School Size in Chicago Elementary Schools: Effects on Teachers' Attitudes and Students' Achievement

This study explores whether teachers and students are influenced by the size of the inner-city elementary school to which they belong. Focusing on teachers' attitudes about their responsibility for student learning and students' l-year gains in mathematics achievement scores, we used data from almost 5,000 teachers and 23,000 sixth and eighth-grade students in 264 K-8 Chicago schools. The data were collected through 1997 surveys and annual standardized tests. We employed hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to estimate school effects. On both outcomes, small schools (enrolling fewer than 400 students) are favored compared with medium-sized or larger schools. In small schools, teachers have a more positive attitude about their responsibility. for students' learning and students learn more. Even after taking size into account, learning is also higher in schools with higher levels of collective responsibility. Thus, we conclude that school size influences student achievement directly and indirectly, through its effect on teachers' attitudes.

[1]  D. Monk,et al.  Predictors of High School Academic Course Offerings: The Role of School Size , 1993 .

[2]  R. Rosenthal,et al.  Pygmalion in the classroom , 1968 .

[3]  D. Lortie,et al.  Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study , 1976 .

[4]  L. Kenny,et al.  Economies of scale in schooling , 1982 .

[5]  Doris R. Entwisle,et al.  Summer Setback: Race, Poverty, School Composition, and Mathematics Achievement in the First Two Years of School. , 1992 .

[6]  Stephen W. Raudenbush,et al.  Magnitude of teacher expectancy effects on pupil IQ as a function of the credibility of expectancy induction: A synthesis of findings from 18 experiments. , 1984 .

[7]  J. Oakes,et al.  Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality. , 1986 .

[8]  Mark A. Smylie.  Redesigning Teachers' Work: Connections to the Classroom , 1994 .

[9]  N. Wyner.  Current perspectives on the culture of schools , 1991 .

[10]  C. Mills,et al.  The Theory of Social and Economic Organization , 1948 .

[11]  D. Monk.  Secondary school size and curriculum comprehensiveness , 1987 .

[12]  Valerie E. Lee,et al.  High School Size: Which Works Best and for Whom? , 1996 .

[13]  J. Little.  Norms of Collegiality and Experimentation: Workplace Conditions of School Success , 1982 .

[14]  W. Firestone,et al.  Building Commitment in Urban High Schools , 1988 .

[15]  Ralph L. Rosnow,et al.  Essentials of Behavioral Research: Methods and Data Analysis , 1984 .

[16]  Anthony S. Bryk,et al.  The High School as Community: Contextual Influences and Consequences for Students and Teachers. , 1988 .

[17]  Brian Rowan.  Commitment and Control: Alternative Strategies for the Organizational Design of Schools , 1990 .

[18]  V. Lee,et al.  Collective Responsibility for Learning and Its Effects on Gains in Achievement for Early Secondary School Students , 1996, American Journal of Education.

[19]  A. Bryk,et al.  Catholic Schools and the Common Good , 1993 .

[20]  H. Cooper,et al.  Relations Between Student Achievement and Various Indexes of Teacher Expectations. , 1982 .

[21]  Brian Rowan.  Chapter 7: Commitment and Control: Alternative Strategies for the Organizational Design of Schools , 1990 .

[22]  J. Chambers.  An Analysis of School Size Under a Voucher System , 1972 .

[23]  John S. Rigden,et al.  Editorial: The Carnegie report, ‘‘A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century’’ , 1986 .

[24]  A. Gamoran,et al.  Measuring Curriculum Differentiation , 1989, American Journal of Education.

[25]  Jere Brophy,et al.  Research on the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and Teacher Expectations. , 1983 .

[26]  P. M. Podsakoff,et al.  Effects of Withdrawal of a Performance-Contingent Reward on Supervisory Influence and Power , 1981 .

[27]  Karen Seashore Louis,et al.  Teachers’ Professional Community in Restructuring Schools , 1996 .

[28]  R. Barker,et al.  Big school, small school : high school size and student behavior , 1965 .

[29]  Amitai Etzioni,et al.  A Comparative Analysis of Complex Organisations , 1977 .

[30]  J. Guthrie.  Organizational Scale and School Success , 1979 .

[31]  R. Weinstein,et al.  Student perceptions of differential teacher treatment as moderators of teacher expectation effects , 1984 .

[32]  Peter J. Denning,et al.  A nation at risk: the imperative for educational reform , 1983, CACM.

[33]  Karen Seashore Louis,et al.  Professionalism and Community: Perspectives on Reforming Urban Schools, Karen Seashore Louis and Sharon D. Druse. 1995. Corwin Press, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA. 272 pages. ISBN: 0-8039-6252-5 (hc); 0-8039-6253-3 (pb). $49.95 (hc); $24.95(pb , 1995 .

[34]  S. J. Rosenholtz.  Teacher's workplace : the social organization of schools , 1991 .

[35]  Richard F. Elmore,et al.  Restructuring Schools: The Next Generation of Educational Reform , 1990 .

[36]  W. Firestone,et al.  Prescriptions for Effective Elementary Schools Don't Fit Secondary Schools. , 1982 .

[37]  Anthony S. Bryk,et al.  A Multilevel Model of the Social Distribution of High School Achievement. , 1989 .

[38]  Anthony S. Bryk,et al.  Charting Chicago School Reform: Democratic Localism As A Lever For Change , 1998 .

[39]  S. Michelson.  For the Plaintiffs- Equal School Resource Allocation , 1972 .

[40]  J. Little.  The Persistence of Privacy: Autonomy and Initiative in Teachers' Professional Relations , 1990, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education.

[41]  A. Bryk,et al.  The Organization of Effective Secondary Schools , 1993 .

[42]  J. Buzacott.  Scale in production systems , 1982 .

[43]  A. Bryk,et al.  Curriculum Tracking as Mediating the Social Distribution of High School Achievement. , 1988 .

[44]  Stephen W. Raudenbush,et al.  A Multilevel, Multivariate Model for Studying School Climate With Estimation Via the EM Algorithm and Application to U.S. High-School Data , 1991 .

[45]  Bruce L. Wilson,et al.  Using Bureaucratic and Cultural Linkages to Improve Instruction: The Principal's Contribution , 1985 .

[46]  James J. Lindsay,et al.  The Effects of Summer Vacation on Achievement Test Scores: A Narrative and Meta-Analytic Review , 1996 .

[47]  Amitai Etzioni,et al.  A Comparative Analysis of Complex Organizations. , 1962 .

[48]  J. Garbarino,et al.  Some thoughts on school size and its effects on adolescent development , 1980, Journal of youth and adolescence.

[49]  H. Cooper.  Teacher Expectation Research: A Review with Implications for Classroom Instruction , 1984, The Elementary School Journal.

[50]  Anthony S. Bryk,et al.  Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods , 1992 .