Small schools more successful than larger schools

September 12, 2000

Free Market Foundation

Small schools elementary schools with fewer than 350 students and high schools with fewer than 400 students improve the success of students in urban areas by making the school environment more personal. A Bank Street College study focused on 150 small Chicago public schools founded between 1990 and 1997, tracking their progress through 1999.

Among the findings in Small Schools: Great Strides:

The teachers, students and parents were all more satisfied at the small schools than at the larger schools.

Students had better attendance rates, lower drop-out rates, higher grade point averages and improved standardised test scores compared to students at larger schools.

Smaller schools experienced less violence due to increased personal interactions between teachers, students, parents and peers.

Conditions for learning are better in small schools because teachers know their students, collaborate more freely with other teachers, and foster a more open and creative learning environment.

While this two-year study was limited to Chicago, other urban schools in Boston, Philadelphia and New York are also reducing school size. Nationally, the average public school in the United States has 744 students.

Source: Patricia Wasley, et al., Small Schools: Great Strides, June 20, 2000, Bank Street College, New York City.

For report http://www.bnkst.edu/html/news/index.html

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