How small schools can lower the cost per graduate within a community as a measure of educational effectiveness.

Brief: The Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools

February 19, 2003

Authors: Ted Fujimoto

Brief Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools February 19, 2003

Brief: The Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools

A growing body of research about small schools (500 students or less) is showing that student achievement in small schools is higher :

1

Higher student scores on standardized achievement tests and other measures. Reduced negative effects of poverty. Increased order and safety. Higher school attendance and graduation rates. Significantly more college bound students among graduates of small schools. Increased level of parental involvement and satisfaction. Higher teacher morale and satisfaction as well as a perspective that the teacher makes a difference in students lives.

There are emerging new small school models that have successful track records. Among these models include the Napa New Technology High School (www.newtechhigh.org), and The MET from Providence, Rhode Island (www.bigpicture.org). For example, the MET was designed as an urban school that operates with a mix of students similar to most California urban schools. Their program is based on building learning around a students interest and passion. Their program includes helping students explore their interests, student participation in internships for up to two days per week around their interest, and an advisor/teacher that will stay with them for four years. The graduation rate for the MET (classes 00,01,02) is 100% with 98% of the senior class applied for and were accepted to college or university even though 70% of them were the first generation in their family to go to college. Today 70% of the original graduates are still in college three years later.

Financial Implications
Financial analysis of several small school models indicates that schools can operate within the standard California per student (ADA) 2 funding that contain between 450 and 550 students. This assumes an ADA of around $5313 , the California standard high school charter school block grant. New small schools typically have a startup cost of $1M to $1.5M per school over 2 years . This includes the cost of the preceding year before opening and the excess operating cost the first year when enrolling 50% of the total capacity (i.e. starting two grades the first year and adding on the next two grades the second).
3

Cost Per Graduate Measure of Effectiveness and Proof of Efficiency

Cost Per Graduate Typical Large Urban Small High School School 75% 95% $ 5,000 $ 6,000 $ 20,000 $ 24,000 $ 26,667 $ 25,263

The cost per finished graduate is as important a measure of a school system's productivity as the annual academic progress Graduation Rate 4 reports called for in President Bush's education reforms. Even Avg ADA Per Year Per Student with the most conservative estimates, small schools with higher Cost over 4 years graduation rates have lower costs than typical high schools. The Cost Per Graduate following is a hypothetical example of a large urban high school with typical results compared to a small high school with higher per student costs but with higher graduation rates.

Cotton, K. (1996). School size, school climate, and student performance. School Improvement Research Series (SIRS), Close-up #20. Portland, Or: Northwestern Regional Educational Laboratory. Available: http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/10/c020.html 2 California Department of Education 3 Analysis of the MET, New Technology High School, Americas Choice 4 Herbert J. Walberg , Hold Schools Accountable for Cost of Finished Graduate. Herbert J. Walberg is a distinguished visiting fellow, Hoover Institution; member Hoover's Koret Task Force on K12 Education; and University Scholar, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Landmark Consulting Group, Inc.

1|Page

Brief Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools February 19, 2003

Other Whitepapers Available Related To This Topic

Concept Paper: Model Neutral CMO Model Neutral Charter School Management Organization Platform as a Strategy to Support High Quality Growth

Coming soon! 2012 Guide to Promising School Models A comparative guide to national school models for school intervention efforts

Conditions and Policies Needed to Create and Sustain Effective Schools Strategies that community leaders can use to significantly improve the effectiveness and sustainability of education reform efforts.

Free download at www.ConsultLandmark.org

Landmark Consulting Group, Inc.

2|Page

Brief Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools February 19, 2003

About Landmark Consulting Group, Inc.

Founded in 1988, Landmark Consulting Group helps create, launch, and grow high impact education organizations, projects, and programs that are quality, innovative, sustainable, and scalable. Our clients have created or transformed 1,100 schools, have impacted the lives of over 360,000 students, and have raised over $150 million in philanthropy support. We have worked and supported more high performance model schools and school networks than anyone in the country. For school organizations, we can help you codify your school or program model, design and implement an effective replication system, plan for quality growth that is sustainable, and/or help you improve the fidelity and quality of implementation across schools. Partnering with our team will help you launch smoothly and with quality. You will be informed by the lessons learned from across the country and be armed with strategies that will improve your effectiveness and ability to avoid costly mistakes. For communities, we work with local foundations, intermediaries, cities, states, and local school districts to help define their roles, cultivate community support, and implement the right conditions to support high performance schools.

Contact us
For additional details and insights about this paper or for assistance for your community in developing the right conditions to support high performance schools, contact Ted Fujimoto (tedf@consultlandmark.org / 916-7692417) or Kyle Miller (kylem@consultlandmark.org / 909-529-2066). Visit our website at www.consultlandmark.org

Ted Fujimoto - Founder/President

Ted Fujimoto is an experienced entrepreneur and

consultant in organizational performance, development, scaling, and business planning. He has helped develop business strategies for many education organizations including Bay Area Coalition for Essential Schools, Big Picture Learning, New Technology Foundation, Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, Partnerships for Uplifting Communities, Linking Education & Economic Development, California Charter Schools Association, and the New York Charter Schools Association - representing more than $150 million in funding. He began his career as a freshman in college by founding and operating for eleven years a management and technology consulting company serving a range of customers that included AirTouch Communications, Bank One, Chandon Estates, California Chamber of Commerce, GM, IBM, New York Times, and Remy Martin. Landmark Consulting Group, Inc. 3|Page

Brief Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools February 19, 2003 As a community business leader, Ted helped to design and found the highly regarded Napa New Technology High School and the New Technology Foundation that currently has 62+ schools around the country. He has also managed the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Carnegie Foundation grants for education reform initiatives in the Sacramento region. Additionally, Ted co-founded two for-profit companies that received $15 million in venture capital funding. He has served on the California Education Technology Advisory Committee and received the 2002 Center for Digital Government "In the Arena" award for education leadership in transforming vision to reality. In Converge Magazines "1999 Year in Review", Ted was named one of "Educations Dreamers, Leaders and Innovators." He currently serves as Chairman of the Supervisory Committee at the California Credit Union, a $1.4 billion credit union serving the education community. Ted is a certified Elevate Charter Schools Coach.

Kyle A. Miller, Senior Consultant

Kyle Miller served as Senior Program Officer with the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for six years. Kyle was instrumental in the development of education investments designed to reduce the national high school dropout rate and to increase college readiness and completion of low-income students. Through her landmark work, Kyle invested over $200M to help leaders accomplish systemic social and academic equity outcomes for at-risk students. She designed processes that energized education leaders and communities to have higher expectations for their students, to operationalize a new vision, and to initiate collaborative, productive practices and procedures focused on measurable impact. Kyle established her ability to build strategic community partnerships in her work as Senior Program Manager with the Alliance for Education. She intentionally combined the expertise of industry, not-for-profits and education to link community resources and support to priority initiatives of Seattle Public Schools. During her five years of employment in Nordstrom Corporate Operations, Kyle proved that organizational titles and positions, while relevant, were not as important as relationships built on common values. She successfully persuaded highly autonomous regional managers to implement efficiency programs which were managed corporately and which improved the companys overall financial health and environmental stewardship.

Landmark Consulting Group, Inc.

4|Page