School Size And Achievement - Research Paper Example

School size and achievement affiliation Little research exists regarding the effect of grade level configurations. This research examines the effect of attending a middle or junior high school on academic outcomes in British Columbia relative to attending a school from kindergarten through 8th grade. Other considerations are on high small schools and large high schools. Using an OLS strategy, there is finding that attending a middle or junior high school reduces grade 4 to 7 achievement gains in math by 0.125–0.187. Smaller but still economically significant effects are found for reading achievement. Similar sized estimates are originating for math by a two stage least squares estimation policy. In addition, students on the bottom half of the ability delivery are affected by the most by attending a middle or junior high school. District schools have implemented middle schools which has less evidence concerning the quantity of efficiency of the education structure. Middle school system is better than junior high school system because of the short period students are required to be present in class. Approximately 1% - 3% of span of time needed to be spent by student in a school is reduced by middle school system. In middle school system the measure of performance is good and is much appropriate to low achieving students (Werblow & Duesbery, 2009). Analysis There have been minimal studies that have been carried out to bring out the efficiency that have been impacted by configuration of grade level. The type of schools that students attend have been found to impact on the achievements that they get despite importance in potential. In the examination of the impact, there is the use of cross sectional data to bring the issue. There has been the finding that the relationship that occurs between one that attends middle or junior or junior high schools and the performance of the students. The study that was conducted could not well allow the conclusion whether the difference was due to the difference in the grade level configuration in characteristics across different characteristic and configuration .The studies that were conducted were focused on the non-academic outcomes such as self-esteem, school safety and suspension. Analysis They found lower levels of self-esteem and apparent school safety, and higher levels of student misbehavior in the students who learned or had at one time attended middle schools. All three examine the effect of grade level configuration through the use of longitudinal data. In the study, there was estimation of the effect on on-time high school graduation which after the graduation, there is moving from a junior high school system, where students involved in the graduation stay in elementary school longer, to a middle school system. The techniques and method that was used found out that transition to a middle school system reduces on-time high school graduation by a percentage that was estimated to be from 1 to 3 (Howley, Strange, M., & Bickel, 2000). The study involved two main approaches to determine the effects and efficiency. There was use a two-stage least squares approach and an ordinary least squares. The main aim of the study is that it discovers the subject of middle and junior high schools in a Canadian context. In addition, the paper uses longitudinal data from an entire province versus a single city. This is an important exercise as New York City has an exclusive educational environment, and results from that city may not be generalizable to other settings and locations. For instance, unlike New York City, British Columbia has a wide variety of urban and rural schools over a very large geographic area (Howley, Strange, M., & Bickel, 2000). In addition, the per pupil funding in New York is approximately twice as large as the per pupil funding in British Columba. These along with many other institutional differences make it important to examine the effect of grade level configurations in British Columbia. Creation of junior school was due to education reforms in the 1940s. This was to prepare students for the high school life through exposing them to high school environment. Young adolescent students in the seventh through nine grade were to be prepared for the high school life without being placed in the same class with the old teenagers this was to avoid traumatization in them. It was argued that the sixth grade4 students were not to be exempted from the reforms in the education reforms and were to be integrated with the senior students. This was to benefit the sixth grade students and were to be separated from elementary school children since it was believed that the psychological, social, and academic needs were different from those of young children. Placing of young adolescent students with the older students was discourage as this would hinder the social development of the students thus low academic progress. It was also claimed that after adoption of middle school system there was a low rate in dropping out of students as compared to junior schools. The new educational reforms advocates that students in grade five or six through eight should be in middle schools and those in ninth grade through twelve should be in high school. In a simple account of school configurations it suggested that the middle school have won the battle. In the enrollment of sixth grade students in middle schools had grown significantly by the year 2001. Claims made by middle class advocates stated that the massive shift in the numbers of students moving from junior high schools to middle