Reading Reflection 1 - Rethinking High School

What really stood out to me in this chapter were the eleven issues that schools need to address. These are key concepts to make a school successful or fall to pieces, if one is neglected. The three people who started BPHS knew that these eleven concepts were the token to opening a successful school. In order to make it successful they studied other schools that practiced reform. These issues were something they wanted to improve secondary education anywhere from the size of the school to relationships with parents and the community. I liked how they didn’t leave any aspects out and had high expectations for the school.

Even though the authors seemed to include everything in their reform, how will they include the parents that other schools haven’t already thought of? Getting parents to be involved is difficult and an issue for public schools. I think that their reform is going to be a struggle just like every other secondary school.

I would like to more about “houses” model that the students are placed into. This model includes intensive teacher teaming, student choice, curriculum integration, and daily advisory that helps the students to feel apart of a small school. In high school all over the country students feel lost in a school of 2,000+. I like the idea of BPHS personalizing it to make the students feel like they belong instead of getting lost in the shuffle.