Professional Documents
Culture Documents
In business or the public sector, the size of an organization can make all the difference in
how quickly it can change and adapt new ideas to an incredibly dynamic world. I believe that in
educating students with diverse abilities and backgrounds, small can also be better. At the
Concept School (TCS) just such a dynamic school exists---small classes, student
leadership/mentoring opportunities between middle school and high school, and a highly
integrated interdisciplinary program. As a teacher at The Concept School, I've had the
wonderful opportunity to both witness and contribute in the effectiveness of the Small Size
Concept.
Often students attend large schools where classrooms can number 20 to 30 or even more
students. The ability of a teacher to understand a student and adapt a lesson for that specific
student is difficult, with high classroom numbers. The teacher of a classroom with a large
number of students is hard pressed to continuously access and provide feedback to their students
A TCS classroom size averages a ratio of eight students to one teacher. This small ratio
allows a TCS teacher the opportunity to focus and understand their individual student's
targeted lesson plans. This small classroom size also allows time, on a regular basis , to work one-
on-one with a student ---accessing their understanding and giving them continuous and timely
students in a way that would be much more challenging in a larger size class. Much of my time in
class is spent guiding and coaching students as they engage math problems or activities. Time
with lecturing and instructing to the class is minimized and a student's actual experience with
addressing the math is maximized. Students are also engaged in checking and correcting their
answers. This serves to increase their accountability and role in addressing their learning style.
A quiz is given for each skill mastered (usually a textbook section.) So a chapter with five to ten
sections would yield five to ten short quiz assessments of the students. This high frequency of
quizzes might prove labor intensive for a larger classroom, but is very manageable in the small
classes of TCS. It gives students a quick/high rate of feedback on their understanding of the
material. This has increased their confidence and allowed learning issues to be addressed quickly
and comprehensively.
A low student to teacher ratio also allows a teacher to take advantage of the special
interests and creative ideas of students. For example in a Computer class I had students work on
individual spreadsheet projects that connected to their specific interests, like roller coasters and
baseball. The TCS small class size also allows a spontaneous redirection in a lesson plan when a
new idea or learning opportunity arises. Case in point, after working on a internet based
research project on computer pioneers, one of my students had the idea of creating a set of
computer pioneer trading cards using graphics software with information from the internet.
With a large class, redirecting an assignment and providing new guidance and instruction on the
fly would be a Herculean effort. The small class size of TCS made it easy.
TCS is also a fertile ground to foster leadership and mentoring opportunities for students
because of her overall size and small classrooms. The small size of TCS classes and their close
proximity, allows TCS to match younger students with older student mentors. This relationship
can give the younger student a successful model to emulate and strategies to better develop their
learning styles. Leadership opportunities exist at TCS on the classroom level as well.
school chemistry class recently developed and taught a practical hands on lesson showing the
growing of crystals by way of a supersaturated liquid to our middle school science class. The
middle school students enjoyed the lab and instruction created by their upper school classmates.
For the high school students, the lesson execution not only reinforced their chemistry
understanding, but provided an opportunity for the development of their leadership skills. A
separate middle and high school, which most public schools operate would make such a joint
The small size concept may be most effective in our school's ability to have a truly
integrated staff—administration and teachers from all disciplines. While working in a larger
more traditional school it was not uncommon for me to deal exclusively with other math teachers.
I hardly ever talked with school administration or teachers from other disciplines (e.g. English,
Social Studies, etc.) Such “stove-piping” can create blind-spots in a teacher's knowledge of their
students. At TCS, the “whole school” is the student's team. A student's progress and
development is discussed among the staff on a daily basis. This enables the staff to not only keep
current on a specific student's progress, but to address significant student issues in a consistent
A small integrated staff also allows material to be connected from different disciplines
with much greater ease than a larger school. For example special classes have been organized
and effectively run through team-teaching. This approach is easily organized because of the
small size and close proximity of the staff. Classes in anthropology, and criminal justice, both
taught by social studies and science teachers, is an example of this type of classe taught at TCS.
Students greatly benefit from this dual perspective teaching. Their attention is held from the
variety of teaching approaches and they begin to understand that subject areas can span over
more then one discipline. These cross-discipline connections can be identified and developed
Perhaps the biggest success of TCS's inter-disciplinary approach is the school wide
participation once or twice a year, in putting on a theatrical performance. This past year two
such productions were successfully performed. Scenes from “A Midsummer Nights Dream” by
Shakespeare and “The Wizard of OZ” by Frank Baum were produced by a school wide
production team of student performers and stage designers. These productions transformed the
entire school through action and appearance in reflecting the themes of the production (i.e. Our
school performance room was transformed into Shakespeare's Globe Theater.) Students, facility,
and parents came together in a strong community building exercise. Students experienced
history, art, engineering, and real life problem solving. They develop pride in their school and
The small size concept with small classes within a small school setting can significantly
improve the learning environment for all students. Smaller classes give teachers time and space
needed to establish a relationship in which specific lesson activities can offered to a given student
with continuous and timely feedback. A small school also provides positive connections between
the middle and high school students. Students in leadership and mentor roles can help other
students as well as themselves. A small, highly integrated staff enables the whole school to act on
behalf of a given student and provide consistent and timely support. A small school can also
foster interdisciplinary connections and bring the learning community together through
individual and group efforts in developing and executing school projects such as theatrical
performances. The “Small size concept that achieves big results” is an approach worthy of serious