Reports and Articles

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• School Size, School Climate, and Student Performance. Kathleen Cotton. 1996

  
  

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  This digest summarizes research in the affective and social realms that overwhelmingly affirms the superiority of small schools. Findings on the affective and social effects of school size are extensive and highly consistent, while the research base on outcomes of schools-within-a-school arrangements is smaller and less conclusive. While many small schools are also rural, it is the smallness of schools, regardless of setting, that is beneficial to students. Research on feelings and attitudes indicates the superiority of small schools in the following areas: student attitudes toward school in general and particular subjects, personal and academic self-concepts of students, student sense of belonging, social bonding between teachers and students, teacher and administrator attitudes toward work and each other, and cooperation among colleagues. Research on social behavior shows that compared to large schools, small schools have higher student rates of extracurricular participation, higher attendance rates, lower dropout rates, and fewer behavior and discipline problems. Small schools' superior performance may be related to the need for everyone's involvement, better interpersonal relationships, and easier management of individualized and cooperative practices. Economically disadvantaged and minority students benefit most from small schools, but are frequently concentrated in large schools in large districts. Schools-within-a-school plans have potential for producing results like those of small schools provided they are distinct administrative entities within the buildings that house them.

• Rural School Consolidation Report. National Rural Education Association. 2005

  
  

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  The consolidation of rural schools in the United States has been a controversial topic for policy-makers, school administrators, and rural communities since the 1800s. At issue in the consolidation movement have been concerns of efficiency, economics, student achievement, school size, and community identity. Throughout the history of schooling in America, school consolidation has been a way to solve rural issues in the eyes of policy makers and many education officials. Today, faced with declining enrollments and financial cutbacks, many rural schools and communities continue to deal with challenges associated with possible school reorganizations and consolidations. This paper, developed by the NREA Consolidation Task Force, provides a review of the literature on rural school consolidation, defines consolidation, addresses current research and issues related to consolidation with respect to school size, economies of scale, and student achievement, and concludes with proposed recommendations for the NREA Executive Board.

• Consolidation of Schools and Districts: What the Research Says and What It Means. Craig Howley, Jerry Johnson, and Jennifer Petrie. 2011

  
  

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  Arguments for consolidation, which merges schools or districts and centralizes their management, rest primarily on two presumed benefits: (1) fiscal efficiency and (2) higher educational quality. The extent of consolidation varies across states due to their considerable differences in history, geography, population density, and politics. Because economic crises often provoke calls for consolidation as a means of increasing government efficiency, the contemporary interest in consolidation is not surprising. However, the review of research evidence detailed in this brief suggests that a century of consolidation has already produced most of the efficiencies obtainable. Research also suggests that impoverished regions in particular often benefit from smaller schools and districts, and they can suffer irreversible damage if consolidation occurs. For these reasons, decisions to deconsolidate or consolidate districts are best made on a case-by-case basis. While state-level consolidation proposals may serve a public relations purpose in times of crisis, they are unlikely to be a reliable way to obtain substantive fiscal or educational improvement.

• Guide to the Reorganization of School Districts in New York State

  
  

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  This publication from Educational Management Services of the New York State Education Department provides an introduction to the basic concepts of school district reorganization. It seeks to provide elected officials, school administrators and citizens with an overview of both the forms of reorganization and the processes involved in a reorganization.

  
  

• New York State Feasibility Reports on School Consolidation

  
  

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  This site lists full reports from the following feasibility school consolidation or annexation studies:

  • Feasibility Study for the Centralization of the Brocton and Fredonia Central School Districts
  • Feasibility Study for the purpose of Centralizing Scio/Wellsville Schools
  • Feasibility Study for Center Moriches and East Moriches School District
  • Feasibility Study for North Colonie School District
  • Feasibility Study for Scio Central School and Wellsville Central School

  
  

• School Consolidation Research from Penn State

  
  

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  Penn State’s Center on Rural Education and Communities has gathered data on school consolidation, as the topic continues to be of great concern for many small rural schools. This website provides a list of links that present extant research on school consolidation and provide some ideas for areas in need of additional study.

