School District and School Size: An Evolving Controversy

Abstract

grams, services, and personnel needed to meet modernm educational requirements? Over the last fifty years, studies that suggest optimal size have focused on cost analysis, curriculum offerings, staffing, and student achievement as the most important variables. Historically, the minimum size tends to be 10,000 to 12,000 students and the maximum size tends to be 40,000 to 50,000 students (Dawson 1934; Fantini, Gittell, and Magat 1970; Passow 1967; Summary 1974). One classic study by Mort, Vincent, and Newell (1955) considered the maximally effective school district to comprise 100,000 students. However, advocates of small school districts and rural schools argue that school districts with 5,000 student maximums are more cost effective and have fewer student dropouts (percentage wise) and higher student SAT scores, ACT scores, and high school graduation rates than school districts with more than 5,000 students (A Critique 1986). Do these national comparisons provide evidence that small schools districts are more productive? Yes, in the sense that their per pupil expenditures are not in the top 10 percent (cluster between 14 and 30 percentile), even though they rank in the top 10 percent on nationwide achievement scores and other indicators of student performance, such as fewer dropouts and more high school graduates (A Critique 1986; Sher 1981). No, in the sense that these small school districts are more homogeneous and may reflect higher socioeconomic status. The point is, however, the data ought to make us suspicious about the claim that school districts must have at least 5,000 students to achieve quality education. Historically, 10,000 students is a large number for a school district. Our schools are an outgrowth of oneroom school houses in rural America. Even as late as the