Students could gain extra credit for attending the sessions. The administrative teams in several schools spent time in each homeroom class talking about school wide expectations as well as the support that was available to each student. In one school, the administrators showed their own high school yearbook pictures to students as a way to establish rapport. Several principals taught at least one class a week to keep in touch with the realities of instruction. The advantages of this feedback process are enormous.
Schools invest huge amounts of effort and money in teachers, textbooks, equipment, and furnishings.
Feedback tells how students are responding to this learning environment and its curricular content and whether they are integrating it into their own lives. A number of school districts have videotaped focus groups of randomly selected students who are entering or graduating from high school. Some high schools also videotaped students who had dropped out. Some students made concrete suggestions about course schedules, homework, and social events in the schools. The middle school students like the smallness of their schools and were concerned about the size of the high schools and getting lost.