES: Small Schools Initiative
The Columbus Metro School

The Columbus Public Schools and the Ohio Center for Essential School Reform have formed a partnership to create a new, small, diverse school that is intellectually vibrant, highly personalized, academically successful and embedded in a safe and trusting environment. Although the exact locale of the site is yet to be determined, CPS Superintendent Gene Harris and OCESR Executive Director Dan Hoffman are committed to a downtown site and have entered into conversation with COSI about the feasibility of housing the new Metro school. The partnership has received a National CES Small Schools planning grant of $200,000 over the next two years with a renewable option of another $200,000 for professional development dollars once the school doors open in August 2006.

Early design ideas are that the school simultaneously starts with two grade levels: five and nine. Our rationale is that these two grade levels represent two critical transition points in the lives of CPS students, whose data reveal that students in grade five (more than any other grade level) are lost to out-of-district transfer and private school enrollment and the largest drop-out rate occurs in grade nine. We believe that by starting at grades five and nine and growing one year at a time, we can thoughtfully construct a small school culture. The school will also be designed to remain small. Grade levels will not exceed 100 students and the two starting points will eventually create a separate middle school and a high school. The governance model anticipated for this school is a Columbus Public Schools chartered community school.

Many of the design features will emerge as the planning proceeds, but one can expect a non-traditional approach with full utilization of the many “learning arenas” afforded by the downtown setting.

Read Columbus Dispatch News Articles about the Small Schools Initiative