The Danger of MegaSchoolsby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 02 Oct 2008 05:13 PM
Megaschools can be convenient for school districts for a few reasons. A flux of incoming students can lead to overcrowding, and creating a new megaschool would address the problem, leaving room for further expansion. It is also usually more coast effective to create and maintain one megaschool than it is to renovate and maintain two or three individual schools. Often, school districts can even make money, when they reduce the amount of property they need for their schools. To further complicate the issue, the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act without the necessary added funding to comply has school districts struggling. But megaschools usually have many problems. Often the teacher-student ratio is very low. The principal can no longer know each student by face, let alone by name or even who the students parents are. A complex synchronization must be done throughout the day to ensure that everyone can use the gym, the lunchroom, the library. Lunch has to begin at 10:30 and continue through 2 in order to fit everyone in, for some megaschools. And students find themselves wandering through a city of strangers rather than hallways and classrooms with their teachers and friends. Schools are losing their individuality, their charm. And that great little school in the woods gets torn down and replaced with the equivalent of an industrial park, or if you are lucky, a college campus. Some school districts even take the megaschool concept one step further, but combining vastly different grades on the same property. Imagine a new kindergartener going to school for the first time and being met not only with 600 other elementary students, but another 600 high school students at the same time. Scary. What do you think of megaschools? Click here for more articles by Mary Ann Romans. Is It Cost Effective to Bring a School Lunch? Dealing with School Fundraisers Preschoolers and ADHD Research Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevanteducation tags User Comments  Valorie Delp (49340) 02 Oct 2008 11:58 PMI found your article kind of interesting especially since I graduated in a class of 2,000. (Not the year obviously. . .I mean the number of students.) From a teaching standpoint, I think it makes a lot of sense. . .save money on building maintenance and put that money back into teaching. I think really the issue is that people don't like change and a mega school if you're used to "that small charm" is just plain different. But as someone who was incredibly well educated in schools that had several thousands students. . .all the way from elementary to high school--it's really not so bad. Samual (11722) 03 Oct 2008 12:59 AMThe biggest class I had ever witnessed was 26 and that was because a local school had shut down due to poor structure. I don't think the number of students in a school matter in the slightest, it is the teachers, the class sizes and willingness of the students. In the UK our biggest schools tend to be grammar schools, typically with 1,500-2,000 students in total, they are also the most successful schools in the country. If big numbers don't work, then universities with 40,000 students wouldn't be producing students with 1st class degrees. Would you rather spend hundreds of thousands on buildings a school doesn't need, or actual teaching resources?  Mary Ann Romans (26876) 03 Oct 2008 06:03 AMI have to disagree, obviously with both of you. Samual, University students have quite different needs than those of elementary students. A five-year-old requires more attention than a 18-year-old in terms of getting through the school day. The plan that our school is proposing comes out to an additional cost of $5 per year per taxpayer, hardly money saving. And in fact, that increase in taxes for building the mega school actually reduces the number of teachers and staff, so class sizes will now be larger (justified by larger physical classrooms to fit more students). as anyone can tell you, more students per teacher is not a good thing. So, in fact there is no money saved and put back into teaching. Valorie Delp (49340) 03 Oct 2008 06:48 AMThat's a bummer. Obviously all educational districts run differently. . .so just bc my district found a way to make it more profitable--doesn't mean the same for you. But mega high schools (in particular) tend to have TONS more opportunities for kids. And it's nice. I think too any time you can mix ages (if you do it right which is another question) that is a bonus--not a negative. Samual (11722) 03 Oct 2008 07:16 AMIn UK primary school ages are mixed, from year two to year six the majority of schools have classes of mixed ages. So it would be year two's and three's in the same class room, etc. How big do mega highschools tend to be over there? Your year group is bigger than most of our schools Valorie and considered a school that is too big. Samual (11722) 03 Oct 2008 07:27 AMI forgot to add, my sons primary school has 120ish pupils, which does mean somethings are restricted as there are not enough funds to put alot of extra things in place, such as after school clubs and trips as the teachers need to be in the class room. I would rather he be at a bigger primary school, but as we now live in a very small town they just don't exist apart from English schools, which is something we don't want him attending. Valorie Delp (49340) 03 Oct 2008 07:51 AMSamual that depends on the state. Each state governs its own education--there's not unified education here. Then each states passes the school governence down to districts. So every state, every district can do education differently. My mega school can be entirely different in every aspect than MaryAnn's. I never had, by the way, more than 20 kids in any of my classes. Samual (11722) 03 Oct 2008 09:45 AMOur education is not unified either, ours is done in the same way as yours, each county chooses that happens when, apart from a few exams. Mary Ann Romans (26876) 03 Oct 2008 11:29 AMVal, did you school combine different grade levels, such as elementary and high school? I also grew up in NYC, but never went to a mega school. Instead, we had only one classroom per grade through eight grade, with about 17 or so kids. At my son's current school, there are anywhere from 18 to 20 students per class with three or four classes per grade. While it is not a tiny school, the principal knows all of the kids names, and the kids all know the teachers and staff. I worry that this might change, and I worry about putting little kids in with high schoolers (separate schools next to each other).  Julie Gentry (5915) 09 Oct 2008 10:55 AMOur mega-high school has a student ratio of 20-1 --- and the city asked for almost $200 million last year to build a new one. We're just not that big. The tax burden was going to be huge, and thankfully it failed. They'll push every election until it passes :-(. I think the problem is not necessarily with the class size, but with the lack of authority the teachers have to control a larger class. Teachers are given a lot of RESPONSIBILITY, but their hands are often tied to carry that out. If you have a class of 20 with two troublemakers, that's more difficult than a class of 40 with one. If we give teachers some autonomy and personal discretion to deal with the errant few, their class sizes shouldn't matter very much. Mary Ann Romans (26876) 14 Oct 2008 10:36 AMJulie, I am a big believer in smaller class sizes, especially with many teachers being forced to "teach to the test" instead of teaching to learn. My son's first kindergarten was all day. The class size was the same he had in his next kindergarten, although he learned a lot more in a half day. The first school had a lot of discipline problems, so I can agree with you there. My thoughts here are more along the line of academics, rather than control, although being able to spend less time on discipline a class is extremely important. With a smaller class size, I think that teachers can focus more time to understanding their students and finding effective ways to teach. Not all kid learn the same way, and with smaller class sizes, a problem may be able to be presented in different ways for visual learners, auditory learners, etc. Andilei (70) 16 Nov 2008 03:56 PMPersonally, I like the idea of a smaller school with a smaller teacher to student ratio. I worked in a daycare for a while and it was a lot easier when there were less students to control. You were able to get a lot more done and it was easier to control the "trouble makers" in the class. Not only would you be able to know your co-workers better but also the students and their parents. Growing up in a small school I noticed that most of the time the teachers not only knew your parents but your entire family as well. Knowing your students this well it is easier to relate with the students. Valorie Delp (49340) 17 Nov 2008 04:48 AMmary Ann--we had separate elementary, junior high, and high schools. Andilei (70) 19 Nov 2008 07:43 PMMy school was arranged with the elementary, middle and high schools within walking distance of each other as well. Whenever the elementary school was in need of volunteers the high school usually provided students from PE classes for the day. The students were actually a lot of help. Community Tags education, elementary school, megaschools, school board Discuss this article
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