Today's Gazette includes a column from Greg Kerstetter (email), who teaches fifth grade at the R.K. Finn Ryan Road School in Northampton:

Lesson Plan: Keeping our schools small is worth a large effort

Here's what the [Strategic Planning Commitee] could not agree on: whether to close an elementary school to save money...

Members of the Strategic Planning Committee say that closing a school will save the city between $200,000 and $400,000 a year. In my opinion, it's not worth it.

What we get when we have small, local elementary schools are children walking to class; families committed to the school down the street; principals and teachers who know every student; people who really know each other...

When children walk to class, they are setting up lifetime habits of walking and getting to know the neighborhood they live in. Children say hello to their neighbors as they walk to school; living strands of community are formed...

The reason for the effectiveness of small is that people have a limit to the number of social relationships that they can manage. In a large group, more than 400, social thinkers say it is difficult for people to keep track of each other. Elementary schools are buildings full of social relationships. If they sour, because the population is too big, then they are not as effective, I believe...

See also:

February 4 and 12: Two Important Meetings about Northampton Schools
Today's Gazette reports that the Northampton Education Action Team will host a public meeting on the budget crisis at J.F.K. Middle School on Wednesday, February 4, at 7:00pm.

At the School Committee meeting of Thursday, February 12, the Strategic Planning Committee will present its final report. "That 25-member committee has spent the last several months researching all aspects of restructuring the city's six public schools. Though it has been widely believed that the committee will recommend the closing of an elementary school, [Superintendent of Schools Isabelina] Rodriguez strongly feels that the Strategic Plan will stop short of such a pronouncement." This meeting will take place at 7:15pm at J.F.K. Middle School.

Video: School Committee Meeting of November 13; Citizens Ask Bridge Street School Be Saved

School Committee Meeting Underscores Imminent Peril Facing Bridge Street School
"...it is my understanding that the strengths identified by the strategic planning committee include small, neighborhood schools. I hope the committee is not shortsighted about these findings but will use them in order to preserve our school and all others in the city."

Education World: "Are Smaller Schools Better Schools?" (7/20/00)
Although a variety of factors affect student achievement, the greatest factor was the reduction of anonymity -- going to a school where someone knows you and your name. Being known by your teachers and peers makes a difference, Wasley noted.

"Back to School for Planners"; "Why Johnny Can't Walk to School"; "The Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools"
...the trend towards mega schools continues despite widespread agreement among researchers that the size of most U.S. schools is too large. A growing body of research has shown that "student achievement in small schools is at least equal and often superior to achievement in large schools." A higher percentage of students, across all socio-economic levels, are successful when they are part of smaller, more intimate learning communities... Security improves and violence decreases, as does student alcohol and drug abuse...

Smaller, human-scaled institutions are easier to fit into existing neighborhoods. They are also easier for community residents to relate to than behemoth-sized institutions...

...District size also generally exerts a distinct influence (Bickel & Howley, 2000)...

At least one study spotlights the mechanisms by which small schools become more effective than large schools. Lee and Smith (1994) used data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (1994) to show that small schools increased teacher collaboration and team teaching. Lee and Smith report that “large size and fragmented human contact complicate the management of [large] schools, which elevates the importance of formal rules to regulate behavior. The environment in comprehensive high schools is therefore less human” (p. 2)...

David Goldberg, "Of Sprawl Schools and Small Schools"
...there is mounting evidence that the impersonal environment of the mega-school inhibits the basic function of the school; that is, giving kids the best education possible. This realization has given rise to a growing movement for small schools, a cause gaining an increasingly high profile with the involvement of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and many others...

Smaller schools have lower drop-out rates and higher average scores on standardized tests. Children in high-poverty schools see an even more pronounced improvement. While it’s true that larger schools generally do show a small savings on spending per student, when that figure is computed for students who actually graduate, the per graduate cost per student actually is slightly lower. Larger schools can have more extracurricular offerings, but participation in after-school activities declines as schools get larger. A U.S. Department of Education report found that schools with over 1,000 students have much higher rates of crime and vandalism than schools with 300 or fewer students. And teacher satisfaction is higher in smaller schools, according to a Chicago study. (You can find links to much of the research online at http://www.smallschoolsworkshop.org/ [link updated].)

On Common Ground: "The ABCs of Smart Growth Spell Out the Community School Vision" (PDF, Winter 2005)
Community school advocates and leaders of the Smart Growth movement have joined forces in an informal alliance promoting community schools as a focal point of both new communities and the restoration of decaying inner city neighborhoods. They are drawing strength from education reformers who have concluded that small schools are better for kids than the megaschools that school districts have tended to build on vacant land on the edge of town. Their research shows that children attending smaller schools get better grades, participate more in school activities and are more likely to go to college.

As Sam Passmore put it in a Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities report on Education and Smart Growth, “The interests of Smart Growth advocates and education reformers converge on a simple, but powerful idea, the small neighborhood school.” Especially when those small neighborhood schools are community schools.

In an article for the American School Board Journal, Washington, D.C., consultants Barbara McCann and Constance Beaumont outlined these characteristics of Smart Growth schools:

• Small in size.
• Broad community involvement.
• High-quality education.
• Students can walk to school.
• Serve as community schools.
• Good fit for the neighborhood.
• Use existing facilities wherever possible.

Small Schools Workshop: "What Are Small Schools?"
Size is one determining characteristic of a small school, yet small schools are about much more than size. In contrast to large, factory-model schools, small schools can create a more intimate learning environment that is better able to address the needs of each student and teacher. Students, teachers, and parents may all be better served when a school is small enough to allow for effective communication amongst educators, students and the school community. In small schools, meaningful relationships are fostered and opportunities for collaboration are cultivated.

A small school offers an environment in which students are more visible. When students are better known, teachers can more easily identify individual talents and unique needs of each student, offering a more personalized educational experience.

A small school staff size allows more opportunity for teachers to know each other well, more easily share information about their students, collaborate to solve problems, and generally support one another.

Small schools are a way of restructuring schools and the human relationships inside them.

...there are some common features that often characterize good small schools... A maximum population of 250-300 students in a heterogeneous mix that represents the local school community...

New Urban News: "Principles of the New Urbanism"
The heart of the New Urbanism is in the design of neighborhoods, which can be defined by 13 elements, according to town planners Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, two of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism. An authentic neighborhood contains most of these elements:

...6) An elementary school is close enough so that most children can walk from their home...

Letter to Gazette: "Government works best when it is closer to home" (7/5/08)
Research indicates that smaller schools and smaller school districts outperform larger ones.

When it comes to city and school planning, a mosaic of small administrative units may look inefficient, but it's more likely to offer responsive, accountable, and individually tailored service than larger ones.

Ward 3 Neighborhood Association: Statement of Support for Bridge Street Elementary School

Closing Bridge Street School Contradicts Smart Growth Goals
On page 11 of the Sustainable Northampton Plan, Land Use objective number 5 states:

Locate housing within walking distances along safe paths, or with bicycle access, to and from neighborhood commercial areas, parks and recreation, schools, and public transportation.

On page 51, one metric of progress is "Percent of children able to walk to school".

It is well known that mothers of young children are heavy users of cars...