Chapter 4: Schools as the Workplace for Students and Teachers

Comparing and Contrasting New View High School with The United States

New View High School is in Exit, Missouri making it a fictional American high school. This means that in terms of school district relationship with the state, the role of the federal government and how it is paid for is exactly the same as any other high school in the United States.

However, my build a school team did make some changes in our school to the staff and how the school is organized. We decided that New View would be broken up into 4 sections, humanities, math, science and other. Each teacher would specialize in one of the four groups and the students would pick which group they wished to be in based on their strengths. This means our teachers and our students are organized into these 4 clusters. Then out of all of the teachers a few from each group would be chosen by the principal to serve on a board of teachers. This board of teachers would meet regularly with a group of volunteer students to discuss curriculum and policy within the school. They would come to a conclusion together and take it to the principal to be reviewed. After being reviewed and discussed with the principal it could then move on up to the superintendent and the school board where it would be voted on and made official.

Usually in the United States students are not involved in any of the decision making processes. In fact in our book they are not even listed on the chart on page 135 to show how the school is organized but the book does list the students as "workers" at the school. New View High School believes that as part of the school's work force students should be part of the lines of communication among staff.