West High School, which serves about 1,700 students near downtown Denver, has received a Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) Grant from the U.S. Department of Education. West was the only school in the state to receive this grant, which provides $483,000 over three years.

The goal of the SLC project is to increase student achievement and engagement in school by reconfiguring West High. The school will develop smaller learning communities to provide students with a rigorous curriculum in a personalized environment to enhance their sense of investment and belonging.

The program begins this week with Phase I for incoming freshman, who are randomly assigned to four houses, each with approximately 100 students. The houses are ethnically and academically diverse. As this year‚s freshmen advance through high school, the project will follow them through graduation and expand to future freshman classes.

Freshmen are participating in a weeklong orientation program to introduce the learning communities concept, which includes block scheduling and academic teaming.

Each freshman house will have common teachers for their core subjects - language arts, math, science and social studies. Students have core classes from 7:30 a.m. until lunch. After lunch, teachers lead groups of 25 students in a leadership/advisement period. The freshmen end the day with electives open to all West High students. Core teachers in the Freshman Learning Community have common planning periods, so they can work together and focus on the needs of their students.

In addition to the four houses, West serves its freshmen through the Center for International Studies and the English Language Acquisition Program.

Richard Chainhalt will serve as West‚s SLC project coordinator. The grant will also fund a community partnership coordinator and staff developer. The Freshman Learning Communities have their own dean, counselor and family advocate.

"Research shows that our largest dropout rate is in ninth and tenth grade, so our goal is to focus first on these students. We want to provide them with caring teachers and a rigorous curriculum to keep them in school and improve their achievement. It‚s a very unified team concept," Chainhalt said.

"Research has proven that this type of learning community is effective in inner city schools," Chainhalt said. Similar programs have been developed in Baltimore, Chicago and New York.