Consider Swanton High School, a small, averagely funded school in northwest Ohio. Swanton is a 1993 winner of GTE's Pioneering Partners program, which identifies technology programs that are working and gives innovative teachers an opportunity to share their success stories. A group of teachers at Swanton High decided there was a better way to provide learning to students. They developed teams of teachers who, along with students, parents and administrators, are responsible for student learning. Teachers are given a common planning time each day to prepare schedules, discuss problems, evaluate learning problems and communicate with parents.
Teams meet with their students each day for three to four hours.
Each day's schedule is different. In addition, students are allowed to progress through the courses at their own rate. When finished, then the student is graded. If students don't satisfactorily complete the year's work and don't take advantage of summer school, then they start where they left off when they come back. To better utilize teacher time, a teacher's aid was hired to manage a testing center.