Hawaii school officials should take heed of a study by the University of Michigan and the University of Rochester. It shows school size - as well as class size - is important in effective learning environments.
The four-year national study of almost 10,000 high school students in 789 public and private institutions was presented yesterday to the American Educational Research Association. It concludes that campuses with 600 to 900 students showed the highest reading and mathematics achievement, regardless of their prosperity. Quality of education declines especially after enrollment exceeds 2,100, it says.
Hawaii's average public high school has an enrollment of 1,300, and only one has a student population in what researchers determined was the ideal range. Five high schools have enrollments of more than 2,100. Hawaii's public high school students tend to score below average on national tests.
Conventional wisdom has been that the larger the school, the more comprehensive the curriculum, and thus the better the quality of education. However, the study supports the contention that schools can be too large, so that pupils become anonymous. It's the proverbial small fish in a big pond.
Size apparently affects the humanity of a campus. "Necessarily, schools are social organizations," explained Michael Heim of the state Department of Education in a 1992 study on school size. "There is no substitute for being needed and feeling wanted." Do Hawaii public high school students know that sense of belonging?
The state can do little at present to reduce the enrollments at highly crowded schools. That would mean building more campuses, which it cannot afford. But DOE officials should recognize the consequences of creating large-scale education factories in planning for the future.
Rupert E. Phillips,CEO
John M. Flanagan,Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro,Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang,Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner,Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser,Contributing Editor