[lbo-talk] Small schools

Gregory Geboski greg at mail.unionwebservices.com
Tue Apr 22 17:03:30 PDT 2003


Sure, all things being equal, small schools are better, esp now that "frills" (art, music, school newspapers, drama) that may benefit by consolidation are being cut anyway. But as some kind of large-scale attempt to help kids, this is yet another dreary instrumentalist educational reform that (deliberately?) ignores the obvious: increased class and racial polarization, a return to an explicitly elitist higher education model that seeps down to the schools, and above all a massive defunding of local coffers by an absurd tax system that benefits a tiny class of parasites like--well, like Bill Gates.

Also, I don't think it's a coincidence that it will be easier to get away with segregation with a system of small schools.

Favor small schools on a case-by-case basis? Sure, why not, especially when teachers and parents express great enthusiasm (*the* big factor for short-term localized success) and if it's not some cover for racism. And big schools don't have a truly progressive history (no matter how many of its original advocates could spout Dewey with the best of them)--the push for school consolidation historically has paralleled that of corporate consolidation: minimal cost savings, but great direct political benefits to those in the command and control hierarchy. But as a centerpiece of true systemic progressive educational reform, forget it; if nothing else, it will be easily hijacked by the Right (if it hasn't been already). (I remember when charter schools were touted, sincerely, as a great progressive hope...)

---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 18:10:04 -0400


>[This is long, but it could be interesting. Anyone know anything about this?]
>
>UNDERNEWS SPECIAL REPORT
>SMALL SCHOOLS
>
>Apr 22 2003
> From the Progressive Review
>Edited by Sam Smith
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>SMALL SCHOOLS
>
>[We have recently reported Bill Gates' major funding of the small school
>movement. Here are a few of the items that we have run on this important
>topic]
>
>JOE NATHAN PIONEER PRESS, MN - Conventional wisdom holds that small schools
>are more expensive and that districts automatically save money by closing
>them. But a new report says bigger isn't necessarily better or cheaper. The
>report, "Dollars and Sense," summarizes recent research on school
>construction and concludes small schools - elementaries with 300 or fewer
>students, middle schools with 500 or fewer and high schools with no more
>than 600 students - are not prohibitively expensive and that putting tax
>dollars into those building makes sense. It looks at studies that show when
>students from similar backgrounds are compared, those in smaller schools are
>safer, have higher graduation rates and test scores and are more likely to
>participate in extracurricular activities. They're also likely to have
>involved parents and more satisfied teachers. The report includes research
>compiled by Paul Abramson, a columnist for the national magazine School
>Planning and Management, that found costs per student and per square foot
>were lower for the smaller high schools and smaller middle schools than they
>were for the larger ones. Smaller elementary construction costs were
>slightly greater per student than those for larger elementary schools. . .
>"Dollars and Sense" cites two rural Nebraska districts that thought
>consolidation would save money. But after adding more than 25,000 miles to
>the cost of transporting students, buying new band uniforms and athletic
>equipment, purchasing new textbooks so all students would use the same
>materials, buying out several teachers whom the new district felt it would
>not need, increasing pay of remaining teachers and combining the two
>districts' curricula, the districts spent $230,000 more than they had been
>spending. As the report notes, "So much for saving money."
>
>http://www.ruraledu.org/dollars_sense.pdf
>
>MICHAEL A. FLETCHER WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 2002 - Students who attend small
>schools are less likely than others to engage in risky behavior such as drug
>use, violence or early sexual activity, largely because they feel better
>connected to their teachers and one another, according to a study. The
>results drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a
>federally funded survey of 72,000 junior high and high school students,
>found that when the number of students in a school increases beyond 1,200,
>students become more isolated from one another, which contributes to a wide
>range of unhealthy activity . . . In addition, the survey found that harsh
>disciplinary codes, such as zero-tolerance policies that call for automatic
>student suspensions or expulsions for offenses such as smoking or fighting,
>often alienate students even if they foster a more orderly environment.
>While zero-tolerance policies are designed to make schools safer,
>researchers found that students in schools with those types of discipline
>policies report feeling less safe than do students in schools with more
>moderate policies.
