Small Schools
What are Small Schools?
There are many different kinds of small schools in the US and around the world. The most successful small schools are small enough so everybody knows each other well, but large enough so students can find like-minded friends and teachers with whom to build solid learning relationships. Usually that means between 200 and 400 students (depending upon whether it is an elementary or secondary school); research notes that success tapers off after schools get much larger than that.
The size and focus of small schools make it possible for students to find personal relevance, deep meaning, and a sense of connection in the curriculum. Small schools also personally challenge students to go beyond the familiar to explore strange new worlds. Small schools may be “free-standing,” or they may be part of a cluster of small schools in one large building. They have a clear academic focus and vision for high quality successful learning; they may also have a particular theme, such as a visual and performing arts school, or a technology school.
Teachers in successful small schools work in small collaborative teams themselves; usually, teams comprising core academics share common students, so that together those teachers can get to know their students well, and design learning opportunities that are specifically tailored to how those students learn and what they need. Building small schools allows for a consistent, personalized approach to school social responsibility making it is a community of adults and students together that takes collective responsibility for its social interactions and social climate. Successful small schools are clear about what counts as student and school success, and build assessment practices that engage students in rigorously measuring their results.
Successful small schools are closely connected to families and the community. They are able to use the community's knowledge and resources as sites for learning.
Finally, significant aspects of leadership and decision-making, including staffing and budget decisions, are decentralized and democratically structured in successful small schools, even those that are part of a larger school or school building. While there are shared activities across small schools in one building, such as sports, libraries, and cafeterias, the essential elements and facilities of small school identity remain discrete and defined.
Do Small Schools Work?
Yes! All around the country, a groundswell of new small schools (200 – 500 students), and large schools redesigned into smaller learning communities, are documenting amazing success in achieving increasingly high levels of learning for all students. And small schools in urban areas are showing even more dramatic improvements for students of color from poor neighborhoods, thus making a real contribution to closing the achievement gap between those students and their more affluent peers. Not only are achievement levels going up for students in small schools (as measured by multiple types of assessments), but every factor associated with school success and college access is showing improvement: attendance, discipline, student persistence through graduation, teacher satisfaction, rigorous academic work, student engagement in and identification with school, depth of involvement, SAT scores, even college going – and college graduation (for the schools that have been around the longest) - rates.
Even when comparing electives, where small schools might be faulted for not having the variety of larger schools, small schools have shown an increase in participation rates and in the quality of participation, and by students who traditionally do not participate.
And by measuring cost in relation to graduation rates (results), and not just in per pupil expenditures, evidence shows that small schools are more cost effective than larger schools, putting to rest the myth of economies of scale.
Why Do Small Schools Work? Personalization.
Small schools make personalization possible. Small schools, in and of themselves, are not "automatically" successful. Small schools enable the personalization of learning, responsive education, and authentic and engaging assessment to take place. There are critical components of personalization in successful small schools, which follow.
- Personalization is when teachers know their students well, as individual, developing and learning human beings; and, conversely, when students know themselves, know each other, and know their teachers well.
- Personalization means that teachers work with smaller numbers of students on a daily basis. This makes it possible for students and teachers to create a community where everyone is an active participant in learning, and where high expectations, support, and caring, demonstrated among teachers and their students, combine together to enable a culture of success.
- Because of their size, flexibility, and autonomy, small schools are able to design time for teachers to work together, and time for authentic learning experiences, integrated across traditional curricular boundaries, that can be assessed through performance assessments and/or portfolios. Both students and teachers in small schools report feeling a greater sense of belonging, agency, and efficacy.
- Small schools also make personalization with the community possible: successful small schools are strongly connected to their communities, and community members play essential roles in supporting the school and reciprocally are supported for their students' learning and success.