• What Does a School Mean to a Community? Assessing the Social and Economic Benefits of Schools to Rural Villages in New York. Thomas Lyson. 2002

  
  

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  Using data from the 1990 U.S. Census and from the New York State Department of Education. I identify community level characteristics associated with the presence or absence of a school. My inquiry focuses on two sets of rural communities: those with populations of 500 or less and those with populations between 501 and 2,500. I find that the social and economic welfare in all rural communities is higher in places that have schools. Further, in the smallest villages, which have 'fewer resources and fewer civic places, schools are especially critical to the social and economic well-being of the community. For policymakers, educational administrators, and local citizens it is important to understand that schools are vital to rural communities. The money that might be saved through consolidation could be forfeited in lost taxes, declining property values, and lost businesses.

• School District Consolidation: The Benefits and Costs. William D. Duncombe and John M. Yinger. The School Administrator. 2010, Vol. 67(5).

  
  

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  What recent research reveals about expected financial savings when small districts merge.

• School District Mergers: What One District Learned. Kathleen Kingston. AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice. 2009, Vol. 6(2).

  
  

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  The current economic environment increases the likelihood that more states and school districts will face significant challenges and may consider school consolidation or merger. This article finds that school districts that engage their communities, rather than merely communicate with them, will find more success in achieving sustainability for their educational programs and will keep their communities engaged before, during, and after a merger.

• Why Johnny Can't Walk to School: Historic Neighborhood Schools in the Age of Sprawl. Constance E. Beaumont and Elizabeth G. Pianca. 2002.

  
  

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  The National Trust for Historic Preservation and its quarter-million members have five decades of experience in preserving and renewing older neighborhoods, and neighborhoods are akin to the proverbial village it takes to raise a child.

• of Sprawl Schools and Small Schools. David Goldberg. On Common Ground. 2005

  
  

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  A convergence of movements offers hope that Johnny can once again walk to a great neighborhood school.

• Is Bigger Better? A Comparison of Rural School Districts. Wenfan Yan, Center for Rural Pennsylvania. 2006.

  
  

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  Can school district consolidation improve academic programs, increase student achievement and improve cost efficiency in Pennsylvania schools? This question has drawn the attention of policymakers and state and local educational agencies alike for decades. 

  Since the 1950s, many school districts have been restructured into larger, centralized school districts. And many rural school districts followed the trend, typically set by urban districts, as transportation became available to students in remote areas. More recently, advocates of large school districts have cited the advantages of concentrated resources and the efficiency of centralized offices. Overall, the research did not find any evidence to support the notion that bigger districts are better districts, in terms of cost, administration or academic achievement, in rural Pennsylvania.

• Dollars & Sense: The Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools. Barbara K. Lawrence et al. 2002.

  
  

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  Even though people may appreciate the benefits of small schools, too many think that the cost of such schools is prohibitive. To answer their concerns, Dollars & Sense summarizes research on the educational and social benefits of small schools and the negative effects of large schools on students, teachers, and members of the community, as well as the “diseconomies of scale” inherent in large schools. As the research shows, measuring the cost of education by graduates rather than by all students who go through the system suggests that small schools are a wise investment.

  In addition, Dollars & Sense answers two fundamental questions: can small schools be built cost effectively, and has anyone done so? Using data drawn from 489 schools submitted to design competitions in 1990-2001, Dollars & Sense answers both questions with a resounding yes, demonstrating that small schools are not prohibitively expensive. Investing tax dollars in small schools does make sense.

• The Hobbit Effect: Why Small Works in Public Schools. Lorna Jimerson. Rural School and Community Trust. 2006.

