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Public Agenda Survey

Research You Can Use: Parents Favor Smaller Schools

Parents whose children attend small high schools were more likely to say that teachers help struggling students (75 percent compared to 48 percent in large schools) and that students speak and write well (67 percent to 47 percent). On all but a handful of measures, parents of students in small high schools give their schools better marks than parents of students in large high schools.

Small school parents are considerably happier with their schools on social issues such as civility, student alienation and parent-teacher engagement. They also are more likely to speak positively of their schools when it comes to academic preparation and achievement.

Parents whose children were in large schools were more likely to report that students were alienated (40 percent to 23 percent) and bullied (41 percent to 27 percent) and likely to dropout (43 percent to 21 percent).

When asked about their willingness to break up their child’s existing large high school into smaller schools, about half responded positively while only 29 percent opposed the idea.

Sizing Things Up: Public Agenda survey, June, 1991.
Available online: http://www.publicagenda.org/specials/smallschools/smallschools.htm