>
>WASHINGTON POST: Education Secretary Richard W. Riley said yesterday that
>the best solution to violence in schools is not more metal detectors or
>locker searches, but rather making the nation's high schools smaller and
>more personalized so that students feel connected to each other and caring
>adults. Riley's prescription differed from what has been the prevailing view
>that tighter security measures and student discipline are needed in the wake
>of school shootings in Littleton, Colo., and elsewhere .... Riley cited a
>study by the National Association of Secondary School Principals that
>recommended an enrollment of 600 as the ideal size for a high school. Many
>high schools, particularly in rapidly growing suburbs, enroll three to four
>times as many students. Given the expense of replacing large high schools
>with smaller buildings, Riley said that subdividing existing schools into
>smaller units called "schools within schools" was another way to "make young
>people feel more connected." [TPR has from time to time argued for smaller
>schools. Since the corporatization of education following Sputnik, the
>number of schools in this country has declined almost in inverse relation to
>the growth in number of students. This has, among other things, produced
>monster-schools like Columbine High, where instead of a principal, one needs
>a combination corporate CEO and prison warden.]
>
>D. KEVIN MCNEIR, OAK PARK & RIVER FOREST JOURNAL: Educators and parents
>throughout Oak Park and River Forest are concerned about the threat of
>violence and the increasing achievement gap in their schools. But at a
>recent workshop held at Village Hall, University of Illinois-Chicago
>professor Michael Klonsky said the solution is to reduce, not increase,
>student populations. "There is now a compelling body of research showing
>that, on a wide range of measures, when students are part of smaller, more
>intimate learning communities, they are more successful," Klonsky writes in
>his 1998 publication, "Small Schools: The Numbers Tell a Story." . . . "When
>it comes to student engagement in learning, anonymity is the enemy," he
>said. "Large schools, which often process students with bar codes and ID
>numbers, sacrifice a sense of community and caring, in big schools - whether
>urban or suburban-students who need supportive relationships often turn to
>cliques or gangs." . . . Klonsky defines a small school as one with 350
>students or less, and said there are two key ingredients to making schools
>places that are safe and conducive to learning. "All children must be known
>by their teachers and peers, not just those at the very top and the at-risk
>students at the bottom," he said. "It's the kids in the middle who often
>become invisible. And there needs to be a professional community of teachers
>who communicate with one another regularly and discusses classroom
>environment and teaching strategies." . . . "When we started the Small
>Schools Workshop many suburban schools did not accept our system," he said.
>"They believed everything was fine and did not want to make any changes. But
>then we had the Columbine incident . . . Since then, there have been seven
>or eight similar occurrences in predominately white, middle-class schools
>with the shooters all being white males. And ironically, in the same year as
>the Columbine shootings, 48 Chicago Public Schools children were killed -
>but the story was buried in the back pages of the local newspapers."
>
>ETHAN ALLAN INSTITUTE: Thirty years ago Vermont was torn by a passionate
>debate over small schools. Three progressive commissioners of education, led
>by A. John Holden, had aggressively forced the closure and consolidation of
>dozens of Vermont's small schools as possible in the name of "efficiency."
>As Commissioner Harvey Scribner put it, following the then-popular education
>school theory, children learn by being exposed to "learning experiences"
>facilitated by certified educators. Large schools naturally offer more
>"learning experiences" than small schools. Therefore, children who attend
>"efficient" large schools will learn more. There was no empirical evidence
>to support this neat and simple proposition. Of the billions of dollars
>spent on educational research by governments and universities since World
>War II, not one study could be found comparing the educational achievements
>of small-school children versus large-school children . . . So the
>progressive commissioners (on dubious legal authority) forced the closing of
>small schools all over Vermont. But now, thirty years later, the education
>establishment has decided that closing small schools may not have been such
>a Great Idea after all. Act 60 required the Department of Education to study
>of the role and value of small schools. That report was released last month.
