Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Number Eight
March 2002
and suburban expansion that troubles Sprawl: Why Johnny Can’t Walk to
smart growth advocates the most.2 School." The report serves as a clari- ... school quality can
on call to smart growth advocates influence population
Discussions about the connection across the country, stating: "Despite
between schools and community the clamor for smaller, community-cen-
shifts within a region
design are not new within smart tered schools, ‘mega-school sprawl’ – from the urban core
growth circles, but they certainly have giant schools on the outskirts of town to the periphery, pre-
become more focused recently, with with tenuous physical connections to cisely the pattern of
the publication of a National Trust for the communities they serve – contin-
Historic Preservation report, "Historic ues to spread across the country." 3 urban disinvestment
Neighborhood Schools in the Age of and suburban expan-
sion that troubles
smart growth advo-
The Smart Growth Response cates the most.
Until this recent focus on school have gone on the offensive against
sprawl, smart growth policies have not school sprawl. Such efforts coalesce
made much of a distinction between around three related, but separate
schools and other public infrastruc- issues: minimum site size require-
ture. Still, some growth management ments; funding formulas favoring new
programs have had considerable influ- construction over rehabilitation; and
ence over school facility planning. walkable schools. Each is discussed
Such measures generally strengthen below.
the connection between community
planning activities and capital invest- Site Size
ment decisions, including new school All states have regulations pertaining
construction. As early as 1971, for to the siting, design and construction
instance, Maryland established a of new schools, as well as the rehabil-
state-level committee, involving the itation of existing schools. Most state
Secretary of Planning and the State regulations include minimum site size
Superintendent of Schools, to approve requirements, patterned after guid-
all school sites. Other states with ance established in the 1970s by the
robust growth management programs, Arizona-based Council of Educational
like Florida and Oregon, also exert Facility Planners International (CEFPI).
considerable influence over the loca- Under the model rules, an elementary
tion and size of school sites, stirring school for 500 students would require
some controversy. Last year in at least 15 acres and a high school
Oregon, for instance, a bill was intro- for 2,000 would require at least 50
duced to permit urban schools on acres. Citing such huge acreage stan-
prime farmland immediately outside dards at the top of the list of "public
the state’s urban growth boundaries. policy culprits," the National Trust
1000 Friends of Oregon and other explains in Why Johnny Can’t Walk:
smart growth advocates helped defeat "Older schools typically occupy only
the bill.4 two to eight acres. To satisfy the stan-
dards, school districts must often
In addition to fighting such rear-guard destroy nearby homes, parks and
actions, smart growth groups now neighborhoods, or they must move to
Page 4
An Intersection of Interests
The deliberate effort of STPP to speak Many mark the beginning of the mod-
directly to the interests of school admi- ern smart growth movement in the
nistrators, teachers and parents points early 1970s, when the State of
in an important direction. For the most Oregon set up its much-debated sys-
part, educators make the decisions tem of regional growth boundaries. At
about school facilities, not planners or about the same time, a seemingly
smart growth advocates, and school unrelated effort was gathering steam
officials already have a wide variety of on the East Coast: the urban small
factors to consider: funding con- schools movement. In 1974, Deborah
straints, anti-discrimination rules, build- Meier started Central Park East, the
ing safety, and classroom technology first of many small schools that would
to name just a handful. Given these open in New York City over the coming
Given ... competing competing demands for their attention, decades. The movement soon spread
demands for their educators are more likely to respond to other large cities, like Philadelphia
attention, educators to the problem of school sprawl when and Chicago. Major foundation sup-
it becomes directly relevant to their port, including headline-grabbing pro-
are more likely to core concern -- the student experience grams funded by the Annenberg
respond to the prob- and educational attainment. Thus, the Foundation, Gates Foundation, Pew
lem of school sprawl interests of smart growth advocates Charitable Trusts and Carnegie
and education refor-mers converge on Corporation have aided the fight
when it becomes a simple, but powerful, idea: the small against school giantism. 13
directly relevant to neighborhood school.
