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Mr.Savage, there is simply mo consensus on the ideal high school size because there are scores of other variables at play and to continually harp on "the best" number is overly simplistic. Yes, Barrington has 1000 kids in its high school but I'd submit to you that if they saw a future influx of an additional 300 high school students they would not rush to build a new high school, they'd simply expand the current one to accommodate that increase. And have a high school if 1300. NK High has 1400 kids, Coventry has 1600 kids, and Cranston West has 1500 and NK & Coventry outperform all our high schools and Cranston West performs as well as Tollgate, our best performing school (based onNECAP scores) I did not use Golocalprov's ranking because NECAP is the only common measure across all districts.

A Univ of Michigan study found "the issue of school size is much more important in schools with high concentrations of low-income and minority students. Thus, schools with many minority students, and those with many students from lower-socioeconomic status families (often the same schools), should be especially anxious to reduce the size of the units in which their students actually learn." http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/1151-high-schools-with-600-900-students-are-ideal-size-for-learning

A Univ of Missouri study found that "The second caveat is that school size per se is not a direct causal factor affecting school quality. Rather, school size is indirectly related to academic outcomes through its relationship to a variety of other variables. As a result, the relationship between school size and various indicators of school size is likely to be very complex. Unfortunately, sophisticated studies addressing complex relationship are currently lacking in the literature. Academic decision makers, therefore, must guard against making simple decisions based upon studies relating only one, or a few, mediating variables to a limited number of outcome measures."

http://sdpl.coe.uga.edu/research/SchoolSizeSDPL.pdf: 2011 study 303 Georgia High schools

"Based upon the findings of this study, school size plays little importance in the measures of academic achievement in Georgia high schools."

http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/1882.pdf: 2004 Teacher’s College Record study "The accumulated research suggests that student achievement is lower in larger high schools, and the distribution of that achievement is inequitable. Moreover, there is evidence that size is a more important issue for students from disadvantaged social backgrounds, both directly in terms of learning and indirectly in terms of differentiating environments that seldom favor minority and lowincome students. Thus, it is often the case that the students who would benefit from smaller high schools the most—minority and low-income students—are actually educated in the largest schools."

2008 NYU study : "Student outcomes — including graduation and dropout rates — at small (under 500 students) and medium size (between 501 and 1500 students) high schools in New York City are better than the citywide average for all schools, according to a new report by the NYU Institute for Education and Social Policy (IESP). The study also found that there is no difference in these outcomes between small and medium size schools, suggesting that optimal high school size may be larger than previously thought."

The fact that we can both cut and paste studies supporting our point illustrates the lack of consensus BUT a common thread in much of the literature points that smaller high schools benefit areas that contain high minority population and high poverty areas, neither of which affects Warwick in any significant way. Lexington, MA has one high school - consisting if 1800+ kids and they're one of the highest performing districts in MA, arguably the best public schools in the country. Newton, MA has a 2000 student high school. People aren't going to move to Warwick because we have small schools. They'll move here because we have high performing schools. As a district we are not high performing, or even close to it.Warwick has among the highest per pupil expenditures in the state (in the top 5-7, I believe). Warwick teachers are among the highest paid in the state (in the top 7-8 I believe). As a district, we are in the bottom 50% and if you remove charter schools we're in the lowest third, based, again, on NECAP results. That simply is not because of school size. Nor is a large high school some sort of an outdated industrial-type model because larger high schools can afford a district opportunities for more program offerings across the board. Lastly, while it's not all about money, it also is all about money. Education costs money and finances are finite. Further, our school populations are declining primarily because that is the simple demographic trend across the country not because people are pulling their kids out to send them to private schools.

From: Committee tables school plan

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