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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780817928223 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Hoover Institution Press |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2003 |
| Series: | Publication Series , #494 |
| Pages: | 342 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
School Figures
The Data Behind the Debate
By Hanna Skandera, Richard Sousa
Hoover Institution Press
Copyright © 2003 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior UniversityAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8179-2822-3
CHAPTER 1
Schools
Propositions
* THE LANDSCAPE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL ENROLLMENT IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS IS CHANGING.
* PUBLIC EDUCATION IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY CONSOLIDATED, WHICH MEANS LESS PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT.
* SMALLER SCHOOLS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
* HIGH RATES OF STUDENT MOBILITY ARE ONE REASON FOR THE PERSISTENT GAP BETWEEN DISADVANTAGED AND NONDISADVANTAGED STUDENTS.
* STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES SPEND MORE HOURS PER YEAR IN THE CLASSROOM THAN THEIR PEERS IN OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRIES.
* SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT MATTERS.
* SCHOOL VIOLENCE IS ON THE DECLINE.
Highlights]
* In 2000, approximately 86 percent of students were enrolled in public schools, nearly 11 percent were in private schools, and 3 percent attended school at home. Confidence in public schools has declined since the 1970s. In 1973, 58 percent of the public had a "great deal/quite a lot of confidence" in public schools; in 1999, only 36 percent did.
* In 2000, there were fewer than 95,000 public elementary and secondary schools; in 1930, there were more than 260,000.
* In the 1999-2000 school year, the average public elementary school had 477 students; the average public secondary school, excluding alternative schools, had 785 students.
* In the 1999-2000 school year, 236 school districts (1.6 percent of districts nationwide) had 25,000 students or more enrolled in their district; these districts account for 32.1 percent of enrollment nationwide. In the 1999-2000 school year, there were more than 35,000 private schools, nearly three times as many as there were in 1930.
* In 2000, there were more than 2,300 charter schools, enrolling nearly 580,000 students.
* In 2000, an estimated 61,525 vouchers were used in private schools, accounting for more than 1 percent of private school enrollment.
* Crime rates in elementary and secondary schools have decreased in recent years. Between 1993 and 1999, the percentage of students in grades 9 through 12 who reported being victims of crime at school decreased from 10 percent to 8 percent.
* In 2000, the average public school had a total of 110 computers, 77 percent of instructional rooms had access to the Internet, and 98 percent of schools had access to the Internet.
Overview
Since the mid-19th century, public schools have been the linchpin of the American education system. The vast majority of American children have always been educated in public schools, and they still are. In 2000, more than 86 percent of children were enrolled in the nation's public schools. Public schools have been effective and have contributed significantly to insuring our continued, productive democracy. Most of our country's political, intellectual, business, cultural, and military leaders have come through the ranks of the public schools. Public schools are the primary source of America's human capital, and, according to many economists, our human capital accounts for the greatest share of capital in our economy. Education has become the primary engine for economic growth.
Enrollment trends over the last few decades, however, have changed, reflecting a subtle shift in sentiment toward public education. The bottom line is that parents are voting with their feet — fleeing the cities for better educational opportunities in the suburbs, enrolling their children in private and religious schools, or simply choosing to teach their children themselves.
Not only have new enrollment patterns emerged, but due to growth in the educational system overall, a move to consolidate within the school system has been underway throughout the 20th century. While there were nearly 120,000 school districts in the 1930s, there are now fewer than 15,000 nationwide. The average number of students in a school district has increased dramatically, as the total number of students has increased while the number of districts has declined. The public school system is a behemoth and, in the opinion of some, a faceless bureaucracy. The distance between parents and school administration has grown. Have parents just thrown up their hands, or are the administrators ensconced in ivory towers? Worse yet, are administrators overly burdened by bureaucracy and government regulations that distract them from their basic mission of teaching?
The romanticized bucolic one-room schools are now a relic — a true rarity in 21st-century America; by the latest count, only 423 survive from the nearly 150,000 in the early part of the 20th century. Today's schools are much larger and more impersonal. Some say these reasons are why the schools are not doing as good a job as they once did. Schools today are no doubt different than they were 50 years ago. Has this changed schooling in America?
The classrooms — where the teaching and learning take place — have, over the years, remained relatively stable in size. Access to technology, however, has changed — now more than 75 percent of instructional rooms have computers in them. Teaching methodology and theories have evolved and changed, but the structure of the classroom has not changed much.
This chapter reports on the schools — how many there are, their composition, and how they have changed. Although only a fraction of students are enrolled in private and parochial schools, we don't ignore them — they are important components in the education equation.
