There is common-sense logic to the Clinton Administration's proposal to provide federal assistance to lower class sizes in early grades -- smaller learning environments allow for more individual attention. However, evidence is mounting that "smaller is better" when it comes to entire schools, not just the classroom.

Educational research shows that students from smaller schools have better attendance rates, lower dropout rates, and fewer disciplinary problems. According to a 1997 Hudson Institute study, smaller schools were the single most important reason that parents preferred charter schools over traditional public schools.

Unlike large classes, which result from inadequate resources rather than any misconception that they work better, large schools have been deliberately engineered. Since World War II, the number of U.S. schools has declined by 70 percent, while the average size of schools has increased by about 500 percent. Furthermore, the largest schools -- those with more than 2,000 students -- tend to be concentrated in big cities, serving our most disadvantaged kids. The traditional argument is that mega-schools can offer greater fiscal efficiency, more elective courses, and greater opportunities for extracurricular activities.

In fact, big schools tend to be more expensive than small schools because they require more administrative support -- indeed, many have their own in-house bureaucracies. The evidence on curriculum and extracurricular offerings is mixed, but certainly does not offset the disadvantages of oversized schools in teaching kids in a disciplined environment. A 1992 study by researchers Jean Stockard and Maralee Mayberry concluded that "behavior problems are so much greater in larger schools that any possible virtue of larger size is canceled out by the difficulties of maintaining an orderly learning environment."

Andrew Rotherham, director of the 21st Century Schools Project of the Progressive Policy Institute, summarized the available evidence in the February 24, 1999 issue of Education Week: "The research is pretty clear on this point: Smaller schools help promote learning. And, contrary to the prevailing wisdom, research shows that small schools are able to offer a strong core curriculum and, except in extremely small schools, a comparable level of academically advanced courses."

How small is small enough for schools? Rotherham says, "the consensus of researchers is that no school should serve more than 1,000 students and that elementary schools should not exceed 300 to 400 students."

We are happy to report that Vice President Al Gore is promoting the "smaller is better" message on schools. In his recent Iowa speech on education, Gore said:

We've done some things wrong in education, and here's one of them: herding all students in a 25-mile area into overcrowded, factory-style high schools. When teachers and principals must practice crowd control, it becomes impossible to spot the early warning signs of violence, depression, or academic failure -- and it becomes even harder to do something about it.

Gore specifically called for making any new federal assistance for school construction available to school districts, not just for repairing old schools or building new ones, but for creating smaller schools if they so choose.

Small schools: a big idea that could have big consequences for public education.