>In the words of study chairman Bob McNamara, "small schools do cost more to
>operate -- the smaller you are the more expensive it is - but they do have a
>value added because the students in these schools do very well in
>achievement results." . . . Small schools and small communities have a
>symbiotic effect. The school is the focus of the community, and parents and
>community people give generously in time and effort to the school as the
>community's principal activity. This notion was definitely out of fashion in
>the 1960s, when education "reformers" sought to separate children from
>parents and community so that they could be molded properly by high-minded
>experts free of the detracting influence of untrained and often wrong headed
>parents and pastors.
>
>KATHLEEN CUSHMAN, PRINCIPAL MAGAZINE: In 1992, when Naomi Booker became
>principal of Clymer Elementary School in one of Philadelphia's most
>dangerous neighborhoods, she found many of its 900 students failing in basic
>skills and being taught by a burned-out staff that expected no better. "It
>was unmanageable," Booker recalls. In a neighborhood plagued by crime and
>drugs, where almost all families receive public assistance, only 75 to 80
>percent of Clymer's students regularly attended school and barely 10 percent
>could read at grade level. "I spent most of my day putting out fires,"
>Booker recalls. "Over 400 kids a year were showing up in my office for
>behavior problems." Today, that number is closer to 40 and Clymer's pattern
>of failure has been transformed into a pattern of steady success. Student
>attendance averages 90 to 92 percent and there are few staff absences.
>Sixty-five percent of students read at their grade level, the honor roll
>boasts 200 names, and the number of children identified as "mentally gifted"
>has increased twelve-fold.
>
>Booker produced these results by leading her school through a simple but
>dramatic structural change. She divided Clymer into three smaller "learning
>communities," each with about 225 students and its own collaborative team of
>12 to 17 teachers. (The school's population had decreased due to
>neighborhood change and the departure of overage students.) Teachers work
>collaboratively in the learning communities, staying with one group of
>students as they pass from the early grades through fifth-grade graduation.
>Twenty-five staff members-arts specialists, social workers, school
>secretaries, and custodians-work in all three communities, mentoring
>students needing extra help, helping to mediate and resolve conflicts, and
>leading all-school projects like the annual spring cleanup . . . Behavior
>issues, too, seemingly evaporate before escalating into serious disciplinary
>problems . . . Although Clymer was the first of Philadelphia's large
>elementary schools to break itself into smaller learning communities, the
>city's elementary and middle schools have formed over 600 such communities
>since 1995 . . .
>
>In other districts nationwide, elementary school principals are considering
>similar action as they seek ways to handle the steady rise in school size
>that has seen the average school population increase five-fold since the end
>of World War II. A push to consolidate schools has reduced the number of
>districts by 70 percent in the same period. Ironically, this trend toward
>big schools coincides with research that repeatedly has found small schools
>- commonly defined as no more than 400 students for elementary schools - to
>be demonstrably better for students of all ability levels, in all kinds of
>settings. Academic achievement rises, as indicated by grades, test scores,
>honor roll membership, subject-area achievement, and assessment of
>higher-order thinking skills. For both elementary and secondary students,
>researchers also find small schools equal or superior to large ones on most
>student behavior measures. Rates of truancy, classroom disruption,
>vandalism, theft, substance abuse, and gang participation all are reduced in
>small schools, according to a synthesis of 103 studies.
>
>STACY MITCHELL, INSTITUTE FOR LOCAL SELF-RELIANCE: In 1930, one-room
>schoolhouses accounted for nearly 70 percent of the nation's public
>educational facilities. Between 1940 and 1990, the number of elementary and
>secondary schools decreased from 200,000 to 62,000, despite a 70 percent
>rise in US population. Average enrollments skyrocketed from 127 to 653.
>
>The trend toward giantism continues. The number of high schools with more
>than 1,500 students doubled in the last decade. Two-fifths of the nation's
>secondary schools now enroll more than 1,000 students. Some schools have as
>many as 5,000 students and enrollments of 2,000 or 3,000 are common. . . .
