Smaller Schools: An Ambience for Learning.

Since 1960 this author has taught and been an administrator in large and small school districts and in buildings with large and small enrollment. Observation of what kind of education was occurring in these different venues has been quite interesting. Smaller schools tend to have a greater proclivity for what we will call "ambiance for learning". This does not mean that larger school units cannot offer a good climate for learning, but that climate is much more easily achieved in a smaller school unit. Because it is more easily achieved in the smaller unit, it tends to occur there more often. The less noticeable, more subjective, harder to measure life experiences that prepare us to be good, productive citizens in the future often are more accessible in the smaller schools as well. The more intimate, participatory environment provides more students with a solid base for participating successfully in life. Research Supports Smaller Schools Writers and researchers have, for some time, recognized the advantage of smallness in education. In 1949 Jesse Stuart compared his experiences teaching in a large school and in a small one. He wrote "It was my first time to teach in a school where I didn't know all the pupils; in fact, not all the teachers. A school was a stronger unit no matter if it were small, where every pupil knew the teachers and every teacher knew all the pupils" (Stuart, 1949). His words were lost in our rush to prove that "bigger is better" and to follow conventional wisdom that the bigger schools are more efficient. Thousands of other teachers have reached the same conclusion through their personal experiences. Many studies have revealed the same findings, but American education has followed a different path. Legislators, who have little experience in education and apparently even less respect for educators, determine most changes in education. The result is that our schools have been guided by some very political, non-educational points of view. Politicians see education as a business and naturally follow a business model. Blue ribbon committees charged with developing plans for restructuring education have often been largely, if not totally, made up of business people to the exclusion of educators. The committees also, apparently ignore educational research in the area of school size. Business people do not have the same perspective on success as educators, and certainly business does not know how to best achieve educational excellence. James Moffett believes that business should be interested and involved in school reform, but it has too narrow a perspective and limited motive to determine the direction school reform should take (Moffett, 1994). In the mid-60's three educational writers, Conant (1967), and Barker and Gump (1964) drew major attention with their ideas. One area where they disagreed was the optimum size for schools. Conant argued for large schools and Barker and Gump for smaller units. For various reasons, both political and economic, Conant's position prevailed and the trend toward larger schools became the model for school reform. Bigger was assumed to be better. School reform followed the Conant model, but research has born out Barker and Gump's position. Walberg (1992) demonstrates that the preponderance of studies show that students learn more in smaller schools, as well as gain from numerous related benefits. Politicians' ignorance of the complexities of education made it easy for them to believe that bigger school systems are more efficient and therefore more likely to save money. This conventional wisdom sounds more logical. It is often not true. Chambers found in a review of literature that there were only two potential sources of saving in larger schools. One was decreased administrative and support staff, and the other was greater efficiency in buying supplies. What often happened, however, was more administrators and support staff were hired in the larger school to handle the bureaucracy and the additional problems caused by the large size. …