Articles: Opinion pieces about Small Schools

Small Schools’ Ripple Effects Debated: As N.Y.C. and Chicago close failing high schools, district officials encounter criticism, by Erik W. Robelen, in Education Week, May 3, 2006.
Some critics in Chicago have charged that small schools conversions have led to increased violence, while there have been charges in New York that small schools have not served their share of special education students. The article looks at a number of differing points of view.

How a school stays ‘on mission,’ By Derrick Z. Jackson, op-ed in the Boston Globe, June 22, 2005.
Jackson looks at the front-page success of charter school Codman Academy, with its high college admission rate, and points out that a number of small Boston schools are having comparable successes. “Such schools include Fenway High, Boston Arts Academy, TechBoston Academy, Muriel Snowden International, Health Careers Academy, and Excel High.”

School-Based Coaching: A revolution in professional development—or just the latest fad? , by Alexander Russo, in the Harvard Education Letter, July/August 2004.
“After years of disappointing results from conventional professional development efforts and under ever-increasing accountability pressures,
many districts are now hiring coaches to improve their schools. These coaches... strive to improve morale and achievement—and raise scores—by
showing teachers how and why certain strategies will make a difference for their students.” Russo discusses the compelling rationales for the use of coaches, as well as caveats for those who would implement coaching.

High Schools Nationwide Paring Down, by Caroline Hendrie, Education Week, June 16, 2004.
Hendrie looks at the national movement toward small schools and interviews proponents and skeptics. Is the high-flying small schools movement a well-funded fad? Does it have staying power?

Smaller High Schools Proving to be Educationally More Effective, by Jay Matthews, in Washingtonpost.com, March 25, 2003.
Washington Post writer Matthews looks at Thomas Toch’s “startling new book” High Schools on a Human Scale: How Small Schools Can Transform American Education. He notes that there are some fine, large high schools, but finds Toch’s rationale and evidence favoring small schools compelling.

One Principal’s World (The Unscripted Version), by Jacques Steinberg, in the New York Times, January 1, 2003.
‘In the summer of 2000, after nearly two decades teaching drama and art, most recently at Parker, Ms. Schrader decided to enroll in what her family refers to as “principal college.” She chose the Greater Boston Principal Residency Network, a part-time one-year training program based partly at Northeastern University. The program follows a medical school “residency” model by placing 10 aspiring principals each year in a mentoring relationship with a veteran principal.’ The article follows PRN alumna Schrader in her first year on the job, and discusses other principal training models.

Research: Smaller Is Better, by Debra Viadero, Education Week, 11/28/2001.
Studies are showing that smaller may be better in impoverished schools, while larger (but under 1000) may be better in wealthy suburban schools. The issues are even more complex when “smaller” involves breaking up a larger school into smaller schools within the larger campus.