schools in the past years is so surprising and economist have overlooked this possibly important structural change. On-time completion of studies in middle school is an impact to the moving of students from the junior schools to the middle school system. This is was based on a study carried out and it showed that education success was also concerned by performance of the bottom of the ability students. data from school configuration and those from on time graduation of high school students were used and it showed that movement of students to middle school system was associated with 1-3% fall due to the completion rate which is on-time. This system is beneficial to programs that aim to aid students that are unable. The on-time completion of high school will reduce the rate of school drop outs thus the rate of criminal activity, unemployment, and low wage jobs will be reduced. Restructuring of district schools from a junior high school system to a middle high school system only entails moving the sixth grade students out of the elementary schools. This is done a year earlier before reforms were done and this suggests important changes in the structures that will have long-run impact on the students’ performance. Predicting of impact of middle school system to the performance of student is due to the impact of schools attributes which directly affects school curriculum, peer groups and the teacher’s characteristic which is indirectly impacted through the composition of the students body and interactions between different bodies. The inaction of new reforms made eleven years adolescents students to be moved out of the elementary junior schools where they were the oldest students. they were moved to big institutions where they are the youngest students in the institution with many different teachers and wide range of courses of each school day. There are many benefits brought out by this change in school structure. Some of the benefits are that the sixth grade students are likely to be taught by teachers with more knowledge on their specific line of subjects which is appositive impact to the performance of the student. Secondly, the small number of students makes it easy to be monitored than a large student’s body. Teachers are able to instruct numerous students of different of groups each day. Thirdly, students in middle schools have various classes at every grade levels. This makes the more able to be tracked as compared with the elementary schools. Fourthly, middle schools provides more exposure of students. oldest students are moved from being the oldest to being the youngest in the school thus exposing them to a more mature behavior although the students may feel being traumatized. Middle school is beneficial as compared to elementary schools because old students in the sixth level are able to be retained. Elementary schools prefer passing old students to the next level of school where they will be young. This is not the case in middle school system because the school may change the retention time. The performance of students in middle schools is much higher because they are easier than the elementary schools. The major theoretical support for the effectiveness of small schools is their ability to generate greater engagement levels, this being a critical link between the size of the school and student achievement. The review of previous studies establishes a positive correlation between school engagement and the outcome of students. Students that are more connected to their schooling aspects tend to post better academic performance and have minimal problem behaviors. In fact, seeking to establish the relationship between social capital and high school size and achievement from the 2002 Educational Longitudinal Study, ELS, observes that policy responses to the issue of class size focuses on the creation of smaller schooling units to enhance engagement among students, between students and teachers and among parents. Small schools have also been said to reduce disaffection among students and rates of dropout. Large schools could be harmful to students because of the increased dropout likelihood (Jones & Ezeife, 2011). In their study to explore the influence of school size on mathematics achievement and rate of dropout, there was review of numerous literature sources which lead to the conclusion that smaller schools report lower dropout rates as opposed to larger schools. Their research study on a sample of 16,081 students in the 2002 Educational Longitudinal Study, ELS, to explore how school size impacts on student outcomes, further supports this evidence, attributing averagely 12% dropout rate to increase in school size. In a similar study that used a sample of 9,647 students from the 2002 ELS data, Carolan found out that small schools enhance “connectedness” among students, a fact linked to greater achievement, postsecondary likelihood attendance and graduation rates. The underlying assumption is that the connectedness provided by small schools facilitates communication, socio-emotional support and reinforcement of norms, collectively referred to as social capital, a great motivator towards improved performance. Further support this observation arguing that relations in smaller schools are more intimate and positive than they are in large schools, referring to this as the psychological dimension of engagement, encompassing factors such as interest, intensity and enthusiasm (Corak, M., & Lauzon, 2005). There exists a positive correlation between these factors and student achievement. The social capital that these small schools offer makes students more