Small School Success Causes Problems
New York’s Smaller Schools Make Large Schools Worse
Jun 19, 2009
Instead of hailing the success of smaller schools, critics are saying that they are actually causing problems for the large schools. How can that be?
Bill Gates Initiative
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has poured $130 million into New York City more than five years ago with the full support of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. It was a questionable project with many skeptics proclaiming it would be a waste of money and a total failure. What was the risky project? Smaller Specialty Schools. Not only were the schools broken apart into smaller schools within schools from 2,000 students to 500 students or less, they became specialized.
The new format was based on the idea that school needed to be more relevant to students. What they were learning needed to have a real world application. The need for this information was to be the focal point of getting this education. One way to do that is to give students options in their interest area. If a student was interested in sports then the Academy for Careers in Sports could be the best choice. If a student was interested in hotel management or culinary arts, The Food and Finance High School may be the best choice. Subject areas were adjusted to focus on the specific major. Food and Finance may stress algebra less and accounting more. The accounting work packets could be tailor made for a restaurant instead of being general in focus. This would make the content area more relevant to student interests.
New York City Closes Some Large Schools
New York City has closed the doors to more than 24 schools over the past seven years. The students were moved to smaller schools that can monitor students better, form better relationships with counselors and teachers, and form a family atmosphere. Within the smaller school setting, New York City has found student truancy lowered, student achievement on the increase, and dropout rates declining.
What About the Remaining Large Schools?
This seems to be the problem. Researchers at the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs do not find fault with the improving small schools. However, they have noted that more needs to be done to help the students still in the large schools. When students enrolled in the smaller and specialized schools, the vacant seats were refilled with students that were unfortunately less motivated and had poor attendance records from the past.
An 18-month study by the NSC showed that from 2003 to 2008 when the smaller schools opened, the larger school graduation rates and attendance both declined. An analogy would be to take unbruised apples from one basket that included both bruised and unbruised. There would now be more room to add bruised apples, leaving a higher concentration of bruised apples.
Joel I. Klein Defends Smaller Schools
Chancellor of Education in New York City, Joel I. Klein supports the small school format and its success. He notes that even if schools were burdened with high-risk students, it was better than leaving those students in failing schools. [1]
Principal of Hillcrest High School in Queens, Stephen M. Duch, adds a different twist. He has 3,000 students in his school with 200 teachers. "Given the deflection of students, it was even more paramount to change the way we ran the school. You bring over 3,000 kids into a building of 200 teachers, and it can be very anonymous. Students could fall through the cracks." [1]
The smaller school concept is not perfect. While the average class size in the new format is 27 instead of the city class size of 34, there is a high teacher turnover. Principal Hemphill says, "They start out with a huge level of enthusiasm among teachers and staff, but it’s really, really hard work, and after a certain number of years of 80-hour workweeks, the teachers get tired." [1]
New York City continues to work on the overwhelming task of improving schools. The task becomes even more difficult when students live in poverty, families are not supportive of the education system, and students have a weak proficiency of the English language.
[1] Javier C. Hernandez, "Success at Small Schools Has a Price, a Report Says," The New York Times, June 17, 2009.
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