Collaborative Counseling for Small Schools

The Washington Small Schools Association (WSSA) is a group of Washington, DC-area Independent Small Schools who believe that collaboration is the key to success. With a single conversation, these schools can solve problems that would require years of testing and implementation at larger schools. But this sort of collaborative process has taken time to cultivate.

The WSSA was started in 1985, when a group of leaders of local small schools met as part of a larger conference, and quickly realized the behind-the-scenes workings of small schools were worlds apart from those of large schools. When each staff member wears multiple hats, some problems are simpler (and others more complex) than other schools might find, and when every student knows one another, social and emotional drama often presents quite differently.

While the region’s schools have moved and rotated, changing names and administrations, the teamwork of these important institutions has only deepened. The agility that comes from such a braintrust gives students more options, gives faculty and staff a resource for problem-solving, and gives parents the comfort of knowing that hundreds of years of institutional knowledge are at the fingertips of any of their schools’ administrators.