  
  

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  To investigate why small works, we examined current literature—looking for typical attributes of smaller schools that have a positive effect on student learning and well-being. We included elements in this report that are either normally found in most small schools or are more common in smaller schools than in larger schools. This report focuses on attributes of small schools where there is a general consensus in the research about their positive impact for kids. Our literature review, however, is not perfect. We may have missed some relevant studies and in some areas, more research is called for. Also, for some topics, there are research studies that counter the claims made here. While we acknowledge some of the gaps and inconsistencies, we feel confident that this report represents the weight of the current evidence about why small works in schools and captures the summary judgment of the majority of scholars.

• School District Consolidation. Vermont Legislative Research Shop. The University of Vermont. 2007.

  
  

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  Debates over school district consolidation are currently heating up in Vermont. Rising property taxes have led legislators to consider ways that the state can save money on education, and school district consolidation is a popular and controversial idea. In May, 2006 Vermont Education Commissioner, Richard Cate, offered a proposal to reorganize the educational system of Vermont. The proposal included reducing the number of school districts from 280 to 58, eliminating the supervisory unions and replacing them with districts, and the creation of school boards to oversee these districts. In the formal proposal itself he doesn’t specify whether the plan would involve closing small schools, but he does identify disadvantages that come with small schools.

• Imagining Rural Life: Schooling as a Sense of Place. Mary Bushnell. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 1999, Vo1. 15(2).

  
  

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  I present the case of one reborn rural community populated by former urbanites. What lifestyle and values do these newcomers seek? In what ways do they locate or construct these values? In this study, a small private school provides the vehicle for adults and children to construct, communicate, and enact their idealized identities. The school provides a physical and imagined place where newcomer families negotiate their sense of rural place. The distinction between school and home values is explored as families express their identities associated with public and private lives. The school also becomes the symbolic site where the former urbanites contest their sense ofrural place with their neighbors who are long-standing rural inhabitants. The predominantly upper middle class newcomers negotiate their sense of rural place against the backdrop ofthe primarily working class old timers' concept ofrurality. Former urbanites' conception ofrural community emerges as imagined and situational.

• Consolidating Rural School Districts: Potential Savings and Effects on Student Achievement. Charles Jacques, B. Wade Brorsen, and Francisca G. C. Richter. Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics. 2000. Vol. 32(3).

  
  

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  One frequently proposed policy is to consolidate rural school districts in order to save money by obtaining economies of size. The effects of school district size on both expenditures and standardized test scores are estimated for Oklahoma. Results indicate that economies of scale with respect to expenditures per student exist up to an average daily membership (ADM) of 965 students,but that as school districtsbecome larger,tests scores decline. Even if savings in school district administration from consolidation are spent on instruction, state average test scores would decrease slightly. Thus, school district consolidation can reduce costs, but it will also reduce student learning.

• School Size: A Review of The Literature. Amy Overbay. E&R Report No. 03.03. 2003.

  
  

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  Many discussions of school size tend to concentrate on secondary sources, such as other literature reviews; although this review does examine some secondary sources, it focuses on empirical research. Recent research suggests that smaller schools may be linked to improved attendance and participation in school activities. Some studies claim that smaller schools may also be associated with higher achievement, although other studies indicate that school size does not have a significant impact on student performance, and cite other variables such as district and school affluence as more reliable predictors of achievement. In fact, some studies suggest that students in more affluent districts may benefit from larger schools. Given the lack of consensus in the field over these issues, as well as practical issues related to rapid growth, limited funds, and the cost-effectiveness of smaller schools, many administrators and policymakers may prefer to pursue alternative reforms. It may be possible to achieve the desired student outcomes by reorganizing school populations, or by creating smaller learning communities within existing facilities..

• Debating School District Consolidation

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  The official blog of the New York State Council of School Superintendents (NYSCOSS) provides several observations about school district consolidation.

  
  

  
  

• Organizational Options for School Districts from Onondaga Cortland Madison BOCES

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  The Onondaga Cortland Madison BOCES, in collaboration with area researchers and consultants, is facilitating thoughtful consideration of the issue of school consolidation and all organizational options. Last summer, Onondaga-Cortland-Madison BOCES held a conference on school district consolidation. This site provides much background material as well as an agenda and supporting documents from the August 9, 2011 event.