{"id":23106,"date":"2015-01-05T07:04:17","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T12:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=23106"},"modified":"2015-01-05T07:07:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T12:07:27","slug":"report-small-schools-trump-small-classes-in-academic-outcomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2015\/01\/05\/report-small-schools-trump-small-classes-in-academic-outcomes\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Small Schools Might Be Better For Students Than Small Classes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maureen<\/a>

<\/p>

Maureen Yoder addresses students at the School of Arts and Sciences in Tallahassee.<\/p><\/div>\n

The School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) in Tallahassee has just over 300 students, and the waiting list to get in is much longer.<\/p>\n

Maureen Yoder is one of the founders of the 15-year-old K-8 charter school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started this school with the intent of keeping it small because we want to create a school family,\u201d Yoder says. \u201cWe believe that the relationship between the teacher and the students is the primary reason students succeed \u2013 besides a good home base.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is sixth grader Mary Stafford\u2019s first year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ll stay. I didn\u2019t want to at the beginning of the year. I wanted to go to a bigger school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

Mary\u2019s elementary school had 1,000 kids. Instead of moving on to a traditional middle school with her friends, her mom convinced her to try something different. \u201cShe liked the fact that it was small because you get one on one help, and she also liked all the teachers and their way of teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been 12 years since Florida voters passed the class size amendment<\/a>, limiting the number of students in certain classes, depending on the grade:<\/p>\n

PreK \u2013 3rd<\/sup>: 18<\/p>\n

4th<\/sup> \u2013 8th<\/sup>: 22<\/p>\n

9th<\/sup> \u2013 12th<\/sup> – 25<\/p>\n

Now, an analysis by government watchdog Florida Taxwatch<\/a> finds that small classes do make a difference in outcomes for kids in kindergarten through 3rd grade – but not in higher grades. The report\u2019s author, Bob Nave, says the state is better off focusing on smaller schools, like SAS, rather than small classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fairly common sense that smaller classes should result in improved student performance,\u201d Nave says. \u201cThe problem is the research just doesn\u2019t back that up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group compiled research showing students in smaller schools do better in math and reading, have fewer behavior problems, and participate in more extracurricular activities. They\u2019re also more likely to graduate.<\/p>\n

Nave says the state was actually on a path toward having smaller schools in 2000, when the Florida Legislature passed a law limiting the size of new schools under construction.\u00a0 Then, the class size amendment passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Legislature was forced not only to fund small schools, but now they had to fund small classes,\u201d Nave says. \u201cWhen one looks at the amount of money that was projected for school construction, it became clear that the Legislature could not do both.\u201d<\/p>\n

So lawmakers repealed the school size law to focus on class size.<\/p>\n

Overall, the research on the effectiveness of small classes is mixed. \u201cThere are some studies that say yes, smaller classes do definitely improve academic outcomes, but there are other studies that show that it really has no effect at all,\u201d says Kathleen McGrory, Miami Herald education reporter.\u00a0 \u201cHere in Florida, we\u2019ve seen slow and steady improvement in student test scores since 2002, but it\u2019s really hard to draw any conclusions from that. The standards have changed; the tests have changed. So it\u2019s really hard to make an apple to apples comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Taxwatch report says the state has nothing to show for its $30 billion investment in small class sizes<\/a>, the state teacher\u2019s union says the amendment hasn\u2019t performed the way voters intended.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they would implement class size appropriately<\/a>, we might see what it was meant to be,\u201d says Joanne McCall, vice president of the Florida Education Association.\u00a0 \u201cThe Florida Legislature has decided that they would change things, and they eliminated a whole bunch of courses that would be affected by the class size.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"6th<\/a>

Gina Jordan\/StateImpact Florida<\/p>

6th grader Mary Stafford chose SAS for middle school. She's been told it'll take her a year to fully adjust to a school of 300 students, instead of the 1000 she's used to.<\/p><\/div>\n

Districts that don\u2019t comply with the limit in core classes have to pay a fine. But now, fewer classes are considered “core” classes. So, a science class like chemistry can have more students than classes like math or English.<\/p>\n

Parents who want a small school for their kids are often limited to private or charter schools.<\/p>\n

The Taxwatch analysis finds that Florida\u2019s traditional public elementary and middle schools have the highest average enrollment in the country, and high school enrollment in Florida is almost twice the national average.<\/p>\n

The small school formula has worked well for SAS – rated an \u201cA\u201d school for more than a decade. Many SAS employees are part-time, which allows the school to keep costs and enrollment down.<\/p>\n

Technically, the school has larger elementary classes than the class size amendment allows. Even though it\u2019s a charter school, Principal Julie Fredrickson says they do have to comply with the amendment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we meet it in elementary school is because we have two certified teachers in each classroom,\u201d Fredrickson says. \u201cFor us, it isn’t just class size; it\u2019s the way we\u2019re teaching them. If you\u2019re studying plants, then the plant is in there and you\u2019re tearing the plant apart. So a small group can do that and get messy, and another group is doing research with the teacher. We can do those sorts of things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) in Tallahassee has just over 300 students, and the waiting list to get in is much longer. Maureen Yoder is one of the founders of the 15-year-old K-8 charter school. \u201cWe started this school with the intent of keeping it small because we want to create a school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1056,1028,590,129],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23106"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23118,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23106\/revisions\/23118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}