The term "smaller learning communities" (SLCs) comes from a federal initiative begun several years ago to encourage high school reform. To date many school districts across the country have pursued this model to improve high school students' feeling of connection to school. SRMHS was awarded one of the first federal SLC grants and has become a national model Design Studio School for SLC implementation.

While every classroom, team, and club is, in effect, an SLC, two major initiatives make up the core of the SLC program at SRMHS: Academic Coaching and Career-Focused Learning Communities. It is through these smaller learning communities that our magnet theme of Leadership and Technology is delivered. SLCs also become the vehicle for our approach to the mandate for rigor, relevance, and relationships of today's high school reform movement.