* PROPOSITION: THE LANDSCAPE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL ENROLLMENT IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS IS CHANGING.
Many have questioned the effectiveness of the current public school system. Recent enrollment and achievement trends suggest that some kind of educational reform is desired, if not required. Enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools grew rapidly during the 1950s and '60s and peaked in 1971, as a result of the "baby boom," the dramatic increase in births following World War II. From 1971 to 1984, total elementary and secondary school enrollment steadily decreased, reflecting a decline in the school-age population over that period. In 1985, however, enrollment in elementary and secondary schools started increasing, and record enrollment levels were established every year by the late 1990s. By 2000, public school enrollment totaled more than 47 million. Private school enrollment grew more slowly than public school enrollment over this period, from nearly 5.6 million in 1985 to nearly 6.0 million in 2000. (See table 1.1 and figure 1.1.)
Furthermore, the faces that comprise enrollment numbers have changed. In 1976, minorities comprised 24 percent of elementary and secondary school enrollment; in 1999, minorities comprised 38 percent. The most notable distinction among minorities is the growing Hispanic population. The percentage of Hispanic students nearly tripled between 1976 and 1999. (See table 1.2 and figure 1.2.)
Enrollment in public and private schools has changed not only in numbers but in composition, as well. Over the last decade, three educational alternatives — home schooling, voucher programs, and charter schools — have emerged, altering the makeup of both public and private schools. (See table 1.3 and figure 1.3.)
• In 1978, 89 percent of elementary and secondary students were enrolled in public schools, 11 percent in private schools, and 0.03 percent in home schools.
•In 2000, 86 percent were enrolled in public schools, 11 percent in private schools, and 3 percent in home schools.
• Home education surfaced as the largest portion of alternative enrollment.
• In 1990, 0.6 percent of total elementary and secondary school students were home educated.
• In 2000, home-educated students were 3.1 percent of total enrollment, more than five and one-half times as many as in 1990.
Furthermore, within the last 10 years, voucher and charter school enrollments have grown considerably and do not appear to be slowing down.
• In 1992, the first charter school emerged, with an enrollment of 35 students. In 2000, there were more than 2,300 charter schools, enrolling more than 575,000 students, nearly 1 percent of total elementary and secondary enrollment.
• In 1990, there were 341 public and private vouchers provided, a trivial percentage. In 2000, there were 61,525 vouchers used in private schools. Although very small in the overall scheme, voucher students total more than 1 percent of private school enrollment.
While the general public appears to be mixed in its opinion regarding alternative educational routes, teachers unions and most education professionals have been quite adamant in their views. They find fault with any alternative that challenges the traditionally defined public school system. Enrollment numbers, however, are telling. The composition of enrollment, and therefore education, is different from how it was just 10 years ago. The changing enrollment patterns persist and may dictate respective adjustments.
* PROPOSITION: PUBLIC EDUCATION IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY CONSOLIDATED, WHICH MEANS LESS PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT.
Over the past several decades, the public education system has become much more consolidated. If students were strictly economic goods, then the economies of scale associated with consolidation might make sense: more produced, lower cost, and, it is hoped, better quality. Students, however, are not goods to be uniformly manufactured, and the goal of education is not simply to push students through an assembly line process and check them off a list. Students are the future of America, and to this end, how they are educated is as important as, and will have more lasting impact than, a manufactured good.
The trend toward consolidation in the public school system has manifested itself in many ways. Since the early part of the 20th century, the number of public school districts and the number of schools has decreased dramatically. In the 1939-40 school year, there were 117,108 school districts; in the 1999-2000 school year, there were fewer than 15,000. At the same time, the number of public elementary and secondary schools decreased from roughly 260,000 to less than 95,000. Although annual enrollment has fluctuated, mirroring demographic trends, overall public school enrollment nearly doubled in this period, while the number of schools was cut by more than half. The results: The average public school size and the average school district size have gradually increased. In the 1930s, for example, the average enrollment in a public school was approximately 100 students. In the 1999-2000 school year, the average enrollment was more than 500 students. (See table 1.4 and figures 1.4 and 1.5.)
In just the last 10 years, the percentage of students concentrated in districts with 25,000 students or more has increased dramatically. In the 1988-89 school year, 177 school districts (1.2 percent of districts nationwide) had 25,000 students or more enrolled in their district; these 177 districts accounted for 21.4 percent of total enrollment nationwide. Contrast this with the 1999-2000 school year, when 236 school districts (1.6 percent of districts nationwide) had 25,000 students or more enrolled in their district; this represents 32.1 percent of total enrollment nationwide. (See table 1.5 and figure 1.6.)
