FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 9, 2000
CONTACTS: Kathy Westra, (703) 243-1487

Small Schools Reduce Poverty's Power
Over Student Achievement
New Four-State Study Points to Benefits of Smaller Schools
for Poorer Communities

Washington, DC, February 9 -- New research released here today shows that smaller schools reduce the damaging effects of poverty on student achievement and help students from less affluent communities narrow the achievement gap between them and students from wealthier communities.

The research results cover the states of Georgia, Montana, Ohio, and Texas -- four widely divergent states whose schools reflect the complex demographics and administrative structures of U.S. public schooling. Researchers studied approximately 13,600 urban, suburban, and rural schools in 2,290 districts. The study results were presented by the Rural School and Community Trust, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving rural schools and strengthening the relationship between schools and the communities they serve.

Poverty is generally understood to have a negative effect on student achievement. Researchers Craig Howley of Ohio University and Robert Bickel of Marshall University sought to discover whether smaller schools can weaken this relationship. The clear conclusion is that they can.

The Data
For each school in the four states, Howley and Bickel analyzed average student performance on standardized, state-mandated achievement tests. The tests used in these states vary. Texas and Ohio use their own tests; Georgia uses the Iowa Test of Basic Skills; and Montana requires each school to use a standardized test of its own choosing.

In Georgia, Montana, and Texas, the poverty level in the schools was measured by the percentage of students in the school district who receive free or reduced-price lunches. In Ohio, the poverty level was measured by the percentage of students in the school district who live in families receiving aid under the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program.

The researchers did not compare school performance based on absolute definitions of "small" and "large," but rather on relative size: how relatively smaller schools perform compared to relatively larger ones.

Excellence Effects: Small Schools Are Better for Most Communities
In Georgia, Ohio, and Texas, there is strong evidence that students in less affluent communities perform better when they attend smaller schools. The lower the income in the community, the more student achievement is benefited by smaller schools. The lower the income of the community, the more achievement sags in larger schools and surges in smaller ones. In Montana, a state that maintains many small schools and few large ones, this "excellence" effect of small schools was evident, but not as strong. State-specific findings include:

• In Georgia: As school size increases, the average achievement score in schools serving children from poorer communities falls on 27 of 29 test scores.
  
  
• In Ohio: At all grade levels and for both regular and "advanced" pass rates, both smaller schools and smaller districts are associated with higher achievement in poorer communities.
  
  
• In Texas: As school size increases, the average achievement score in schools serving children from poorer communities falls on 8 of 10 test scores.
  
  
• In Montana: There is strong evidence that smaller schools outperform larger schools at all levels of community poverty, despite serving poorer communities in general.

In all four states, smaller schools cut poverty's power rating by between 20 and 70 percent, and usually by 30-50 percent, depending on grade level. In 48 of 49 separate analyses comparing school performance on tests of various subject areas in various grades in the four states, poverty had far less power to harm student achievement in smaller schools than on larger ones.

Schools "At Risk" of Lower Student Performance
Because the academic achievement of poorer students is tied so closely to school size, the researchers argue that many schools serving lower- and moderate-income communities are too large to achieve top student performance, given the level of income in the community served by the school. In Georgia, Ohio, and Texas, many students are in schools whose average achievement scores would likely increase if the school were smaller, and large numbers of students in these states attend "Schools at Risk" -- schools where the poverty level is high enough that any increase in school size would likely lower average test scores. Specifically, the research shows that:

• In Ohio: Between 41 and 90 percent of Ohio schools (depending on grade level tested) would likely produce lower average student scores if the schools were larger, or higher scores if the school were smaller. At the 9^th grade level, 90 percent of Ohio schools are too big to maximize achievement. These schools serve 89 percent of Ohio's 9^th graders.
  
  
• In Texas: Between 26 and 57 percent of Texas schools (depending on grade level tested) would likely produce lower average student scores if the schools were larger, or higher scores if the school were smaller. At the 10^th grade level, 57 percent of the schools are too big to maximize achievement. These schools serve almost half (46 percent) of 10^th graders.
  
  
• In Georgia: Between 36 and 68 percent of the schools (depending on grade level tested) would likely produce lower scores if the schools were larger, or higher scores if the schools were smaller. At the 8^th grade level, 52 percent of the schools serving 48 percent of the students are "at risk." The percentage of schools at risk is even greater at the elementary level.

The Rural School and Community Trust (Rural Trust) is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to enlarging student learning and improving community life by strengthening relationships between rural schools and communities and engaging students in community-based public work. Through advocacy, research, and outreach, the Rural Trust strives to create a more favorable policy environment for rural community perspectives on schooling, for student work with a public audience and use, and for more active community participation in schooling. Founded as the Annenberg Rural Challenge in 1995, the Rural Trust today works with more than 700 rural elementary and secondary schools in 33 states.

Note to editors: A more complete summary of the research findings is available upon request. The full research report also is available.