Evaluating School Size; An Analysis of the Parent Perspective of a Small Versus a Large High School
Year: 2011
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the parental perspective of the former small school initiative at Euclid High School as compared to the traditional large high school setting.Small school researchers have argued that smaller schools are better environments for educating children (Cotton, 1996).However, in the research on small schools the literature neglects to substantially examine the perspective of parents.Parental satisfaction and support are key elements of a school districts ability to successfully educate children.Therefore, schools that are considering transitioning to or eliminating small school settings should take the parental view into consideration when implementing changes.This study uses a mixed method design to gain insight on the parents' perception of school size and its impact on the academic environment, the school atmosphere, and relationships within the high school.The study commenced with a questionnaire being distributed to approximately 300 parents.There was a 14% response rate for the questionnaires.The second phase of the study utilized a case study approach with individual interviews of 10 participants.All of the quantitative and qualitative data collected were analyzed and compared in order to form final results.Several findings showed favorable perceptions towards small schools, consistent with much of the previous research on small schools.However, the vii results also indicated that perceptions of the large school and the small schools were similar in many areas.Therefore, the results illuminated that administrators that are considering or forced to eliminate small school initiatives should not merely abandon their small school programs for the traditional large school but rather, attempt to incorporate some of the components of the small schools to the traditional large school setting in order to increase parental satisfaction and support.
Author: Tamea R. Caver
Institution: Cleveland State University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2287424749