It is school size, not class size, that matters

The largest high school class I taught had 45 kids in it. It did not really matter to me whether there were 20 or 30 or beyond 40. Grading got harder of course and remembering all the kids at the first parent-teacher evening was impossible. But class size itself was never an obstacle.

The latest studies bear this out, fingering school size, not class size, as the real problem. I think that’s important for parents to think about when it comes to school choices. Birmingham, Taft and Portola are enormous and should have been broken up years ago. Birmingham Charter says it wants its roll to reach almost 3000. That is ridiculous.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recognizes school size as a major problem and they helped fund a recent report on a brave New York City experiment. The report states that there is “clear and reliable evidence that, in roughly six years, a large system of small public high schools can be created and can markedly improve graduation prospects for many disadvantaged students” (my emphasis). The Report is well worth a read (find it here). It is a model LA Unified should be considering.

Larger corporate schools generate more cliques and alienate more kids – I think of this as the Columbine factor. They are impersonal and bureaucratic and a key reason why many Encino parents consider home schooling or private schools and it was one the problems charter schools were supposed to address. Obviously Birmingham Charter is making an attempt with its Small Learning Communities, and Taft has Humanitas, Star Leadership, etc. but these seem like band-aids. Larger schools belong to an earlier era.

Schools are microcosms of their neighborhoods and communities. If a conservative approach favors smaller government, then why not apply it to school sizes? If learning is more important than having a large pool to draw on for the football team, then aren’t small community-based public and private high schools the way to go? The evidence is there to show they work.