Small School Initiative

The small schools movement, also known as the Small Schools Initiative, in the United States of America holds that many high schools are too large and should be reorganized into smaller, autonomous schools of no more than 400 students, and optimally under 200. Many private schools of under 200 share design features which draw upon the benefits of organizations of less than 200 people. In the public school version of the Small Schools Movement, students may be given a choice of which small school they want to join. Each of the smaller schools would offer students a feeling of connectedness between students who share the same or similar interests with them. In many ways, the small schools in high schools would resemble the team system of many middle schools across the United States. Small schools allow students to have more individual attention from teachers than most average high schools. Many small schools are created by reforming a failed large school into several small ones in the same building, as is the case with the former Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx in New York City.

Supporters of small schools claim that "in small schools, student achievement increases... Student attendance improves, graduation rates rise, and college going rates increase. Students are more engaged in their studies and are more likely to participate in extracurricular activities." This is due to the fact that students are more likely to be known by all of the adults and children in the school and are much less likely to "fall through the cracks."

Deborah Meier has argued that a small school allows all of the teachers to sit around a single table and to create a culture of shared decision-making. This should be a central component of a school that intends to teach children to become powerful members of a democracy--they should see their teachers acting democratically. Face-to-face democracy is much more likely and practical in a small school.

Positive gains for student achievement within small schools can be seen in Oakland California. According to a study by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University "small schools in Oakland are outperforming the large schools from which they emerged. In particular, students are completing more rigorous coursework and dropping out at lower rates, compared to the large schools."

According to The American Dream and the Public Schools by Jennifer L. Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick, smaller classes sizes contribute to students in "early grades, and consistently challenging academic courses have been demonstrated to help disadvantaged children achieve, just as they enable middle-class children to achieve."

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