High Schools: Size Does Matter - The College of Education - The ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Small Schools Page 2 of 7 Issue Brief Vol. 1, Issue 1 Small schools have fewer than 300 students; large schools have more than 1,000. “There is considerable evidence that large schools can have deleterious effects on students’ social development” (Haller et al., 1990). Percentage of Students 100.0% 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 25.8% 22.0% 38.2% Figure 2. Percentage of total number of students enrolled in schools of varying sizes in 1994 and 2003. Small Schools and the Findings The research and literature on small schools have revealed multiple variations of small schools, including small learning communities, autonomous small schools, theme-based schools, historically small schools, freestanding schools, alternative schools, schools-within-a-school, schoolswithin-a-building, house plans, career academies, pathways or clusters, multi- or scatterplexes, charter schools, pilot schools, and magnet schools. These school types are fundamentally distinguished by their degree of autonomy and separateness from their host schools. In her summary of current literature on small schools, Raywid (1998) contended that a shift to smaller schools would better Achievement and Equity 35.1% Studies have shown that small schools affect student achievement in positive ways. Fowler and Walberg (1991) summarized findings of studies conducted between the 1960s and 1980s. These studies showed the following: 1. There is a negative relationship between achievement tests (math and verbal ability tests) and school size. 36.0% 42.9% 0 to 1000 1001 to 2000 Over 2000 School Size 1994 2003 serve students. She wrote, The small schools literature began with the large-scale quantitative studies of the late 1980s and early 1990s that firmly established small schools as more productive and effective than large ones. These studies, involving large numbers of students, schools, and districts, confirmed that students learn more and better in small schools (Lee & Smith, 1995). (p. 1) Between 1966 and 2000, however, only 22 research reports defined school size, socioeconomic status, and school-size issues as important to the focus of research investigations (Howley, Strange, & Bickel, 2000). 2. Increase in size of school is detrimental to test scores. 3. Smaller schools increased learning at elementary and senior levels. African American elementary students seem particularly to benefit from being in smaller schools, and low achievers benefit from being in smaller senior high schools.
Small Schools Page 3 of 7 Issue Brief Vol. 1, Issue 1 4. School size is negatively related to third-grade reading and mathematics achievement when controlling for student socioeconomic status. 5. As school districts increased either the number of schools in the district or the size of the school, supervisory services were being financed at the expense of students’ instructional services. Recent studies have corroborated the aforementioned findings. In their 1997 study, Lee and Smith found that schools in the 600–900 enrollment range have the highest achievement gains in both low and high socioeconomic schools and that school size appears to matter more in schools that enroll less-advantaged students. The TEA’s report on school size also cited recent studies that showed greater gains on the SAT and ACT in states with smaller schools as well as the disruption of negative effects of socioeconomic status on achievement. Further, as can be inferred from the findings related to poverty and achievement in small schools, learning is Affiliation, Participation, School Climate, and Dropout Large schools appear also to have negative effects on student identification with schools and, thus, participation and affiliation. Pittman and Haughwout (1987) found that “larger student bodies appear to produce a less positive social environment, less social integration, and less identity with the school. These may translate into more premature school leavings” (p. 343). School climates that are less alienating and fearful for both students and teachers contribute to the finding that “smaller school size is consistently related to stronger and safer school communities (Franklin & Crone, 1992; Zane, 1994)” (Wasley et al., 2000). Preparation for Postsecondary Education Findings on the relationship between school size and student preparation for postsecondary school were meager and tenuous, likely owing to the fact that many small school start-ups have not been in more equitably distributed in smaller learning environments. The findings of the Matthew Project (Howley et al., 2000), a series of replicated studies, showed that although academic “excellence” results varied by state, overall, the influence of school size varied by socioeconomic level. A negative influence on achievement in impoverished schools and a positive influence in affluent schools were found. In their analysis of Texas schools, this finding translated into 57% of schools being too big to maximize achievement at the 10 th - grade level. The Matthew Project also looked at academic equity effects and determined that these effects were highly consistent across states and that the relationship between achievement and socioeconomic status was far weaker in smaller schools than in large schools. They found that in Georgia, Ohio, and Texas, smaller schools reduced the negative effect of poverty on average student achievement in every grade tested. TEA reported that large schools, especially in large cities, experience a higher rate of dropout than do small schools in small districts. Additionally, Lawrence et al. (2002, citing Steifel et al., 1998) reported, “Schools with fewer than 600 students had a 5% dropout rate, while larger schools averaged a 13% loss” (p. 11). The researchers asserted that this finding is particularly encouraging because the small schools served a higher percentage of poor students and part-time special education students than did the larger schools. existence long enough for such an examination. However, Cotton (2001) summarized the evidence of two studies regarding college-going rates. A study by Ancess and Ort (1999) described a number Violence: Large vs. Small Schools Larger schools have: 825% more violent crime; 270% more vandalism; 378% more theft and larceny; 394% more physical fights or attacks; 3,200% more robberies; 1,000% more weapons incidents. Source: Violence and Discipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools 1996–97, by the U.S. Department of Education (1998), Washington, DC: National Center for Educational Statistics.
Page 1: Issue Brief March 2004 Volume 1, Is
Page 5 and 6: Small Schools Page 5 of 7 Issue Bri
Page 7: Roelke, C. (1996). Curriculum adequ

High Schools: Size Does Matter - The College of Education - The ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?