Arguments for consolidation are based on increased efficiency and economies of scale; however, one consequence has been increased distance — further removing parents from those who administer their children's education. Increasingly, parents, teachers, and students are becoming faces in a crowd. Surveys from the state of Connecticut provide clear examples of the relationship between school consolidation and parental involvement. Between 1988 and 1992, as schools were consolidated (or otherwise grew as a result of reorganization), parental interaction greatly decreased. Over this period, parents were
• 12 percent less likely to respond to questionnaires from the school
• 10 percent less likely to participate in parent-teacher organizations
• 10 percent less likely to attend a school open house
• 7 percent less likely to say that their school "communicate[d] well" with them
• 5 percent less likely to check their children's homework
Clearly, there may be confounding factors, and the study measures the response of different sets of parents, but statistical tests indicate these differences are significant.
If parents — the third leg of the education tripod, which includes students, teachers, and parents — are distancing themselves from the process, a breakdown is inevitable.
The move toward a more consolidated public school system and fewer but larger schools is in stark contrast to private school trends. The number of private elementary and secondary schools has steadily increased: In 1930, there were roughly 12,500 private schools; in 2000, more than 35,000, nearly three times as many. During the same time period, the number of public schools decreased steadily. Over the past 70 years, the ratio of public to private schools has fallen from 20 public schools for every private school to 3 public schools for every private school. (See figures 1.7 and 1.8.)
Evidence points to the family as the most important determinant of a student's achievement. As the public education system has become more consolidated, the administration and bureaucracy have grown, distancing parents from educational decisions and input. Theoretically, consolidation may be economically viable, but at a high cost to America's future — America's children.
* PROPOSITION: SMALLER SCHOOLS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
With America's renewed interest in the quality of education following the launch of the Soviets' Sputnik in 1957, new ideas for educational improvement proliferated; however, few were effective. One little-noticed "improvement" was a more "scientific" approach to education. One piece of evidence was the consolidation of school systems. In the minds of "experts," consolidation meant economies of scale: more efficiency and more effectiveness. The literature at the time reinforced this mind-set. Franklin Keller's 1955 book, The Comprehensive High School, recommended consolidation. James Conant's 1959 book, The American High School, stated that the small high school was the number one problem in education and that its elimination should be a top priority. Entitlement programs and desegregation compliance in the 1960s further contributed to the consolidation movement.
Research today, however, contradicts the education experts of a few decades earlier. Many experts presumed, for example, that large schools, high schools in particular, offered a more diverse curriculum and more opportunities at a lower cost; there is mounting evidence that neither of these assertions is true. In fact, comprehensive research shows that small schools are superior to large schools on most measures and equal to them on the rest. A comprehensive review of 103 studies revealed the following several points regarding small schools.
Academic achievement of students in small schools is at least equal to, and often superior to, that of large schools. A recent study documenting Chicago's small-school "reform" implementation, which included approximately 150 schools, showed improved standardized test scores or average test scores holding steady despite more students taking the test. There is no research indicating that large schools are superior to small schools in their achievement effects. (See table 1.6.)
Marked improvement in achievement among ethnic minority students and students of low socioeconomic status (SES) is evident. A July 1997 study reported that "disadvantaged students in small schools significantly outperformed those in large ones on standardized basic skills tests." A study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research found that "for both reading and math, small schools produce greater achievement gains than larger schools, holding demographic and teacher characteristics constant." A study in 2000 showed that small schools helped close the achievement gaps between less affluent students and their wealthier counterparts.
Student attitudes toward school in general and toward particular school subjects are more positive. Consistently, research favors small schools when it comes to student attitudes. Furthermore, research indicates that the attitudes of low-SES and minority students are especially sensitive to school size and benefit greatly from attending smaller schools.
Cost-effectiveness is possible. When per-pupil costs are calculated on the number of students who actually graduate from school, rather than on the number attending (in school), the so-called savings of big schools largely disappears. If a small school attempts to maintain the large-school infrastructure, it will probably not be cost effective.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from School Figures by Hanna Skandera, Richard Sousa. Copyright © 2003 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Excerpted by permission of Hoover Institution Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
List of Propositions,List of Figures and Tables: By Chapter,
List of Acronyms,
Manuscript Notes,
About the Authors,
Introduction,
Schools,
Teachers,
Achievement,
Expenditures,
School Reform,
Students and Their Families,
Appendix: Basic Data,
Index,