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• Letter to Members: True school reform achieved only through collaboration
• Does school size matter? Large or small, schools need the tools to succeed
• Rural Hillman High overcomes challenges to build solid foundation for success
• East Lansing High disproves theory that size alone dictates success
• Small schools: Upside and downside
• Granholm a big proponent of small schools
• Stressed out: All school employees wrestle with stress on the job
• 'Been there, done that, no thanks!'
• Candidate recommendations made by your colleagues back home, not by leaders at MEA headquarters
• 'No Child must go,' says 9th District congressional candidate Gary Peters
• Generation Next: Melanie Mol
• 'We need to fight for funding for our students'
• Unions hold answer for lifting America's middle class out of current economic malaise
• MEA helps Perry and Morrice defeat consolidation
• MESSA partners with Jackson Public Schools
• The MEA-Retired mission: Protecting members' health care and pension benefits, promoting public education
• Spring RA delegates to elect MEA officers, NEA directors, adopt 2008-09 budget
• Education Action Group rants against school employees
• Detroit TIgers' 6th annual MEA Day/8th annual golf outing to support MEA Scholarship Fund set June 23
• Ed Sarpolus new director of MEA Government Affairs
• MEA encourages service credit purchase before June 30 to avoid penalties
• Voice Classifieds

At Issue

Does school size matter? Large or small, schools need the tools to succeed

 

A look at two of the nation's top high schools, Hillman and East Lansing, and what makes them click.

 

What makes a high school successful? Is it a rigorous curriculum? Great teachers? Strong parental support? Students who come to school ready to learn?

In many places, including Michigan, efforts to boost student achievement and school performance have turned to school size. Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants to spend millions to help large high schools convert into smaller schools of 400 students or fewer.

Small-school reform has attracted increased media attention since the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation began funding smallschools projects in 2000. The small-schools movement is hot—Google “small schools” and you’ll return nearly 8 million hits.

Research shows small high schools can serve some students effectively, though that doesn’t necessarily mean that big schools can’t—or don’t—work.

MEA President Iris K. Salters praised Granholm for trying to find ways to help schools succeed, rather than punishing those that struggle.

“We need to build on what we know works—and we know that a rigorous, relevant curriculum built on close relationships can work,” says Salters, a special education teacher from Kalamazoo. “There is no magic bullet to boost student achievement, but rather a lot of different things, including
small schools, that can make a positive impact. We need to give schools the tools they need to succeed.”

School success depends on a lot of things. In some communities and for some students, school size impacts student performance. To illustrate effective schools of varying sizes, we visited two award-winning secondary schools—Hillman Junior/Senior High School and East Lansing High School. At both schools, staff attributed success to many factors.

Did size matter at either school? Yes.

How? Read on.

 

Rural Hillman High overcomes challenges to build solid foundation for success

 

East Lansing High disproves theory that size alone dictates success

 

 

 

Michigan Education Association, 1216 Kendale Blvd., P.O. Box 2573, East Lansing, MI 48826-2573 800-292-1934 • webmaster@mea.org