Small High Schoolsby Valerie Nelson | More from this Blogger 07 Aug 2006 08:01 AM American high schools operate in much the same way today as they did 50 years ago; leaving most of today's young people without the academic preparation they need to be successful in the information age economy. Nationally the graduation rate for urban students hovers at 50%. Of those students that do graduate and go on to college, nearly half require remedial courses. The traditional high school which typically has short class periods, detached subject areas, and teachers working alone in their classrooms may have worked at one time, but it is clear that it no longer meets the needs of a rapidly changing society and world. Today's students must become prepared to make connections across cultures and fields of knowledge. They must be prepared to take on work that requires independent thinking and problem solving. Many high schools have doubled in size in the last generation resulting in overcrowding and reduced student and teacher interaction. Some teachers see over 150 students per day. Students feel less connected to their teachers and peers in large high schools. Learning problems can easily go unnoticed or unattended to; students can feel alienated which often seeds risky behaviors such as searching for acceptance in gangs, drug, alcohol and tobacco use. Student academic achievement and general self-concepts are lower in large schools. These low self-concepts can be carried throughout life and affect work, family and community life as a whole. Studies show that students who attend small high schools are more satisfied with their schooling. These small school children "consistently outperform comparison groups at all levels of academia, are less likely to drop out, and have more positive self-concepts. Furthermore, research indicates that the advantages of smaller learning communities are most acute for disadvantaged and marginal students, such as those populating large urban school systems" (Wall to Wall: Implementing Small Learning Communities in Five Boston High Schools, 1998, p.2). According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, small high schools can provide children a personalized learning environment, higher graduation rate, feelings of being less isolated and more active engagement in school activities. In New York City, the Bloomberg administration is has already experiencing the benefits of the over 170 small high schools opened over the last three years. Students of these schools are graduating at a higher rate with higher overall test scores. Learn more about Valerie Nelson  Valerie is a Families.com blogger, freelance writer and small business owner. Valerie helps non-profit organizations with fundraising through grant development for their programs and projects. Relevanteducation tags User Comments  Valorie Delp (49340) 07 Aug 2006 08:22 AMGood job! Just a note on your statistics of 50% of urban students not graduating. It is actually more like 18% for urban students of minority status in regular public highschools. What brings up the statistic is other "urban" schools that are selective in admission, or students from more affluent urban areas. (Averaging together HS students from Manhattan for example with HS students from the Bronx.) This is a great article and I hope you do more like this! Also, in NYC those high schools are selective and/or only take a certain type of student and that is one reason they show positive results. Again, great article.  Valerie Nelson (1149) 07 Aug 2006 10:25 AMThank you so much for your feedback. The 50% graduation rate for urban schools is an accurate figure according to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and many other studies/reports that I have reviewed. Yes there will be differences based on geographic location and other factors. 50% is an average urban graduation rate. In the major city closest to me the rate is actually 48%. I don't know why you would deselect minority status to get a rate of 18%? Where do you get that rate? In my opinion, urban is urban regardless of minority status whendiscussing the graduation rate. How are mandatory- free public schools able to select particular students? Do you mean based on where they live or is there a bigger story here? Thanks again for your comments. Valorie Delp (49340) 07 Aug 2006 05:33 PMYou did good research! Just to clarify. . . I didn't mean to imply that 50% wasn't accurate--it is overall. I'm sorry. I just meant that the picture really, can be a lot worse. In NYC the graduation rate is around 40%. However, when you start looking at individual neighborhoods, statistics are around 15-25%. (These are mostly minority kids--thus my comment). Urban is not urban when you start talking about huge cities. For example, if you were to look at schools on the Upper East Side, or schools that are selective in their admission process, those kids' graduation rates are much higher (Bronx Science's is 99.3%.) Then you take Roosevelt which is down the street where I live--graduation rate is 12%. Now average them and the number doesn't look quite as bad as it would if you took the majority of high schools in these neighborhoods. The disparity, IMO, is truly staggering. Anyway, my point wasn't that your statistics were bad. . .it was that places that say the grad rate is 50% in urban areas don't really give the whole picture. From my perspective, 50% is really good. Does this make sense? Re: Mandatory free public schools--I have lived here 10 years and for the life of me the public high school process, getting in, who has what, etc. absolutely confounds me. There are public schools who offer highly selective honors programs, and there are other public schools which in order to get in you have get a certain score on either an entrance exam or a city-wide test. They select who attends their school and they are in essence college prep schools--but they are public. Two examples of schools that are ranked as some of the best high schools in the country are Bronx Science and Styverson. Valerie Nelson (1149) 08 Aug 2006 07:11 AMHi Valorie, Thanks for clarifying your comments. When looking at schools as a whole such as I was for the purpose of this article, we cannot select one or two schools to determine the overall graduation rate. Utilizing averages is an acceptable scientific measure. Surely in my city there would be great dispaities between some of the schools graduation rates such as you noted. Personally- I think a 50% graduation rate is atrocious. That means half of the students per class will not graduate, and in this country I find that dispicable. Valorie Delp (49340) 08 Aug 2006 09:54 AMYes, yes. I agree with you-I just intended to give a different side of the picture. It's not one or two schools, it's tens of thousands of students in many, many high schools. Again, I'm sorry--your article was great! I just meant to give another side of the picture. I certainly didn't mean to put you in a position to defend yourself. You definitely don't need to do so--it was a good article. As for 50%, I would be really happy if all the high schools in NYC achieved that. Sad? Yep! But true nonetheless! Again, thanks for such great work! Community Tags academic achievement, high school, small schools, students, teachers Discuss this article
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