Public Agenda
2002
How much does (high) school size matter to American students, teachers and parents? With support from the Gates Foundation, Public Agenda set out to investigate. They surveyed teachers and students in both small and large high schools, as well as 800 parents of high school students. Gates's Tom Vander Ark says the findings "demonstrate the value of small schools." And there is no gainsaying that parents of children in small high schools are more pleased with those schools than are parents of kids in big schools. Among the kids, however, the differences are slight. Public Agenda found far more similarities of view than differences as between those enrolled in small and large high schools. The main differences are predictable: more crowded corridors in big schools, more homogeneous students in small ones. That's about it. As for teachers, differences emerge on a few issues (overcrowding, students "falling through the cracks"), but on many dimensions (e.g. school spirit, teacher morale, parent involvement) the differences are minor or nonexistent. The most significant parts of this valuable study, in my view, have very little to do with school size. Rather, they again show the generally dismal state of the American high school, a place of much violence, low morale, and mediocre academic performance. Small schools haven't licked those problems nor insulated their pupils from them. Says Public Agenda: "Many students in small high schools nationwide still inhabit a rough-edged world, replete with the usual panoply of adolescent risks." High school reform is a huge project awaiting American education. But doing what's needed will take considerably more than shrinking the size of those institutions. For your own copy (downloadable for free until March 13, after which you'll have to buy a hard copy by dialing 212-686-6610) go to www.publicagenda.org/specials/smallschools/smallschools.htm.
