Abstract
Education researchers have taken notice of "Schools as Communities" as the alternative to the bureaucratic control of schools in the United States. The activities of the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) are regarded as building "Schools as Communities" in the U.S. However, few of them have researched into what is viewed as "community" in the CES, and what kinds of activities realize it. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of community in the CES, through the analyses of the CES's philosophy, and of its reform activities about school's organization and schedule, curriculum, and evaluation. In the first chapter, the author shows how CES started and developed. CES is the organization encouraging school reform based on its philosophy, Common Principles, which Theodore R Sizer showed in his book, Horace's Compromise. Common Principles contains the ideas of making schools smaller and of "exhibition, " which evaluates the mastery of students' learning. These ideas are based on Sizer's experience as a teacher and a principal. CES was founded in 1984, and it has affiliated about 1, 200 schools by 2000. In the second chapter, the author analyzes the reform activities of CES, and evaluates their significance in today's reform movement in the U.S. There are three aspects in its activities. First, CES has developed the curriculum focusing on students' minds, and created school's organization, schedule, and evaluation system, that are suitable for its curriculum. Second, CES has spread the way of reform mentioned above, through CES's workshop aimed to create the collaboration among teachers and schools. Third, CES has executed collaborative inquiry, which is the action research carried out by researchers and teachers of affiliated schools. These activities characterize not only CES's reform approaches connected each other, but also the multiple collaborations, i.e., teacher's collaboration, school's collaboration, and the collaboration between schools and CES. These characteristics are the significance of CES's activities in today's reform movement. The issue we have to take up here is how CES's activities are related to the notion of "Schools as Communities." In the third chapter, the author clarifies the ideas of "Schools as Communities" in Common Principles, through the analyses of Sizer's educational thought. Sizer regarded making school smaller as the way to encourage collaboration between teachers and parents, and to build teacher's community. He expected students to become members of "community of learners, " through student's collaboration. And he advocated the concept of "community of learners, " which is characterized by teachers' and students' using the "habits of mind"-some intellectual abilities to inquire, and by persistent rethinking the aims and means of learning. Based on Sizer's thought above, CES's idea of "Schools as Communities" can be viewed as building "community of learners" in small schools.