their core concern --
the student experience
and educational Why Small Schools Succeed
attainment. Small school advocates cite many rea- affect on test scores by 20 to 70 per-
sons why the trend toward large cent.14 Researchers conclude that
schools is a profound mistake that the intimate environment of small
should be corrected. schools encourages learning because
teachers know their students well and
Student Performance can hold them accountable to higher
According to conventional wisdom, standards. Concerns about the cost-
larger schools yield better educational effectiveness of smaller schools,
outcomes because a more compre- because they do not have a large
hensive curriculum can be offered as school’s economies of scale, are qui-
budgets and enrollment rise. To the eted by small schools’ high graduation
contrary, growing evidence concludes rates. A New York University study, for
that small is better when it comes to instance, found that smaller schools
student performance. Students attend- in New York City spent slightly less
ing smaller schools, on average, have per graduate than their large school
lower dropout rates and score better counterparts.15
on standardized tests, and children in
Extracurricular Activities
poverty appear to benefit the most. A
recent four-state study found that Just as they can offer a wide array of
smaller schools reduce poverty’s courses, large schools can support
Page 7
ed in existing urban areas, the subur- The push to save a historic school
within-schools approach
ban model of large schools on large from demolition plans, and therefore runs counter to the urban
sites will not work, according to New stabilize an entire urban neighbor- design interests of smart
Schools/Better Neighborhoods. hood, often brings together the same growth advocates. Per-
spec-tives among educa-
Instead, "smart schools" are the right coalition of parents, educators and tion leaders are less uni-
solution -- small schools that serve as smart growth advocates, but in a more form, suggesting that
anchors to vibrant urban neighborhoods spontaneous way. In Why Johnny research to compare the
by providing a full range of social serv- Can’t Walk, the National Trust pres- performance of small
schools against schools-
ices like day care, health care, recre- ents many case studies that prove within-schools would be
ation and libraries during all times of this point, including the story of the helpful.
day and every day of the week. Begin- McMillan School, Detroit’s oldest,
Administrator Concerns
ning with the term, "smart schools," which Principal Wes Ganson describes Administrators and other
New Schools/Better Neighborhoods as a "lighthouse" for this blighted officials, even those who
emphasizes how small neighborhood community.28 On a similar track, rural value small schools, typi-
cally face some very real
schools and smart growth policies can communities for years have been fight- constraints, including: the
reinforce one another, advancing this ing to save their small community cost of renovating old
view through publications, symposia schools from consolidation, a cause schools, though some-
and community planning exercises. taken up the Rural School and times inflated, can still be
high; most administrators
Community Trust. are persuaded that the
A similar effort is currently underway per-pupil cost of operating
in Chattanooga, partially funded by The private sector can also play a a large school is lower due
to so-called "economies of
that city’s Lyndhurst Foundation. Un- reform role. In St. Louis, for example, scale," though small
like Los Angeles, however, the Chatta- developer Richard Baron has deliber- school advocates will dis-
nooga school district is not anticipat- ately linked his efforts to revitalize a pute the point; many par-
ents, elected officials and
ing significant increases in student 40-block downtown area with the re- design professionals pos-
population, particularly in the urban opening and restoration of a neighbor- sess unexamined biases
core. Rather, the construction of two hood school.29 Out in the suburbs, that favor new and big over
old and small; and new
new downtown elementary schools is developers who have embraced smart schools, even small ones,
part of a larger strategy to resettle the growth design principles also are work- need to be bigger than
city’s older urban neighborhoods and ing to integrate neighborhood schools their historical counter-
put the brakes on suburban develop- into new development projects. They parts because of contem-
porary requirements like
ment outside town. To improve the are having some trouble with local expanded technology, sci-
chances that this experiment will work, school officials, however. For quite ence and athletic facilities.
the two schools are small academic legitimate reasons, school leaders Many of these obstacles
can be overcome with addi-
magnets with permissive enrollment resist the idea of building a new pub- tional or redirected funds,
policies, allowing suburban children to lic school to serve students primarily suggesting that advocates
attend as long as their parents work from a single, and often exclusive, pri- for small neighborhood
schools need to be as
downtown. As the downtown popula- vate development project. While this versed in school finance
tion rises, induced partly by the high- issue can be addressed through the as in urban design or
performance elementary schools, dis- drawing of attendance zones, it is more classroom instruction.
trict officials and civic leaders expect difficult to resolve disputes about site In conclusion, it is impor-
to gradually limit enrollment to fami- size. In keeping with the standard sub- tant to note that education
lies who live in the neighborhood.27 In urban model and often to conform with reformers generally are
this way, those working to revitalize various state mandates, school offi- more familiar with such
issues. Smart growth advo-
downtown Chattanooga have taken a cials may insist upon a site that the cates should look to their
page out of the suburban developer’s developer considers exceedingly large. colleagues in the education
playbook – siting a school in the neigh- The land cost can be significant, but field for leadership on
these and similar matters.
