Cleveland, with more than 700 students, was among the first 16 schools to receive Gates Foundation grants to re-engineer themselves. Private schools have kept school and class sizes small and personal for decades. But for public schools, a movement toward creating smaller schools from scratch, or breaking up large comprehensive high schools, is considered nothing short of revolutionary. But the shift under way in this state is likely to affect everything from student-teacher ratios to course offerings, activities and school construction, with higher academic achievement both the hope and the gamble. Two weeks ago, about 45 educators from across the state met in Bellevue to begin discussing how to redesign their high schools into smaller schools or academies.
Researchers say small schools can help.
Education research is mixed and uncertain on many things, but on small schools, the research about the benefits is so strong, people should be scrambling. The project is an education clearinghouse created with Gates Foundation money and housed at the University of Washington's Center for Reinventing Education. For all the budget debate this year in the Legislature about fully financing Initiative 728 and retaining the state's Better Schools Fund, both of which aim to reduce class sizes, the small-schools movement goes even further. The most important thing is to help young people feel valued and to develop in them a sense that they can contribute to society. It influences what kind of adults they become.