>Today, riding on a wave of real-world success and a mountain of empirical
>evidence, a full-fledged small schools movement has emerged. It's
>transforming public education in several big cities and, in rural areas,
>reinvigorating a long-standing fight to wrest local schools from the jaws of
>consolidation. The movement has received endorsement from high offices. In
>May 1999, prompted largely by the shootings at Columbine High, a school with
>2,000 students, Vice President Al Gore criticized the practice of "herding
>all students into overcrowded, factory-style high schools" A panel of school
>security experts was convened by Education Secretary Richard Riley. Their
>top recommendation had nothing to do with gun control, metal detectors or
>police on the premises. Rather, they said, reduce the size of the nation's
>schools. Small schools are a powerful antidote to the sense of alienation
>that can lead to violence. In September, Riley told the National Press Club
>that the nation needs to "create small, supportive learning environments
>that give students a sense of connection. That's hard to do when we are
>building high schools the size of shopping malls. Size matters." According
>to the US Department of Education's report, Violence and Discipline Problems
>in US Public Schools: 1996-97, more than half of small school principals
>report either no discipline or minor discipline problems, compared to only
>14 percent of big school principals. Furthermore, compared to schools with
>fewer than 300 students, big schools (1,000 or more) have 825 percent more
>violent crime, 270 percent more vandalism, 394 percent more fights and
>assaults and 1000 percent more weapons incidents.
>
>ROOTS OF COLUMBINE HIGH - Bill Kauffman, writing in Chronicles, supports
>the argument made here before that one of the most deleterious changes in
>public education has been the increase in school -- rather than class --
>size. Kauffman notes that this was intentional, led by people such as
>Harvard President James Conant who produced a serious of postwar reports
>calling for the "elimination of the small high school" in order to compete
>with the Soviets and deal with the nuclear era. Says Kauffman, "Conant the
>barbarian triumphed: the number of school districts plummeted from 83,718 in
>1950 to 17,995 in 1970."
>
>GATES TO ADD BILLIONS TO SMALL SCHOOL MOVEMENT
>
>GEORGE ARCHIBALD, WASHINGTON TIMES - Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates is
>committing billions of dollars to radically redesign failing public high
>schools into smaller, more academically rigorous institutions in
>predominantly black and Hispanic communities in which less than half the
>students graduate. The goal, says the executive director of the Bill and
>Melinda Gates Foundation, is to double the graduation rate for minority
>students by the end of the decade and quadruple the number of inner-city
>students prepared for college.
>
>"Our high schools are the least effective part of the American education
>system," Tom Vander Ark, who administers the $24 billion foundation, wrote
>in a commentary to explain the reform efforts. "This coming September, about
>3.5 million young people in America will begin the 8th grade. Over the
>succeeding four years, more than 1 million of them will drop out - an
>average of 3,500 each school day," Mr. Vander Ark wrote in Education Week.
>"Another 1.5 million will muddle through with a collection of credits that
>fail to prepare them for college, work, or citizenship. . . "If we keep
>building the impersonal tracked high schools, we'll need to expand our
>prison system."
>
>Smaller is better, as shown by New York City's small-schools movement that
>started in the late 1970s, he said, adding that national school reform
>efforts need to take into account "a century of success in private
>education, particularly urban Catholic schools." Other "pockets of
>excellence" pointing the way forward, he said, are "innovative and highly
>successful charter schools, including Houston's KIPP Academy, the 'Met'
>school in Rhode Island, San Diego's High Tech High, and the Aspire public
>charter schools" in the San Francisco Bay area of California. . . Earlier
>this month, the foundation gave $9 million to the California community
>college system to create 15 early-college high schools in the state, each
>having no more than 400 students.
>
>http://washtimes.com/national/20030421-919737.htm
>
>LINKS
>
>CLEARINGHOUSE ON RURAL EDUCATION & SMALL SCHOOLS SMALL SCHOOLS COALITION
>http://www.ael.org/eric/
>
>ANNIE E CASEY FOUNDATION
>http://www.aecf.org/initiatives/success/smschool.htm
>
>SMALL SCHOOLS & COMMUNITIES OF COLOR
>http://www.bankstreet.edu/news/smallschoolsofferhope.html
>
>SMALL SCHOOLS WORKSHOP
>http://smallschoolsworkshop.org/
>
>BAY AREA COALITION FOR EQUITABLE SCHOOLS
>http://www.bayces.org/small_schools/
>
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