comfortable in the small schools than the large ones, a fact that encourages them to complete school, thus reducing rates of dropout. The fact that a school is small does not necessarily benefit all students as brought out in the study of junior high small school and high small schools. Smaller schools particularly disadvantage those students seeking for anonymity which large schools offer. This search for anonymity could be triggered by their reputation or the reputation of their families following them at school. While seeking to determine how school size influences academic achievement among students, it was observed that student groups that attend junior high small school and high small school exacerbate the already existing disadvantages in adolescents, including their racial differences. This is because of the fact that it would be easier to spot individual differences in a small group that it would be in a large group. Even so, arguments have been put forth to have small schools, but with each of the small schools hosting students sharing their unique characteristics. In the aim of the study to test theories on determination of class size with a focus on the difference in performance of public and private schools with consideration of junior small schools and high small schools. One of the factors that the study proposes for grouping students follows Lezear’s behavior theory which argues that even though students could be homogeneous in abilities, they could differ in self-control (Carolan, 2012). With this regard, a student could interrupt the whole class by misbehaving or just asking questions not shared by the other students. This indicates the need for grouping such students separately so as to find an appropriate teacher and learning environment that would fit both sets of students differently. Indeed, class sizes are not assigned randomly but based on specific criteria. This approach ensures that there would be no differences among the students in the small school that could disadvantage a specific group of students. Consequently, all students would benefit equally. Large high schools benefit from economies of scale, thus providing adequate resources to their students to foster achievement. Research on the schools noted that small schools failed to allow for diversity in curriculum, noting that larger schools presented more comprehensive educational programs at lower costs. In their research which partly determines how school size influence math achievement against their hypothesis, observe a curvilinear relationship between school size and math achievement (Birch, 2006). The greatest learning occurs in middle-sized schools. This observation aligns to findings from literature review that small schools do not substantially promote greater math learning than large schools. This could be attributed to the fact that large schools benefit from efficiencies which are not feasible in small schools. The greater economic efficiency in large schools propels them to greater curriculum diversity and higher level courses. In as much as this study presents useful findings (Carolan, 2012). Having conducted a similar study, cite limitations that could compromise the validity of the findings thereof. The findings could be partially confounded should it be that a disproportionate number of the high school students surveyed take math for less than four years. In this case, those students who study math for a lesser period would learn less. Perhaps, using reading as a measure instead would have led to more valid deductions. Achievements of high school medium sized schools and large high school are done with consideration of math. Therefore, the validity of these findings that fail to link small schools to greater math achievement is subject to further scrutiny before it could be principally accepted that large schools enjoy economies of scale that foster their achievement. References Birch, J. (2006). School achievement and effect of type size on reading in visually handicapped children. Pittsburgh: Program in Special Educ. and Rehabilitation, School of Educ., Univ. of Pittsburgh. Chubb, J., & Loveless, T. (2002). Bridging the achievement gap. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. Corak, M., & Lauzon, D. (2005). Differences in the distribution of high school achievement. Ottawa: Statistics Canada. Howley, C., Strange, M., & Bickel, R. (2000). Research about school size and school performance in impoverished communities. Charleston, WV: Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools, AEL. Carolan, B. V. (2012). An examination of the relationship among high school size, social capital, and adolescents’ mathematics achievement. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 22(3), 583 – 595. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2012.00779.x Dills, A. K. & Mulholland, S. E. (2010). A comparative look at private and public schools’ class size determinants. Education Economics, 18(4), 435 – 454. doi: 10.1080/09645290903546397 Jones, K. R. & Ezeife, A. N. (2011). School size as a factor in the academic achievement of elementary school students. Scientific Research, 2(8), 859 – 868. doi: :10.4236/psych.2011.28131 Weiss, C. C., Carolan, B. V. & Baker-Smith, E. C. (2010). Big school, small school: (Re)Testing assumptions about high school size, school engagement and mathematics achievement. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39, 163 – 176. doi: 10.1007/s10964-009-9402-3 Werblow, J. & Duesbery, L. (2009). The impact of high school size on math achievement and dropout rate. The High School Journal. 14 – 23. Read More