United States School Types: School Sizes


Figure 1.--This wonderful albumen image of an unidentified newly built one-room school. We see the teacher 11 students, for some reason all boys, and even a peek inside the school. Unfortunately the image is undated. The dealer thought the portrait was taken in the 1880s. We suspect in part because of the overalls that the portrait was taken about 1910.

American schools vary greatly in size and this has changed over time. and the level was a factor. Elementary )primary schools could be much smaller than secondary schools. Early elementary (primary) schools even in the 19th century could be very small. Actually smaller than Europen villge schools. This varied as to the type of school. The really small one-room schools of course meant primary school, but town high (secondary) schools could also be relatively small. Until after World War II, only a small fraction of children attended secondary schools. Given that ealy-America was largely Protestant and the Government from the very beginning of the Republic made a commitment to public education. more children attended school in America than any other country except perhaps Germany, Still schools were small because most people livd in rural areas and had no way of traveling large distances to get to school. Thus you had to have a lot of small achools to make schooling accessable. The result was the iconic one room school. A good example is the School No. 8 in Blackhawk Country, Iowa. They had 11 childten. These schools had to be phased out after World War II as they were very expensive to operate. The same was true of secondary schools, but they had to be located in towns, so there were no one-room secondary schools. This is why many rural primary schools had eight year (grade) programs. This meant children until the mid-20th century had to live in or move to towns. My dad in the 1910s had to move away from home on the family farm to attend secondary school (North Judson) and my grandparents opposed the idea. My mom lived in a town, but her high school graduating class was only 16 boys and girls in Mulberry, Indiana (1920s). When I went to high school in Andandale, Virginia there were some 2,000 students and nearly 500 in my 1961 graduating class. High schools of this size are today fairly standard, but there are schools of nearly 9,000 students.

Chronology

American schools vary greatly in size and this has changed over time. The bsic trend was that a time went on, schools got larger and larger. Even city schools were very small compared to modern schools. American schools from a very early point included many very small schools. This was because the Northwest Ordinance which dividedup the western lands provided for schools all over rural America all the way to the Missisippi. The Homesteead Act continued the same system futher West. This mean that small, often, one-room schools appeared all over America as the frontier moved west. These early schools were very basic, but there were schools throughout the North from the earliest days. Families differed as to their commitment to education and economic circumstances to support education for theirchildren, but few children in the North did not have access to basic primary education. The South was somewhat different. Southern states tended to be less committed to public education. And these many of these small schools continued to operate into the the 20th century. As cities and towns grew you begin to get larger schools. But even in towns, many high schools continued to be very small until after World War II when school systems began to consolidate and bussing children became standard practice. It is at this time that you begin to get larger schools and the small ruual schools begin to disappear.

Size

Amrican schools vary from one room schools with a handful of children to huge high schools with thousands of students. Small rural schools were standard in th 19th century. As American began to insustrailize and citieses expand, you begin to see more larger schools. Around the turn-of-the 20th century America reached the turning point of more people living in towns andcities than in ryural areas. Democraphic trends were a najor factor in this process of gradually increasing school sizes. Demographics were, however, not the only factor in growing school sies. Another factor is financing. Their are economies of sacle in operating one large school than a large number of small schools. Educational programs ae also affected by the size of the school. Large schools have facilities and specialied teachers and classes that small schools can not offer. On the other hand small schools offer some advantages, especially a degree of individual attention that large schools do not. Another factor is technology. Henry Ford and Model-T Ford actually played a major role in reshaping America. In the process he also reshaped American education. America's growing wealth as well as the developmentment of inexpesive motor vehicles made possible the bussing of children in rural areas and eventually subsurbs to larger schools. Modern elementary (primary) schools tend to designed for up to about a thousand studnts. Seondary schools are generally sesigned for up to about2,500 students, although some nig city high schools are larger.

Level

The school level was another factor in school size. Elementary (primary) schools could be much smaller than secondary schools. Early elementary (primary) schools even in the 19th century could be very small. Actually smaller than Europen villge schools. This varied as to the type of school. The really small one-room schools of course meant primary school, but town high (secondary) schools could also be relatively small. Until after World War II, only a fraction of children attended secondary schools. Given that early-America was largely Protestant and the Government from the very beginning of the Republic made a commitment to public education. Mmore children attended school in America than any other country except perhaps Germany, Still schools were small because most people livd in rural areas and had no way of traveling large distances to get to school. Thus you had to have a lot of small achools to make schooling accessable. The result was the iconic one room school. A good example is the School No. 8 in Blackhawk Country, Iowa. They had 11 childten. These schools had to be phased out after World War II as they were very expensive to operate. The same was true of secondary schools, but they had to be located in towns, so there were no one-room secondary schools. This is why many rural primary schools had eight year (grade) programs. This meant children until the mid-20th century had to live in or move to towns. My dad in the 1910s had to move away from home on the family farm to attend secondary school (North Judson) and my grandparents opposed the idea. My mom lived in a town, but her high school graduating class was only 16 boys and girls in Mulberry, Indiana (1920s). When I sent to High school in Andandale, Virginia there were some 2,000 students and nearly 500 in my 1961 graduaring class. High schools of this size are today fairly standard, but there are schools of nearly 9,000 students.







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Created: 11:48 PM 1/25/2010
Last updated: 2:28 PM 12/3/2016