What we know and don't know about small schools: A view from Atlantic Canada

In the 1913-1914 school year, the number of one-room schools in the United States swelled to an estimated 212,000. Yet, at the same time, educational reformers were leading a much publicized campaign to abandon these small schools. Among the weaknesses cited were the inadequate recruitment and supervision of teachers, out-of-date curricula, haphazard school attendance, limited course offerings, poor academic performance, and unsanitary practices. What children needed in the new industrial age, the reformers argued, were larger schools with age-graded classrooms, workshops, gymnasiums, cafeterias, diversified course offerings, and much more. Eventually the reformers prevailed. Most U.S. one-room rural schools were consolidated and the buildings sold, used for other purposes, or abandoned. Yet small schools have not entirely disappeared from the educational landscape. In the following article, Michael Corbett, a professor of education in Nova Scotia, explores current international research on the effectiveness of small and large schools, the hotly contested trend to close small Atlantic Canadian schools, and efforts to preserve these schools as essential to the well-being of rural communities.