Of
the 2,000 students in this building, do you know all of them well? Can you?
Violence can happen anywhere. Mental illness can appear
anywhere. Murders can take place anywhere.
This is not an attempt to assert a cause and effect
relationship.
It would be foolish to say school size caused the
tragedies that we have witnessed at a number of large schools.
School
|
Year
|
Enrollment
|
Columbine High School
|
1998-99
|
Over 1,800
|
Arapahoe High School
|
2013-14
|
Over 2,270
|
STEM School Highlands Ranch
|
2018-19
|
Over 1,870
|
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (FL)
|
2017-18
|
3,200 – est.
|
Santa Fe High School (TEXAS)
|
2017-18
|
1,400 – est.
|
But this I believe: the size of our schools is a factor
in what has occurred.
Teaching English in six different
schools, I never taught more than 110 students. In two schools I never had more than
65 students; total enrollment in those schools was under 260. The three K-8
schools where I taught were under 500. The least safe? The high school of 1,200 students, in northern Vermont, where frequent bomb scares forced us out into
the freezing cold, as lockers were searched.
|
A review of ten articles in The Denver Post since the
shooting at STEM School (see below and pages 3-5) reveals almost no
consideration of school size as a problem. Hardly any mention that no adult at
the school knew those students well, or of faculty and staff not sharing
warning signs with their colleagues. Or, more generally, of ballooning class sizes
(28-35) and teacher-student ratios (e.g. 1:160, for some secondary teachers in
Douglas County) that makes it almost impossible to know all your students.
It does not have to be this way (see box). And yet we appear
to accept such numbers as givens, and shift our attention to school resource
officers, security staff – and metal detectors. We build these Big Boxes that
make it so hard to create a healthy, positive school community where every young
person feels he or she is known well—and then try to fix it how? With more
police?
One story
stood out. It dominated page one of The Denver Post on June 2. Packed
with numbers, ratios, data.
Resource
vital to safety is limited –
Many
Districts Don’t Meet Experts’ Guidelines
“The Douglas County district has 2,980
middle and high school students per school resource officer. With 2,425
students per officer, Denver Public Schools has the second-worst ratio.’’ “… neither district – nor many
metro-area districts of similar size – meet the best practice that school
security officers recommended … of one officer for every 1,000 students…”
“Denver has an SRO or a district security
person for every 404 students, Jeffco Public Schools has a 272-1 ratio and
Douglas County Public Schools has a 475-1 ratio.”
(A sidebar included such data for 11 other
metro areas districts.)
And still more numbers – the costs of the SRO program
in DPS, how many on JeffCo’s security staff …. But in 70 inches of newsprint,
not one word about the number of students in these buildings, or the
ratio—not of SROs-to-students—but of teachers-to-students. (And no need
to quote the 1:20 ratio we see reported for many schools on the Colorado
Department of Education’s website.* These figures bear no relation to the
actual number of students a teacher is responsible for. That is the
important number.)
That June 2
article in The Denver Post also told us:
“The odds that a
school will experience a shooting any given year are about one in 35 million,
so while SROs and other security staff need to [be] ready to confront an
attacker, much of the work they do is building relationships and trying to
identify kids who are struggling, said Guy Grace, director of security and
emergency preparedness at Littleton Public Schools.”
But – hello!—this
is what teachers are supposed to do. This is why to be a good teacher is such a
tough and incredibly important job! And this is why we need more … teachers.
And smaller classes.
I have known the challenge of building good relationships
with students, and I can only stand in awe of those teachers who can do this
successfully with 160 students. Just knowing all of your colleagues in such
large institutions must be so difficult. Hardly ideal to build the trust needed
for sharing concerns….
“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” Winston Churchill
Twenty years
ago, after the horrific events at Columbine High, eager to write something
constructive in my newsletter, I focused on school size. (I am glad to send a
hard copy to anyone interested. AV #9.) I was stunned then, as I am now, that
the subject gets so little attention. At the same time, I can see why our first
response is to explore whether we have enough SROs, or counselors, or mental
health professionals, rather than look at ourselves and ask: Are the schools
we have created partly to blame?
But ask we
must. How can we create schools that are more humane and personal? How we can
make a teacher’s job more doable—so that he or she does not succumb to what Ted
Sizer called—as he titled one of his books, Horace’s Compromise–doing just
enough to get by, while knowing it is not what the students need or deserve?
