Category Archives: Class Size

Smaller Schools Are Better Schools

Research shows that smaller schools reduce the effects of poverty, are safer, reduce violence, increase parental involvement and student academic achievement.

Meeting In Dunwoody To Discuss Overcrowding

There will be a special purpose meeting hosted by the Peachtree Gateway Council on Schools to discuss Dunwoody overcrowding. Dan Drake, DeKalb County School District COO will be in attendance. This could be a good opportunity to hear the county’s perspective and to share ours. Details of the meeting with Dan Drake (DCSD COO):

Kingsley Elementary – Cafeteria
2051 Brendon Dr, Dunwoody, GA 30338
Wed, Feb 20, 2019
6:00pm

Redistrict and Overcrowding

In Commissioner Nancy Jester’s post, Redistrict and Consolidate DeKalb Schools High Schools, she writes, “DeKalb Schools has 6,167 high school seats not being used. There are 10 high schools at less than 80% utilization. McNair is only 41% utilized. We can redistrict all the schools with overcrowding for free and still have 4,862 high school seats not being used.”

Are Smaller Schools Better Schools?

“Reforming public education may be as simple as creating smaller schools. The results of two recent studies indicate that small schools may be the remedy for lots of what is wrong with public education. Small schools can reduce the negative effects of poverty, reduce violence, and increase parent involvement and student accountability” says EducationWorld. The following is gleened from that article and their research.

The Rural School and Community Trust, a national nonprofit organization, asked researchers Craig Howley, of Ohio University and the Appalachia Educational Laboratory, and Robert Bickel, of Marshall University, to study School Size, Poverty, and Student Achievement in Georgia among a couple other states. The study included 13,600 urban, suburban, and rural schools in 2,290 school districts.

They found that at least one-third of the schools serving moderate- to low-income communities in Georgia are too large for students to achieve top performance.

Size Matters
Howley and Bickel found that poor students from relatively smaller schools outperform poor students from larger schools.

Test Scores Drop In Large Schools
In Georgia, achievement scores in schools serving children from poorer communities fell on 27 of 29 test scores as the school size increased.

Teacher Satisfaction Goes Up
The researchers found that student achievement was greater in the small schools than in the larger schools. Students, parents, teachers, and community volunteers reported greater satisfaction because they felt more connected to one another


Kingsley PGCS Meeting Summary

Updated: 2/21/2019 @ 10:23am
Please share your thoughts on the meeting. Here are mine …

All in all, I think coach Mike Nash’s sentiments summarized the feelings of those in attendance. He said this school is busting at the seems. Dunwoody HS, with 2000+ students, is given the same resources as all the other high schools with less than 1000 students. We don’t have enough space for anything and what we do have is getting worn down much faster than the current maintenance cycle is providing for.

Redistricting
Redistricting is the most emotional issue on the table. One Latino man stood up in the middle of the meeting and passionately expressed that he does not want to be redistricted to Cross Keys.

Drake was clear that the current plan is to keep the cluster together saying that the Dunwoody community was clear that they want to stay together. I think he conflated the City of Dunwoody and the Dunwoody School Cluster. The residents of Dunwoody are clear that citizens of Dunwoody should go to school in Dunwoody. That doesn’t hold true about the Dunwoody School Cluster.

Common Spaces & Facilities
Drake punted on space and maintenance saying he would listen to the concerns of the CAC and community.

Peachtree Gateway Council on Schools
I have a number of concerns about PGCS. They want to be the conduit to the administration for all PTAs, School Councils, Foundations and other parent organizations. But they have meetings with the administration and actively try to prevent the public from going. They have a closed facebook group. I’ve reached out to them and have never received a response. They have never reached out to me. I can only assume something nefarious is going on here.

DeKalb Class Size Analysis – Middle Schools – 2017

The school district general fund budget has increased roughly 30% over the last 4 years. About 65% of that has gone to the classroom. Over that time period, DeKalb Schools has added over 1,000 school house employees across the district.
DeKalb teachers have received a number of pay raises over the last couple years. Back in December DeKalb Schools had the Worst Paid Teachers Around. However, they received another 2% raise in January … the comparative analysis on that is forth coming.
Middle school class sizes have gone down and are generally below the state max. This analysis shows the reported average class size for each grade by middle school. The average class size for the school (grades 6-8) were ranked and ordered from smallest to largest.
Legal Max Class Size – Before DeKalb Schools was granted SWSS status, GaDOE rule 160-5-1-.08 set the maximum number of students in a class.


Average Class Size For Every Middle School By Grade

Legal Max Class Size 34 34 34
District Class Size Avg 26 26 26
Grade Level
School 6 7 8 AVG
1 FREEDOM MIDDLE 24 23 22 23.00
2 PEACHTREE MIDDLE 25 22 22 23.00
3 REDAN MIDDLE 23 25 24 24.00
4 MCNAIR MIDDLE 22 27 25 24.67
5 CHAPEL HILL MIDDLE 28 25 22 25.00
6 COLUMBIA MIDDLE 26 24 25 25.00
7 HENDERSON MIDDLE 24 27 24 25.00
8 STONE MOUNTAIN MIDDLE 24 23 28 25.00
9 SEQUOYAH MIDDLE 27 23 26 25.33
10 MILLER GROVE MIDDLE 23 27 27 25.67
11 SALEM MIDDLE 25 27 26 26.00
12 CHAMPION THEME MS 27 27 25 26.33
13 TUCKER MIDDLE 25 27 27 26.33
14 DRUID HILLS MIDDLE 29 24 27 26.67
15 CEDAR GROVE MIDDLE 26 27 28 27.00
16 LITHONIA MIDDLE 26 29 28 27.67
17 STEPHENSON MIDDLE 26 27 30 27.67
18 CHAMBLEE MIDDLE 27 29 31 29.00
19 M.M.BETHUNE MIDDLE 30 29 29 29.33

Related Posts

DeKalb Class Size Analysis
Middle Schools – 2017

May 2, 2017 – Over the last 4 years DeKalb Schools has added over 1,000 school house employees. Middle school class sizes have gone down and are generally below the state max. This analysis shows the reported average class size for each grade by DeKalb middle school.

DeKalb Class Size Analysis
Elementary Schools – 2017

May 1, 2017 – This analysis shows the reported average class size for each grade by elementary school. The average class size for the school (grades K-5) were ranked and ordered from smallest to largest.

Class Size Analysis – Elementary Schools
September 8, 2015 – This analysis shows the reported average class size for each grade by elementary school. The average class size for the school (grades K-5) were ranked and ordered from smallest to largest. Comment on this post and let me know if these class sizes are not accurate in your school.