Conducted for the College Park Elementary School Community

The Parent’s Advisory Council of College Park Elementary issued a call for background information on the issue of school size and educational benefits to present to School District 43. Professors Schmidt and Murray commissioned a member of the graduate program in SFU’s faculty of education, Hien Nguyen, to carry out a study of the educational policy literature exploring the impact of school size on educational quality and community benefits, with the guidance and assistance of Schmidt and Murray. The intent of this report is to counter the proposal to close eight schools on the Board’s agenda by the end of February, 2007 with evidence-based research showing the unequivocal benefits of small schools and their effects on students ’ achevievemnt, social skills, civic engagement, cost effectiveness, enhanced school safety, and better integration of immigrant and low socio-economic minority students. Evidence of declining enrollments and costs cannot be evaluated without a review of the benefits. The intent of this review is to identify where there is expert consensus that concrete benefits to small schools are found. Executive Summary School size matters. This review of educational studies commissioned for the College Par