(See Addendum B.) How can we stop thinking about bigger
schools as better?
Ask those teachers
who seek to know their students well. If the structures are right (no more than
25 in a class, no more than 110 students), they have great opportunities—in
their classroom teaching and one-on-one meetings with students, in advising, in
coaching, in leading afterschool clubs—to engage these young people. And to
listen. And to be aware–often, but no, not always—of potential danger.
But if the structures are poorly designed (as I call a
school for 1,500 to 3,000 students—and teacher-to-student ratios of 1:160),
you can reduce the SRO-to-student ratio all you want and you have not altered the
basic flaw in such large institutions. In such settings some kids will get
lost. And perhaps worse.
**
This past April one look back—as presented by The Denver
Post, “20 years after Columbine shooting, little has been accomplished
on gun control” (4/14)—was almost predictable. Of course guns in the wrong
hands are a huge problem. But when the tragic shooting at the STEM School in
Highlands Ranch took place, our first response continued to focus on weapons
and security and failed to dig more deeply into the “why?” To be sure, we
feel compelled to do something. But please review these recent articles
from The Denver Post (May to August). What has been our focus, to date?
Aren’t we missing something?
May 12
|
Letters: Readers respond to school shooting with sympathy, ideas
and anger
|
One letter asked: “What if our legislators thought outside the box
and started small, with ideas we can all agree on, like metal detectors and
armed guards?”
MY COMMENT:
“Outside the box”? Such thinking still comes from “inside the box”
of our huge schools—as if that is how it must be. A fresh approach will mean
we stop building schools designed for 2,000 students.
|
May 17
|
Colorado lawmakers create school safety committee after STEM
shooting, Sol Pais scare –
Eight state House and Senate members will hear from experts and
consider legislation
|
“The committee will examine issues related to school safety,
mental health and preventing threats across the state. It’s expected to seek
testimony from a wide range of experts.”**
MY COMMENT: Will you invite experts on school size? See three reports in Addendum A. See insights
from Ted Sizer - Addendum B.
|
May 24
|
Douglas
County may more than double the number of school resource officers in wake of
STEM School shooting
Commissioners
will meet Tuesday to decide on whether to provide $3 million a year for 16
new SROs
|
“The committees,
if approved, would focus on safety and protection in the district and on
mental health. Each would have nine members and would feature experts in law
enforcement and safety technology. At least one of the committees would have
parents and students on board.”
MY COMMENT: Nice to see the student voice present. But again, no experts
on school size?
|
May 28
|
Rift emerges between Douglas County, school officials over
strengthening security in wake of STEM shooting
School board says it cannot “abdicate” its decision-making
powers to county commissioners
|
“A power struggle was laid bare Tuesday between Douglas County
government officials and leaders of the state’s third-largest school district
over how best to allocate millions of new dollars for school security just
three weeks after the deadly shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch.”
MY COMMENT: I wish the disputes were about more important matters.
Are leaders in Douglas County asking what students experience in large
schools? (Enrollment in 8 of our high schools is between 1,600 and 2,300.) Are all students known well by the faculty? Do they feel a part of the school community?
(See the many studies on student engagement.)
|
June 2
|
“Oh, my God, it was so frustrating”:
How Colorado’s last school safety committee failed
|
MY COMMENT: This article noted that a school safety committee
“created just after … the Arapahoe High School shooting” heard “great
testimony,” but accomplished “nothing.” That testimony probably included the
report by the University of Colorado Center for the Study and Prevention of
Violence, which “found three major failures leading up” to the 2013 shooting.
“The first failure was
in school culture. Employees feared negative publicity and violations of
FERPA, the federal student privacy law, in talking to each other about
student behavior. The report found that administrators and teachers
misunderstood the scope of the federal law.”
MY COMMENT: A school culture where the adults are not sharing
highly disturbing behavior of students? Think about that. More–or less—likely
in a big school?
|
June 29
|
STEM School, Douglas County
district reach five-year agreement, with conditions
District can shorten contract if school doesn’t meet goals
|
“Some board members were reluctant to give a five-year contract,
however, because of concerns about safety after the shooting and about
whether the school adequately addressed complaints about its special
education services.”
