This study examined the effect of institutional size on the six year institutional graduation rate for undergraduates, controlling for five variables known to affect graduation rate: (1) student academic preparation; (2) enrollment to dormitory capacity ratio; (3) percentage of part-time students; (4) expenditure per student; and (5) student to…

Describes Shou-lang Elementary School (Taiwan), possibly the world's largest. Its 11,000 students are well-disciplined and participate in school activities (like visiting the library and snack bar) by sending student representatives. While size has become a burden, the school is well-managed and very popular. (MLH)

Reviews studies of unit costs among schools of differing size in United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, and Sudan. Concludes that studies suggest economies of scale in larger schools, but extent of economies and point where schools encounter diseconomies vary widely. Notes that control for quality is problematic. (DHP)

If economies of scale are important in secondary education, a greater degree of resource specialization and curriculum comprehensiveness should occur in larger secondary schools. Using New York State schools data, this study shows that scale economy sources are exhausted at relatively small enrollment levels, allowing only trivial gains in…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe a study which investigated the relationship between the "health-promoting school" (HPS) approach and social capital and tested the proposition that the implementation of an HPS intervention leads to a significant improvement in HPS features and social capital. Design/methodology/approach:…

This digest reviews recent evidence of the positive effects of small-scale schooling on student achievement. Historically, larger school size has been viewed as an important educational reform producing cost-effectiveness and educational efficiency. Today, small-scale schooling is found primarily in rural areas and small towns. A 1964 study…

Six college advancement professionals respond to a hypothetical case of across-the-board cuts in nonacademic departments by telling how they would make budgeting choices. The strategies used include involving senior advancement managers as a team, cultivating consensus, preserving priority projects, sharing responsibility among departments,…

Because larger schools offer advantages such as a greater variety of activities, economic efficiency, and a sense of identity in the community, schools are often combined. Beyond these positive effects, however, school consolidation has some negative aspects. These liabilities include less human contact, less input from teachers in…

Results of a study show that students with higher socioeconomic status generally participate in extracurricular activities more frequently than do students from less advantaged backgrounds. However, students attending small schools are more active than students in larger schools. (Author/MLF)

Fall 1983 enrollments in America's 50 largest school systems, and percent changes from 1982 to 1983, 1981 to 1982, and 1971 to 1983 are offered in an ERS statistical trends analysis. (KS)

Discussion of professional status of the college librarian includes a definition of "colleges," decline of status of college library in American Library Association and Association of College and Research Libraries, crisis in higher education and implications for colleges, bias against "small" in academic librarianship,…

Large schools reflect the problems of society, while small schools foster peaceful interaction between individuals. (PBS)

Addresses the problems of administration in the large former Soviet school complexes. Explains how a school of 1,600 students in the city of Komsomol'sk (Poltava Region) was reorganized into 3 independent collectives. Suggests that the larger schools may be unworkable without such reforms and that the existing staff roster is outmoded. (SG)

Several methods for formulating secondary school capacity are outlined. Consideration of the relationship between educational program and pupil capacity is emphasized. (MD)

Explains Project Simu-school, a computer program that can predict enrollment, needed buildings and programs, and anticipated costs. (JM)