SMALL SCHOOLS LEADER JOINS NSU EDUCATION

Director of "Small Schools Workshop" is new Visiting Professor, opens Florida Regional Center

Nova Southeastern University announced the appointment of Michael Klonsky, Ph.D., a nationally recognized expert on high school reform, as the next Visiting Professor at its Fischler School of Education and Human Services.

Klonsky is director of the Small Schools Workshop in Chicago , Ill. , and has been one of the leading proponents of converting large traditional high schools into smaller learning communities. His research on issues of school size and high school reform has been widely published and has helped shape federal education legislation.

"Dr. Klonsky will be a rich resource and scholarly addition to our faculty," said H. Wells Singleton, Ph.D., University Dean and Education Provost. "This partnership will make Nova Southeastern University a premier provider of support for Florida 's high school reform initiatives, as well as for teachers and school leaders in smaller learning communities statewide."

The Small Schools Workshop, which is celebrating its 15 th anniversary this month, will also open a Florida Regional Center at the Fischler School of Education and Human Services in North Miami Beach . For the past four years, the Small Schools Workshop has held its annual Small Schools Institute in Florida , bringing hundreds of educators from across the country to learn school restructuring techniques.

Klonsky has published two books on smaller learning communities, A Simple Justice: The Challenge of Small Schools and Small Schools: The Numbers Tell The Story . He served on President Bill Clinton's Advisory Council on School Violence, and written extensively on the links between large high schools and the wave of school violence that began in Littleton , Co. , in 1999. He assisted in the design of legislation authorizing the U.S. Department of Education's Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) grant program, and has provided training and technical assistance to numerous high schools, many of them in Florida , in receiving SLC grant funds.

For additional information, contact Judith Stein, Ed.D., Executive Director of the National Institute for Educational Options at NSU at stein@nsu.nova.edu or call 954-262-8742.