Small Schools, Big Questions: A Student-Led Inquiry into High School Redesign

What does student voice mean and where should it come from? Twenty seniors, members of the first graduating class of Pablo Neruda Academy, a new small school in the Stevenson High School Campus in the Bronx, New York, answered this question by investigating the small schools movement from their own unique perspective in a year-long partnership with Teachers College, Columbia University’s Student Press Initiative. In addition to doing a great deal of research and field work, the students explored this topic by communicating with leading figures in the field of urban education and school reform including academics, researchers, policymakers and practitioners. The content of that communication appears inside the pages of this book, along with other artifacts of our year-long journey, each student’s culminating reflection about their experience in a new small high school, and student recommendations for the small school community at large.