Topeka West High School has approximately 1,500 students divided into four houses of 375 students. An effort is made to randomly distribute the incoming sophomores equally among the four houses. Each house has an assistant principal, a counselor, and a staff of 8 to 10 teachers representing the instructional areas of English, social studies, and mathematics. The more specialized areas of art, music, home economics, industrial arts, and science and a media center are located in separate facilities. The school is a campus arrangement, and each house is a separate building. The decentralization of the administrative and guidence function enables the assistant principal-counselor team to know and care for a relatively small group of students over a three-year period. (Author/MLF)