Second of two parts

It is said that we have to cut spending somewhere – schools, health care, transportation, Medicaid, etc. But since we have seen in our commentary published Tuesday that consolidation of schools by and large does not save money, even though some think in theory it should, the argument to consolidate is now the wrong question.

The new question is, “What are the benefits of small schools for students, communities and the state, and why should they be supported?”

Small schools are good for kids.

. Nationally, students in small schools perform as well academically, and in some cases better, than their counterparts in larger schools. Thomas Lyson at Cornell University reports that “all else held equal, small schools have evident advantages for achievement. … The relationship between school size and achievement has been documented in scores of empirical studies.” University of Maine researcher Janet Fairman (2004) reported it is remarkable that students in small schools perform so well given the higher percentages of poverty in small, rural schools.

. Small schools are an antidote to the impact of poverty on school achievement. It is well established in education research that socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the most powerful predictors of a student’s school achievement. Students from higher SES homes tend to achieve higher in school than do those from lower SES homes. But does it matter if they attend small or large Maine schools? Recent research by the Rural Trust indicates that it does. Studying Maine Educational Assessment scores of schools above the median size compared to schools below median size, they found that the negative effect of poverty on school achievement in Maine is reduced or completely neutralized as the size of the student’s school becomes smaller. Specifically, across grades 4, 8 and 11 the negative impact of poverty on MEA scores ranges from 0 to 15 percent in small schools and from 9 to 36 percent in large schools. Results are the same for six other states.

. As Billie Holiday said, “You’ve got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any-damn-body’s sermon on how to behave.” Belonging matters.

. Small schools have a higher percentage of students participating in co-curricular activities which provide life-learning opportunities that go far beyond test scores. Researcher Kathleen Cotton reports, “It’s been proven that when you have a 20-fold increase in the size of a school, you only have a five-fold increase in participation opportunities. The same 7 percent are still joining everything, making every team, getting elected to everything. Levels of extracurricular participation are much higher and more varied in small schools.”

. The Gates Foundation has recognized the power of small schools, especially high schools, for student achievement and development. They have acknowledged the volumes of research on the benefits of small schools by giving grants of more than $100 million to large high schools to help them redesign to become smaller. Some of our own larger Maine high schools have received these funds and are already working on ways to function in smaller units. This occurs at the very moment when our own state policy is still to consolidate small schools into larger units.

. Nationally, research reported by the Rural Trust indicates that post-secondary enrollment rates tend to be higher for small schools while drop- out rates are lower. We recently have witnessed a Maine example in Bingham. Valley High School has 100 percent of this year’s graduating class going on to higher education.

. Evidence reported by the Rural Trust also indicates that the size of the school system in which a small school exists has an impact on achievement. Students in small schools in small systems tend to achieve higher. Apparently the local governance structure allows for greater parent participation which in turn boosts student achievement.

Small schools are good for communities and the economy.

Lyson at Cornell University found that small rural villages with schools tended to grow more, have higher housing values, have higher income from a self-employed middle class and have less reliance on welfare. He concludes “the money that might be saved through consolidation could be forfeited in lost taxes, declining property values and lost businesses.”

Small schools are good for Maine.

Even as it takes green trees to have a green forest, so it takes strong local communities, large and small, to have a strong state. When schools are made less effective through consolidation, especially for low-income kids who compose 50-60 percent of the population in some schools, this tends to perpetuate a low-income population of unemployment, underemployment, crime, reliance on welfare and the next Medicaid generation. We all pay.

None of the foregoing is to claim that simply being small always makes a school more effective. It is to say that school size is a well-documented, major factor in determining effectiveness and should be built on and strengthened rather than eliminated through consolidation.

This commentary was submitted by the following: Les Butler, superintendent of schools, SAD 46; Rep. Rod Carr, Lincoln; Keith Cook, coordinator, Maine Small Schools Coalition; Richard Gould, Greenville; Frank Keenan, superintendent of schools, Easton; Sandra MacArthur, superintendent of schools, SAD 59; Lori Power, M.A. Ed.D.(c), writing specialist, University of New England; and Kevin Ritchie, curriculum coordinator, Lee Academy.