As experts increasingly recommend smaller high schools as a way to improve education, large majorities of parents (80 percent) and high school teachers (85 percent) say smaller high schools are better at spotting troubled students, according to a survey by the nonpartisan research organization Public Agenda. More than half of the parents and teachers surveyed (53 percent and 52 percent respectively) say smaller schools are more likely to have strong parental involvement.

Many communities in states like California, Texas and Florida are trying to deal with soaring high school enrollments. The shootings at Columbine and other schools also raised questions about troubled students and alienation in large high schools. More than 70 percent of high school students attend schools with over 1,000 students, and half attend schools with more than 1,500 students, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The Public Agenda study defined a small high school as one with 500 or fewer students.

Although support for smaller schools was strong among teachers and parents alike, many believe that other reforms are more pressing. Seventy percent of teachers, for example, say small class size is more important to student achievement than small school size.

Parents and teachers see a number of advantages to smaller high schools, as well as some serious drawbacks to larger ones:

• Majorities of parents (66 percent) and teachers (79 percent) say smaller high schools offer a better sense of belonging and community, and they are more likely to tailor instruction to meet individual needs.

• More than two-thirds of parents and teachers (69 percent in both cases) say smaller schools are more likely to spot teachers who are not performing well.

• More than two-thirds (parents, 68 percent; teachers, 70 percent) say larger schools are more likely to have a lot of discipline problems.

The full report is available at www.publicagenda.org.

American Federation of Teachers, AFL•CIO - 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20001