MY COMMENT: Fair enough. But again, a symptom—or a root cause–behind
the tragedy of May 7?
|
July 13
|
Five takeaways from the first meeting of Colorado’s new school
safety committee
Teachers tell lawmakers they need more help
|
“Felicidad Fraser, a social worker in an alternative school, said
students she works with don’t feel comfortable talking about feelings and
concerns with most adults in their school, partially because the adults
haven’t listened. She gave an example of a Colombian-American girl who was
told not to take a joke so seriously after her teacher told her to go back to
Mexico.
“‘Do you think that kid is going to report anything again?’ Fraser
asked …. ‘Before kids will tell you anything, they have to trust you. And
they don’t trust most of us.’ She said “she and one other social
worker try to meet the emotional needs of all students in the alternative
school where they work, but they can’t spend enough time with each kid. ‘We
triage, triage, triage, triage all day long.’”
MY COMMENT: Powerful words, from the classroom—all
pointing to trust, relationships, and class size.
|
July 16
|
$10 million for Douglas County school safety could go to mental
health support
Standardizing school equipment and training also a priority
|
“Sarah Ericson, director of diversion in the 18th Judicial
District, spoke on behalf of a committee that looked for mental health investments….
the group recommends funding culture assessments at all schools willing to participate,
and following that up with money for programs on social-emotional learning, suicide prevention and mental health support.”
MY COMMENT: Three cheers. Let’s hope a look at the culture of our
schools might uncover if there is a different degree of trust, of belonging,
of a sense of community in smaller schools. And if so, if that might
encourage some rethinking about the schools we design in the future.
|
August 7
|
“Stars of Hope,” increased security greet STEM School students as
classes resume 3 months after shooting
Highlands Ranch school has deployed new safety measures, closed off classrooms where the shootings occurred
|
“As
1,850 students prepare to start the 2019-20 school year at STEM on Wednesday,
some parents and their children are expressing feelings of anxiety and
apprehension about going back to school exactly three months to the day after
the shooting — and just days after a pair of mass tragedies, in El Paso,
Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, shook the nation.
“A letter sent to parents … detailed new
safety and security measures in place at STEM School this year, [including]:
-Assigning a full-time school resource officer from the Douglas
County Sheriff’s Office to campus …
-Having an off-duty deputy direct traffic …
-Increasing the police presence at the school during the first
couple weeks of classes …
-Forming a committee to address security, best practices
-Adding mental health resources for students, staff and teachers.”
MY COMMENT: Three months is, no doubt, too little time to ask the
harder questions of what can be done to fundamentally change the structures
we create for our students.
On the other hand, the shootings at Columbine took place over
twenty years ago.
|
*In my old school where I still tutor
most weeks, CDE’s data reports the Pupil-Teacher FTE Ratio for 2018-19 as 16:1. The reality, though, is that many classes had 26 students this past year. https://www.cde.state.co.us/cdereval/2018-19studentteacherratiospdf
**Such responses are hardly unique to
Colorado.
“The Education Commission of the States
reports that 396 bills concerning school safety were introduced this year across
47 states, and 65 of them were enacted. Many of those bills, 153, included
provisions related to emergency preparedness. That covers such factors as
building security and safety drills…. About a third of the school safety bills
introduced dealt with school resource officers, and 88 of them related to guns
in schools.”
(“State Legislators Tackle Broad Basket
of Issues on Parents’ Checklist,” Education Week, June 19, 2019)
See also states like Missouri: School Safety - Task
Force Says Every MO School Should Have an Armed Guard.
Maybe of interest AV #129 - Evidence of success from the charter world – smaller high schools (April 8, 2015). Included this statistic:
“Average enrollment in the seven high-performing Colorado charter high schools:
392 students.” At website for Another View - https://anotherviewphj.blogspot.com/.
Addendum A - Research on
school size
1)
“Bigger
schools tend to be impersonal, departmentalized and bureaucratic.”
Smaller Schools, Better Performance - Herbert J. Walberg is a University Scholar at
the University of Illinois at Chicago.
2)
“We felt that high schools with 600
to 900 students were large enough to offer a full and solid
curriculum,
but small enough so students were known well by their teachers and didn’t get
lost in the cracks.”
The Ideal Size - Valerie E. Lee is a professor of education at the University of Michigan.
Both quotes from https://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/does-the-size-of-a-school-matter/
3)
“How important is school size?”
Greatschools.org (March 4, 2016)
Under strengths of small schools: see “Attention to students,”
“Community,” and “Safety”
Attention to students -
Strengths of
small schools: Students are less likely to “fall through the cracks” or feel cut off
from the school culture. They are more likely to form strong relationships with
peers and school staff.
