| Research Home
|
Small
Schools Can Make a Difference for Teachers
The
National Commission on Teaching & America's Future has posited an
audacious goal of ensuring a caring, competent, and qualified teacher
for every student. How do we make this vision a reality? One possible
way is by the promotion and implementation of smaller schools for our
elementary, middle, and high school students.
NCTAF
s policy development efforts press for well-prepared teachers who work
in schools that enable to them to learn from their expert colleagues
and enable them to know their students and their families well. This
means redesigned schools so that teachers teach fewer students and teach
the same ones for more than one year. The research is clear: Students
learn more in relatively small high schools; size is especially important
for disadvantaged students; and the achievement gap for minority and
poor students closes dramatically in schools smaller than 600.
Indeed,
a study about elementary-school size and the effects on academic productivity
by the Consortium on Chicago School Research revealed that small schools
produce greater achievement gains in both reading and math; and a New
York City study surfaced the fact that small schools in the long run
are most cost-effective (i.e., it is far more expensive to allow a student
to drop out than it is to invest whatever it takes to ensure that student
graduates). Finally, research on small schools has shown that they are
safer ones, where teachers know students well. Two other recent reports,
one from the Bank Street School of Education, and another from the Institute
for Local Self-Reliance mirror these findings.
In
addition, teachers also report better collegial relationships in smaller
schools. However, most U.S. teachers have almost no regular time to
consult together or learn about new teaching strategies, unlike their
peers in many other European and Asian countries where teachers have
substantial time to plan and study with one another. In Germany, Japan
and China, for example, teachers spend between 15 and 20 hours per week
working with colleagues on developing curriculum, counseling students,
and pursuing their own learning. They regularly visit and observe other
schools and classrooms, attend seminars provided by universities and
other teachers, conduct group research projects, and participate in
study groups. They also get to use their teaching knowledge more extensively
because they do not have to teach so many different students, with new
ones in front of them every year.
Small
schools, coupled with prepared teachers who have access to expert colleagues
and good teaching materials, lead to increased student achievement and
lower drop-outs. Unfortunately, we have a long way to go to make this
vision of teaching quality and school redesign a reality in the Southeast
and across the nation.
To read
more about small schools and the studies showing their effectiveness,
follow any of the links below.
LINKS:
- An
article in the New
Rules, a publication of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance,
"Jack and the Giant School" explores the history of school
size, and makes some fundamental points about the benefits of small
schools.
- A
recent report from the Bank
Street School of Education uses information from the largest database
assembled to date to show the important positive effects small schools
can have on student achievement.
- Read
"Educators
ponder big change: smaller schools," an April 19, 2001, article
on CNNfyi.com, CNN's site for teachers, students, and educators, about
small schools,
- http://www.teachingquality.org/resources/html/smallschools1.htm
