State: School size law worries educators

"I tell the kids: "I'm a tree. Ignore me,' " said Duran, principal at DeSoto Elementary, south of Ybor City in Tampa. "My school is small enough; I can do it."

With just 330 students, DeSoto is small enough.

Ten miles to the east, principal Susan Turner lives in a different world. Last week she had 1,560 students at her school, Mintz Elementary School in Brandon.

"Most of my day is spent on traffic control, substitutes, personnel," Turner said. "You just feel like you're sticking your finger in the dike every day, trying to keep up."

Most educators and researchers agree that the school size at DeSoto Elementary is closer to the ideal -- and Florida's Legislature has now mandated it.

Under a law passed last spring, by 2003 elementary schools could not be built for more than 500 students. Middle schools would be capped at 700 and high schools at 900 students. The alternative would be to organize campuses into small schools-within-schools.

Either way, it would be a big change.

Florida's schools are on average the largest in the nation. As land has gotten more scarce and children more plentiful, educators have found that building big is the best way to keep up. The result? At the extreme is the G. Holmes Braddock Senior High School mega-campus in Miami, which holds 5,211 students. Elementary schools of 1,000 or more and high schools of 2,000 are common. In many states that would be unheard of.

But even as school officials acknowledge the desire for smaller schools, they fear the new law is disastrously impractical.

"It's nice in concept, but in a populous state like Florida, I'm not sure it makes sense," said Tony Rivas, director of facilities for the Pinellas County schools.

Rep. Evelyn Lynn, who chairs the education committee that drafted the bill, says the research is clear: Smaller schools boost achievement and help eliminate discipline problems.

"We've got to try everything to improve student achievement and safety," said Lynn, an Ormond Beach Republican. "If we really believe in helping students, we should work on having smaller schools and stop trying to just get around it."

Researcher Robert Bickel is amazed at how consistent the school-size research has been over the years. He is equally amazed at how consistently that research is ignored.

"Over and over again the research has shown higher achievement in smaller schools," said Bickel, a professor of advanced education studies at Marshall University. "It hurts more to be poor in a big school. The gap between rich and poor narrows in a smaller school."

Generally when it comes to schools, the debate focuses on class size and the disadvantages of crowded classrooms. In recent years, researchers have found that oversized campuses also have their drawbacks in terms of safety and achievement.

"It's better for kids, but also from an administrator's point of view, it's easier to deal with things in a smaller school," said Andrew Rotherman, director of the 21st Century Schools Project at the Public Policy Institute. "But on this issue you run up into the classic dilemma; it would be a good policy (to build smaller schools), but is it practical?"

Lynn and other Florida lawmakers think it is. They reviewed some of the research and looked at Florida's place in the world of big schools.

"Florida had the highest average number of students per school at the elementary level than any other state." That's from a report prepared for the House Committee on Education K-12, using data from the U.S. Department of Education from 1995.

National statistics showed Florida with an average elementary school size of 761 in 1994. That was tops in the nation, with Georgia coming in a distant second with 620. That same year, Florida was in second place in average high school enrollment, with 1,154. Hawaii led the nation with an average high school population of 1,332.

"Once you look at the research and then you see that Florida has the largest schools in the nation, you have to conclude that it's hurting us," Lynn said.

Educators tend to agree with Lynn's goal.

"There's a lot of pluses in a small school for kids," said Gary Cannon, principal at Lakeview Fundamental Elementary in St. Petersburg, which has 292 children. "You have a sense of community, less commotion.

"And being a principal who gets into the classroom and talks with kids and teachers, you can establish yourself as the instructional leader of the school, not just play that administrator role."

Despite the belief in the virtue of smallness, schools are built big because of cost considerations and other complications of building schools.

"If people don't like high schools in their back yard, what if we have to build them smaller?" said Jim Hamilton, deputy superintendent for the Hillsborough County schools. "Does that mean we now have to find a spot for three different high schools every time we have to build one?"

Hamilton and others point out that building several small schools would require some duplication of staff.

"If we build two 900-student high schools," he said, "there would still be an expectation at both schools that they'll have a principal, a school resource officer, a head custodian, a head football coach. That adds up."

The law includes an alternative that educators are focused on. A provision says that "a school on a single campus which operates as a school-within-a-school . . . shall be considered a small school. . . ." Some educators are hoping to use that provision to avoid building multiple tiny schools throughout their district. But it's not entirely clear how that will work.

Lynn made it clear that it is her intent that the state build smaller schools. She doesn't like the idea that educators are looking to use the school-within-a-school provision to avoid the intent of the law.

But educators seem determined to either work around the small-school requirement or get the law repealed before it takes effect.

"We might be able to work around it," said Wayne Blanton, director of the Florida School Boards Association. "But we want to get rid of the section altogether."

Sen. Buddy Dyer, a member of the Senate Education Committee, said there was a reason the new law was slated to take effect in 2003.

"We put it out two or three sessions so we can look at it some more," said the Orlando Democrat. "I think almost everybody believes a smaller number of students in a class and in a school makes for a better environment. But this isn't a perfect world. I'm sure this isn't the end of it."

Back to State news

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk