JJSE is explicitly designed to be different from traditional schools, which Stanford Professor Linda Darling-Hammond refers to as “factory-model” schools:

“We dare many of our children to learn in schools that were designed at the turn of the last century explicitly on the factory model—schools in which we put children on a conveyor belt and move them from one overloaded teacher to the next, from 45 minute class period to 45 minute class period, to be stamped with separate, disconnected lessons six or seven or eight times a day.”

In order to meet the needs of low-skilled, marginalized students, JJSE has implemented a number of research-based program features as a small, redesigned school, including:

– class size of 25 or less
– core teacher pupil load of 100 or less
– an advisory system, including frequent parent contact
– all students take a-g university entrance requirements
– partnerships with local colleges where students take university courses
– a performance assessment (portfolio) system to create public accountability for student achievement
– democratic decision-making and distributed staff leadership
– significant built-in weekly professional development and staff collaboration time
– a Wellness Center to address mental and physical health needs
– a parent organizing committee to promote parent leadership and community-based accountability

These essential design features have helped to produce JJSE’s initial results of high college entrance and success rates.

JJSE has been officially designated as a SFUSD Small School by Design by SFUSD and an Alternative School of Choice by the California Department of Education (see California Education Code Sections 58500 through 58512), both of which provide flexibility from regulations which may interfere with this kind of innovation.