Agenda - 03-11-1985 - Laserfiche WebLink

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h school juniors from larger schools scored higher on the Uinnesota Scholastic Aptitude Test than juniors from smaller schools. the Minnesota Public School Survey Committee suggested that the signi- ficant factor was educational attainment and occupation of the student's father, not school size. �� In a discussion of extracurricular activi.ti.es, Parker and Gump's Big Seh o , Small School is often quoted, The researchers studied high achools in eastern Kansas ranging in size from 35 to 2#287 studen4s, Although the book agrees that a large school pro- ; vides a somewhat larger number and wider variety of. extraclass ac- tivities, it stressed that the extent and level of student partici- pation in am=Lller schools was higher. "Furthermore# a much larger proportion o the small school students held positions of import- ance and res onsibility in the ....settings they entered# and they occupied the a positions in more varieties of settings than students of the large school*" While two other studies conclude that there are no significant differences related to size;$ scome research mug- gests a maxi um school size •in order to have a good variety of ex- tracurriculai activities and student participation. Barker favors schools of 1 ss than 300 students. while Brown set a limit of 1#$00 pupils and Kleinert 19500, The research on size of school and relationghe such as the ' student-teac or relationship# is also varied. Although it is gen- II orally agree ) that developing close student-teacher and staff-staff relationships is easier in a small school, studies have reported j that this is also possible in larger schools given the right climate and school organization. James Tyson reports on good teacher-pupil relations in Virginia high schools with enrollments of 293-490 while William Mona an mentions the close relationships in California schools up t°� 2#00O..'8tudentse James Coleman in his Report of-'the panel on Youths contends that small high schools offer certain in- tangible benefits in personal re'lationS such as greater motivation and involveme t# interpersonal truest and loyalty, as well as allowing for more freq ant relations among students of different ages and abilities e S pire's study investigating staff' relations#any! An drowse examin ng the relationship between •hhool and community, re- eommend high chools with 1200 to 1600 'studentas. • M