Essentially all of the research on high school size conducted in the past 30 years suggests that we need to move to much smaller schools (Gregory, 2000). In response to these findings, school administrators have attempted to subdivide big high schools into smaller entities. This Digest reviews recent research on the movement to break up large schools and discusses five types of error common among such attempts--errors of autonomy, of size, of continuity, of time, and of control.
Space does not allow an adequate summary of the research on school size, but several good reviews are available (Cotton, 1996; Williams, 1990; Raywid, 1999; and Gregory, 2000). Even the popular literature of the past few years has been sprinkled with articles extolling the virtues and successes of small schools. This public dialogue is reflected in a recent national poll of high school parents and teachers; 66 percent of the parents and 79 percent of the teachers favored smaller high schools (Public Agenda, 2001). Heeding the message, large high schools are now attempting to remake themselves into smaller, more personal institutions.
Cotton (in press) reviews a newer body of research and commentary on the widespread efforts to create small learning communities in large schools. The Learning First Alliance (2001) has provided an extensive treatment of efforts to downsize that focuses on safety issues, and Nathan and Febey (2001) describe the reconfigured physical settings of 22 newly created small schools in 12 states. Two recent major studies in urban contexts document the promise of recent breakup efforts. Stiefel, Iatarola, Fruchter, and Berne (2000) analyzed cost and achievement data for all of New York City's high schools, both large and small, and Wasley et al. (2000) have described in detail the early successes of Chicago's small elementary, middle, and high schools.
Despite growing support for smaller schools, high schools have continued to grow in size. This disparity exists for several reasons. The high school plays a complex role in its community. Reformer Ted Sizer calls it a "diabolically complicated system" (1996, p. xi). The high school is often more than a place of learning. It may be one of the few entities that unifies a community--a source of community pride and a central gathering place.
There is little evidence that this strategy is successful, even though hundreds of high schools currently are pursuing it.1 If the central intent of such breakup efforts is simply to create more personal forms of the familiar comprehensive high school, many recent attempts may have achieved a certain success. But the goals of these efforts suggest more; they seem to seek a cultural renaissance, not a remodeling (National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1996).
A pervasive problem is that characteristics built into the basic design of most breakup efforts make it impossible for them to cross over into the world of successful new small schools which do have very different cultures (Meier, 1995; Gregory, 1993). Five common errors--of autonomy, size, continuity, time, and control--bar many schools from crossing the big/small cultural divide.
Reform is devilishly difficult to pull off, even under the most favorable of circumstances. Many schools of our future, even some spawned by breaking up big high schools, will have quite different cultures than the archetypical American comprehensive high school. Large high schools can find help in avoiding the errors described here by taking advantage of the extensive technical assistance now available. Two regional sources of assistance are rapidly gaining national status. They are the Small Schools Workshop at the University of Illinois at Chicago (http://www.smallschoolsworkshop.org), and the Small Schools Project of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington (http://www.smallschoolsproject.org). Both run conferences and workshops and maintain Web sites rich in resources. Several brief but helpful advice papers are available from the Small Schools Project (Center on Reinventing Public Education, n.d.-a,b,c) and Kathleen Cotton's recent review (in press) is a must-read for those contemplating breaking up large high schools.
Can we expect large high schools to reculture themselves so completely? Can they do it? Half the responding teachers in large high schools in the aforementioned Public Agenda survey (2001) anticipated widespread opposition from their communities if a breakup effort were attempted. In the next 10 years we should know whether creating truly new small schools out of existing large high schools is even possible.
1. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding the breakup of about 50 high schools in Washington state alone.
Center on Reinventing Public Education. (n.d.-b). Questions to consider about conversions of large high schools. Seattle: The Small Schools Project, Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of Washington. Retrieved December 7, 2001, from http://www.smallschoolsproject.org/tools/toolstouse/conversionquesti ons.pdf
Center on Reinventing Public Education. (n.d.-c). Thinking about conversions. Seattle: The Small Schools Project, Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of Washington. Retrieved December 7, 2001, from http://www.smallschoolsproject.org/tools/toolstouse/conversionpoints .pdf
Cotton, K. (1996). School size, school climate, and student performance. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 397 476)
Cotton, K. (in press). New small learning communities: Findings from recent literature. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.
Gregory, T. (1993). Making high school work: Lessons from the Open School. New York: Teachers College Press. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 401 608)
Gregory, T. (2000). School reform and the no-man's-land of high school size. Retrieved December 7, 2001, from http://www.smallschoolsproject.org/articles/download/gregory.pdf (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 451 981)
Learning First Alliance. (2001). Every child learning: Safe and supportive schools. Washington, DC: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Retrieved December 7, 2001, from http://www.learningfirst.org/pdfs/safe-schools-report.pdf
Mead, M. (1970). Culture and commitment: A study of the generation gap. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc.
Meier, D. (1995). The power of their ideas: Lessons for America from a small school in Harlem. Boston: Beacon Press. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 388 481)
Nathan, J., & Febey, K. (2001). Smaller, safer, saner, successful schools. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities. Retrieved December 7, 2001, from http://www.edfacilities.org/pubs/saneschools.pdf
National Association of Secondary School Principals (1996). Breaking ranks: Changing an American institution. A Report of the National Association of Secondary School Principals in partnership with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching on the high school of the 21st century. Reston, VA: Author.
Public Agenda. (2001). Teachers, parents find smaller schools appealing, but see other education reforms as more pressing. Press release, September 26, 2001 in advance of the full report to be published in December 2001 or January 2002. Retrieved December 7, 2001, from http://www.publicagenda.org/aboutpa/pdf/small_high_schools.pdf
Raywid, M. A. (1999). Current literature on small schools. Eric Digest. Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 425 049)
Sizer, T. R. (1984). Horace's compromise. The dilemma of the American high school. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 264 171)
Sizer, T. R. (1996). Horace's hope: What works for the American high school. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.
Stiefel, L., Berne, R., Iatarola, P., & Fruchter, N. (2000). High school size: Effects on budgets and performance in New York City. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 22(1), 27-39. Available online under the title, The Effects of Size of Student Body on School Costs and Performance in New York City High Schools. Retrieved December 7, 2001, from http://www.nyu.edu/iesp/publications/publications.html
Wasley, P. A., Fine, M., Gladden, M., Holland, N. E., King, S. P., Mosak, E., & Powell, L. C. (2000). Small schools: Great strides--A study of new small schools in Chicago. New York: Bank Street College of Education. Retrieved December 7, 2001, from http://www.bankstreet.edu/html/news/SmallSchools.pdf
Wasley, P. A., & Lear, R. J. (2001). Small schools, real gains. Educational Leadership. 58(6), 22-27.
Williams, D. T. (1990). The dimensions of education: Recent research on school size. Working paper series. Clemson, SC: Clemson University, Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 347 006)
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Tom Gregory is professor of education at Indiana University, Bloomington. His research interests include the impact of school size and school reform.
This publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. ED-99-CO-0027. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI, the Department, or AEL.
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