Lisa Wolf-Wendel and Chuck Epp (Kansas Univeristy)
“Small School Benefits”
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/jan/25/small-schools-benefit-students/
“Well over 100 studies show that small neighborhood schools foster key educational benefits:
- Students in small neighborhood schools learn faster, achieve more, and graduate at higher rates than comparable students in larger, non-neighborhood schools. Studies find that smaller schools are especially beneficial to low-income and minority students and are especially crucial to the success of efforts at narrowing the achievement gap.
- Small neighborhood schools cultivate better student attitudes. Their students have a stronger sense of belonging and more active engagement in learning.
- Small neighborhood schools reduce discipline problems. Students in these schools are better known by teachers across multiple grade levels and, as a result, there are fewer discipline problems, truancy issues, and better attendance.
- Small neighborhood schools better engage students in extracurricular activities, and this involvement is correlated with better attendance and improved learning outcomes.
- Small neighborhood schools encourage walking to school and this improves children’s health and active engagement in learning.
- Small neighborhood schools foster better teacher attitudes. As one researcher put it, “large schools appear to promote negative teacher perceptions of school administration and low staff morale. In small schools, teachers are more likely to participate in planning and analyze practice, and are likely to expend extra efforts to ensure that the students achieve and the school succeeds.”
- Small neighborhood schools better facilitate parental involvement in their children’s learning and foster closer parent-teacher relationships.”