Oregon Public Broadcasting

What’s the right size for a high school?

Portland school district leaders argue that bigger schools are cheaper to run,  and can offer a broader range of classes for students to choose from than smaller schools. But six years ago, district officials split up the most troubled high schools into “small schools.”

The hope then was that fewer students would fall through the cracks. Rob Manning reports.

The last time Portland asked about school size, the answer was “small.” And two of the region’s wealthiest foundations spent $2.5 million to support splitting two big high schools into six smaller programs.

Now, the idea is to consolidate into around six big high schools – and likely close a few schools in the process. 

At Grant High School -- a large comprehensive school in Northeast -- vice principal, Kim Patterson says bigger schools simply have more to offer kids.

Kim Patterson: “When you’re talking about adolescents, you’re talking about the need to make relevant and engage high school students in their potential. And I think added adults brings on added ability to expose kids to a wealth of potential.”

It’s that “wealth of potential” that attracted junior, Kenny Warren to leave the small high school options closer to home, to attend Grant.

Kenny Warren: “First of all, they have a more comprehensive math and science program. They have a lot of science classes you can take. The same goes for math – they go all the way up to calculus, and they can work with you, if you want to go beyond that.”

Grant’s enrollment of about 1500 to 1600 students is big enough to meet one of the district’s goals for new high schools: it offers more than ten Advanced Placement classes.

A number of students doing computer research in this AP Ecology class are having their first or second AP experience.

These classes run large. Ecology has three sections with a total of 135 students. Senior Julian Massenberg will have four APs on his transcript by the time he graduates.  But he says class size can be an issue.

Julian Massenberg: “Only when the class sizes are like over 35, because like this class is 40 kids, and my AP math class, AP Calculus, has 54 kids. If classes are difficult and broken down into smaller class size, it’d be a lot easier.”

The district’s school redesign would mean big classes at the upper levels, but some say that’s not a problem.

Grant High AP American History teacher David Lickey says his lectures and discussions aren’t compromised by class size.

David Lickey: “This class doesn’t need to be smaller. I think it would be really a waste of the taxpayers’ money and resources to get that marginal benefit to cut these classes down, when there are other programs that suffer for want of staffing.”

You won’t hear anyone defending large classes here, though. The Renaissance Arts Academy is one of three small schools at Marshall High. Jessica McGrath is a soft-spoken freshman who says she felt overwhelmed by the sheer size of Grant.

Jessica McGrath: “I shadowed at Grant, and of course I didn’t really like it, because of how busy it was.”

McGrath had the opposite reaction when she tried the Renaissance Arts Academy at Marshall.  She says she hasn’t regretted enrolling here.

Jessica McGrath: “To me, it’s not like, ‘oh I’m going to school, I’m going to go do things, and then I’ll graduate.’ It’s like ‘oh, I get to experience all these awesome classes that probably aren’t in other schools, or get to have fun’ – and the teachers are really cool to hang out with.”

McGrath’s impression conflicts with Marshall’s reputation in the community. She says friends tried to scare her with false rumors about Marshall.

Jessica McGrath: “I had friends begging me not to go, saying ‘you’re going to get shot, there are metal detectors at the doors, it’s not a good place to go.’ But once I got here completely like 180 from what everyone was saying.”

School leaders say that bad reputation is why more than half the students who live in the Marshall neighborhood transfer away for high school.

McGrath says the small size does have shortcomings. For instance, her preferred foreign language, French, isn’t offered.

School district officials say that Portland’s six small schools continue to struggle with high dropout rates and low achievement scores. But backers of the small schools point to new data showing significant progress.

Portland’s small schools only had a quarter of their 10th graders at benchmark for Reading, when they began in 2004. In 2009, half are at benchmark. Math results were even worse – and have come further.

Even at Marshall’s arts-focused school, math is a priority. Principal Fred Locke says doubling up on math classes helped the school go from having just 17 percent of 10th graders meeting state math requirements when it started five years ago, to half of them passing state tests, now.

Fred Locke: “To have a really strong math program – in an arts focus school – is unique. But we recognize that we were very weak in that area to start off, and we wanted to prepare our kids to compete in college.”

But getting 50 percent of students to meet state standards still isn’t great – and in spite of extra federal funding, some small schools are still mired in mediocrity. Others, though, are excelling.

David Hamilton: “US News and World Report, Best High Schools’ 2009 search, Pauling Academy made the list.”

David Hamilton is the new principal at Marshall’s Pauling Academy of Integrated Science. He says the prestigious list of 33 Oregon schools includes Pauling because of its success with low-income students. 

David Hamilton: “They’re looking at test score growth.”

The re-design likely means an end to the small school structure at Marshall, including Renaissance Arts and Pauling.

The only small schools going forward would be “magnet” schools, and they’d likely be closer to the middle of Portland than Marshall, on the southeastern edge. Renaissance Arts’ principal, Fred Locke says magnets attract wealthier families – not the lower-income kids that make up three quarters of Marshall’s enrollment.

Fred Locke: “I worry that if we do move, that many of our students won’t make the trip, and then hence have a less equitable high school experience, because they’re not going to have the kind of support we’ve been able to provide.”

District officials say they are taking lessons from the small schools. They hope the magnet schools will provide the small option, and they’re planning on adding school counselors to connect better with kids.

Portland is planning one more design meeting on the new high school plan Thursday at Franklin High.