Educational Research says no. Research results clearly indicate what everyone instinctively knows: that smaller schools give students more individual attention and a better education.

The Canajoharie and Fort Plain school districts, through their merger feasibility study and other communications, are making exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims about the additional educational and extra curricular opportunities that may result from the proposed school merger. We are being told rosy stories about unspecified but supposedly exciting opportunities that, of course, our kids deserve. (And just for full disclosure, my 4 sibs and I all attended Fort Plain, my six kids all attended Canajoharie, I have several nieces and nephews who attended Fort Plain, and, in just a few years, my grandchildren will be attending Canajoharie.)

It is an undisputed truism that the opportunity that students most need is individual attention from teachers, and that small class sizes are better for delivering those opportunutues to students. So, do bigger schools do a better job at delivering those real advantages to students? Educational research clearly says no: smaller schools do a better job of delivering real, impactful opportunities for students.

These results are summarized in a review published in the Journal of Research in Rural Education by a Cornell professor in 2002. Quoting that review: “I have shown a pattern of consistent results…since 1970, the overwhelming consensus among educational researchers is that the advantages of consolidation on academic performance and achievement are greatly outweighed by the disadvantages (Kauffman, 2001: Kennedy, 2001). According to Huang and Howley (1993) “results have generally pointed to a negative relationship between size and academic achievement. All else held equal, small schools have evident advantages for achievement.” The relationship between school size and achievement has been documented in scores of empirical studies.” (1)

And this is not a unique result (indeed, there will eventually be a full series of “Is Bigger Better” posts here.) Here is a quote from an opinion piece published by The Fordham Institute: “Effective-schools research indicates that achievement is stronger where schools establish a clear identity for students – a community of interest. Yet consolidation pushes the other way. High schools, in particular, became shopping malls. Larger schools necessarily had less sense of community. Bigger doesn’t mean better. More consolidation will push both education costs and student performance in unwanted directions.” (2)

The research is clear: small schools are better for students. Check back here for more research showing the negative outcome that will come from merging schools.