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EQUIP (Ensuring Quality and Unleashing Improved Performance) – # 6
Impact of Small Schools on Risky Behavior
Students who attend small schools are less likely to engage in risky behavior such as drug use, violence or early sexual activity, largely because they feel better connected to their teachers and one another, according to a recent study. The study, reported in The Untapped Power of Schools to Improve the Health of Teens, was conducted by Robert Blum, Director, University of Minnesota Center for Adolescent Health and Development . The results, drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a federally funded survey of 72,000 junior high and high school students, found that when the number of students in a school increases beyond 1,200, the students become more isolated which contributes to unhealthy activities.
Although prior studies have linked manageable school size to increased academic achievement, researchers called this the first study that points to school size as a factor in student health and behavior. The study isolated a number of factors that contribute to school connectedness.
Other key findings of the study include:
- School size is the only structural characteristic associated with school connectedness
- Health and education are interdependent
- Student attitudes are a major factor in school achievement
- Grades might be affected by the way a school is organized and run
- School connectedness is lower in schools with harsher discipline policies
- The narrow focus on accountability and standardized test scores forces administrators to make cultivating positive student attitudes less of a priority
- Teachers who foster strong relationships with students and make them feel like valuable contributors are important in determining how students feel about school
- Teachers who did the best job of encouraging a welcoming environment weren’t necessarily the most experienced, nor did they necessarily hold advanced degrees
- What matters is the environment that students enter when they walk in the door
The monograph and journal article
can be viewed at
http://www.allaboutkinds.umn.edu