Poly, Small Learning Communities

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Recommended: Student motivation and achievement

Long Beach Polytechnic High School (Poly) has a very interesting strategy used in some large school; Poly along with the rest of the LBUSD school district has instituted small learning communities that divide Poly into seven small learning communities (SLC) (Long Beach Polytechnic High School). These SLCs divide the students by interests and academic achievement towards particular fields and further education. All students have to be in one SLC by applying to the one they want to be in when they first go to school. I’ve heard that two of the more successful ones are the Center of International Curriculum (CIC), Program of Additional Curricular Experience (PACE ) where a large percentage of their students take and pass AP exams along with going to four year schools. I didn’t observe classes for either of these programs. Instead over my time observing at that school the last two semesters I observed students in the Medical and Paramedical Services (MAPS) and Humanities Academy SLCs. Observing a math class in the Humanities Academy I noticed a lot of unmotivated, underachieving students. This is interesting when you read the mission statement of Poly: “The Mission of Long Beach Polytechnic High school is to support the personal and intellectual success of every Poly student, every day.

When reading the mission statement the school sounds like it will focus on every student, but I did not get that feeling when observing my class. Seeing many students struggle in class and doing poorly on exams makes me question if Poly’s SLCs are effective for all their students who aren’t in the “best” SLCs. I believe one way to help motivate underachieving students is by having students around them who are motivated and work hard for good grade...

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... their name each time before I started talking to them to make sure I would learn their names as quickly as possible. When I came back later into the semester he had improved but there were still a few names he had to learn. Learning the names or nicknames the students go by can be a simple way to identify each student and show that they are all students are equally part of the class.

Works Cited

Gay, G. (2010). Culturally Responsive Teaching. New York: Teachers college Press.
Gollnick, D., & chinn, P. (2013). Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society. Pearson.
Long Beach Unified School District. (n.d.). Long Beach Polytechnic High School. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://lbpoly.schoolloop.com/
Multi-Dimensional Poster. (2013, October). Long Beach: EDSE 435 Group.
(2011-2012). School Accountability Report Card (Long Beach Poly). Long Beach: LBUSD.

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