borhood to entice families to relocate. the developer is usually more con-
Page 10
cerned about the design problem of many such developers abandon the
connecting the school to the rest of neighborhood school idea, or seek out
the neighborhood if it is sitting on a a private school or charter school will-
large, imposing site. As a consequence, ing to locate on a small parcel.30
Resources
Coalition of Essential Schools New Schools/Better Neighborhoods
www.essentialschools.org www.nsbn.org
National Clearinghouse for Educational The Rural School and Community Trust
Facilities www.ruraledu.org
www.edfacilities.org 21st Century School Fund
National Trust for Historic Preservation www.21csf.org
www.nationaltrust.org
Endnotes
1. Chris Kouri, "Wait for the Bus: How Lowcountry School Site Selection and Design Deter Walking to School and Contribute to
Suburban Sprawl," a report for the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, November 1999, p. iv.
2. See, for instance, Mark Curnutte, "Strong Schools, Strong Cities: Excellent Education Draws People, Failure Drives Them
Away," Cincinnati Enquirer, June 3, 2001, p. 1A.
3. Constance Beaumont with Elizabeth Pianca, "Historic Neighborhood Schools in the Age of Sprawl: Why Johnny Can’t Walk to
School," a report by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, November 2000, p. 12.
4. Email Correspondence with Evan Manvel, 1000 Friends of Oregon, July 5, 2001.
5. Beaumont, op. cit., Executive Summary, p. 3.
6. Kouri, op. cit., p. v.
7. U.S. General Accounting Office, "School Facilities: Construction Expenditures Have Grown Significantly in Recent Years,"
March 2000, p. 20.
8. Daniel LeDuc, "Prince George’s Montgomery Schools get $91 Million," Washington Post, May 8, 2001, p. B3.
9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Active Community Environments," June 2000, p. 1 @ www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/
dnpa/aces.htm.
10. Kouri, op. cit., p. i.
11. CDC, op. cit.
12. See www.transact.org/.
13. See for example, Catherine Gewertz, "The Breakup: Suburbs Try Smaller High Schools," Business Week, May 2, 2001, p. 2
@ www.edweek.org/ew/.
14. Craig Howley, et. al., "Research About School Size and School Performance in Impoverished Communities," ERIC Digest,
December 2000 @ www.ael.org/eric/digests/edorc0010.htm/.
15. Stacy Mitchell, "Jack and the Giant School," The New Rules, Summer 2000, p. 16.
16. See for example www.smallschoolsworkshop.org/.
17. Stacy Mitchell, op. cit., p. 13.
18. Patricia A. Wasley, et. al., "Small Schools: Great Strides," a study by the Bank Street College of Education, 2000, Executive
Summary.
19. Ibid., pp. 39-40.
20. Ibid., p. 1.
21. Rural Policy Matters, a newsletter of Rural School and Community Action, December 1999, p. 3.
22. For more information on the federal program, go to www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SLCP/overview.html; for more information on
the Florida statute, go to www.leg.state.fl.us and search for Title XVI, Chapter 235, Section 2157.
23. Anna Quindlen, "The Problem of the Megaschool," Newsweek, March 26, 2001, p. 68.
24. Phone interview with David Ferrero, Gates Foundation, June 25, 2001.
25. Richard Riley, "Schools as Center of Community,” remarks delivered to the American Institute of Architects, October 13,
1999, p. 6 @ www.ruraledu.org/rileyaia/html/.
26. Ibid., p. 5.
27. Phone conversation with Jack Murrah, Lyndhurst Foundation, December 5, 2000.
28. Constance Beaumont, op. cit., p. 5.
29. "St. Louis Developer Rebuilds Communities Through Revitalizing Neighborhood Schools," NSBN Summer 2001 Newsletter
@ www.nsbn.org/summer2001/develolperrebuilds.html/.
30. See for example, Michael Garber, et. al., "Scale and Care: Charter Schools and New Urbanism,” April 1998.
31. U.S. Department of Education, Growing Pains: The Challenge of Overcrowded Schools is Here to Stay, pp. 3-7.
32. "Modernizing our Schools: What Will It Cost?" a report by the National Education Association, 2000, p. 1.
33. William C. Symonds, et. al., How to Fix America’s Schools, BusinessWeek online, March 19, 2001, p. 6 @www.business
weekmagazine/contents/01_12/b3724001.htm/.
34. See, for instance, Patricia A. Walsey, et. al., op. cit.