Community -
Strengths of
small schools: There is generally more parent involvement and a feeling of belonging.
Safety -
Safety -
Strengths of
small schools: It’s easier to spot strangers at small schools; security and discipline
are easier to maintain.
Addendum
B - Ted Sizer, the Coalition of Essential Schools, and school size
One of America’s most well-respected educators of the
past 50 years, Ted Sizer’s work and words on school size had an impact on
Colorado in the early 1990’s. The Gates Family Foundation, working with the
Colorado Department of Education, supported six high schools redesigning around
the 10 principles of Sizer’s national Coalition of Essential Schools. One of
those principles follows. (All bold below mine.)
Personalization:
Teaching and learning should be personalized to the maximum feasible extent. Efforts should be directed toward a goal that no teacher have direct responsibility for more than 80 students in the high school and middle school and no more than 20 in the elementary school. https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2018/01/02/whatever-happened-to-the-coalition-of-essential-schools/
Teaching and learning should be personalized to the maximum feasible extent. Efforts should be directed toward a goal that no teacher have direct responsibility for more than 80 students in the high school and middle school and no more than 20 in the elementary school. https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2018/01/02/whatever-happened-to-the-coalition-of-essential-schools/
Sizer felt strongly about the issue of school size—and anonymity. At a symposium in Baltimore in October of 1987, he offered
a summary of the beliefs and practices that informed the coalition’s work:
You
can’t treat students like Frank Perdue treats his chickens. We need to respect
their differences. … As a teacher, you can’t have 175 students. You
can’t know that many minds and understand how they make mistakes. … [W]e need
to take students seriously. Don’t let any kids feel anonymous.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/29/10mcquillan.h29.html
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/29/10mcquillan.h29.html
From Sizer’s book, Horace’s Compromise (published
1984):
Most
high school students have several teachers who know a bit about them, but no
teacher who sees them whole. Unless they are in some limited enclave—such
as those made up of special education students, star athletes, students in a
highly visible honors track, or habitual troublemakers--they are, for all
intents and purposes, anonymous. This ill serves the students, obviously.
It also frustrates good teachers.” (p. 208-209, paperback)
From a tribute by Patrick J. McQuillen,
“What Ted Sizer Meant to Us,” Education Week, Oct. 29, 2009
“Based
on the research he conducted in high schools across the country that resulted
in Horace’s Compromise, Ted highlighted the “compromises” teachers endured
while adjusting and adapting to an ineffective system. They were responsible
for so many students that they assigned little substantive work. Lacking
time to know students well, teachers leveled their expectations to
perceived student abilities. To ensure that they “covered” the entire
curriculum, many topics were addressed superficially.
From interview with Educator Sector, conducted by its
co-director, Andrew Rotherham: May 3, 2006
From
Rotherham’s introduction:
“Theodore R.
"Ted" Sizer has been one of American education's most influential
thinkers for over four decades. Perhaps best known as the author of the
seminal Horace trilogy advocating radically more engaging high schools
for students and teachers, Sizer early in his distinguished career served as
dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and headmaster of Phillips
Academy (Andover), the nation's oldest boarding high school.”
|
TS: Inertia and politics get in the way, they don't give people
room to try new things. The system is very conservative and very resistant …
and it's stuck. And there are very, very weak incentives. To [change] we need
[more] room [to be creative]; that's the barrier. It is here that school
size is so important. An invisible child is a lost child. Human scale is
crucial.
“The
nation keeps building vast soulless high schools….”
From a
letter by Ted Sizer to me (Oct. 26, 1999), after I sent him AV #9, “Some
thoughts following the Columbine tragedy.”
Dear Peter,
Belated
thanks for “Another View #9.” Your argument is right on the on money, or so it
seems to me. I must say we at the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential Schools
(where [his wife] Nancy and I were the co-principals this last year), our first
reaction was “There but for the grace of God go we.” Such was a reasonable
reaction given the fact that no sieve is perfect and that kids can come apart
at the seams emotionally for often inexplicable reasons. Nonetheless, knowing
our kids well both because we are a small school and because the school is
built around a load per teacher which is profoundly “doable,” we felt we were
in better shape to handle the shock of tragedy. The nation, however, keeps
building vast soulless high schools, God save us, in the name of “economy and
efficiency.”
