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qualityofschoollife?

Second,whatattributesofsmallandlargeschoolscontributetoqualityofschoollife?

Twosampleswereincluded,furnishingbothquantitativeandqualitativedata.Thefirstsamplecomprised4,949Year12studentsfrom44Catholichighschoolsandthesecond570studentsfrom1independentand9governmentschoolsinNSW.Bothqualitativeandquantitativedataanalysesfoundnoapparentrelationshipbetweenschoolsizeandqualityofschoollife.

Introduction

Changingthesizeofastudentbodybymergingorclosingsmallerschoolsisoneofthepanaceasthatpolicymakersputforwardforenhancingeducationaloutcomesandoptimallyutilizingstateresources.Forexample,aboutonethousandstateschoolswereclosedinVictoriain1992toreducethecostofeducation.Similarly,inNewSouthWales,theDirector-GeneralofEducation,DrKenBoston,proposedtoreviewtheviabilityofsmallerschoolsintermsofcurriculumofferingsandtoclosethosenotdeemedviable（SydneyMorningHerald,2Jan1997,page1）.TherecentqualityassurancemovementinNewSouthWalesandotherstatesprovidedfurtherimpetusfortherestructuringoftheschoolsystemtowardsmuchlargerschools,whichwerearguedtobemoreeffectivethansmallerones.

Thereisevidencefromrecentresearchinsupportofsucharguments.Thatis,largerschoolswereobservedtobemoreabletocapitaliseoneconomiesofscaleandstudentsenrolledinlargerschoolswerefoundtoperformbetteratpublicexaminations,evenafteraccountingforinitialdifferencesinschooltypeandstudents'

homebackground（Mok&

Flynn,1997a）.However,itisunsettlingthatsuchfundamentalreformmovementsastheamalgamation,orclosure,ofsmallerschoolsbeestablishedongroundsofcostefficiencyoracademicachievement,whichisonlyoneofthemanydimensionsofschooling.

ResponsesfromtheAustralianschoolcommunitiesconcerningtheessenceofschooleffectivenessledMcGawandhisassociatestoconcludethat,"

Learningandtheloveoflearning;

personaldevelopmentandself-esteem;

lifeskills,problemsolvingandlearninghowtolearn;

thedevelopmentofindependentthinkersandwellroundedconfidentindividuals;

allrankedashighlyormorehighlyastheoutcomesofeffectiveschoolingassuccessinanarrowrangeofacademicdisciplines"

（McGaw,Piper,Banks,&

Evans,1992:

174）.

Workingfromthepremisethataschoolisacommunityofpeoplewhocometogetherinpursuitofacommongoal-thedevelopmentofthephysical,intellectual,vocational,social,emotional,aestheticandmoraldimensionsoftheyoungperson;

itisnecessarytodiscernnotonlytheimpactofschoolsizeonacademicoutcomebutalsotheeffectofsizeofschoolonotherfacetsofschoollife.Thisisthepurposeofthecurrentstudy.Theresearchquestionsaddressedhereare:

1.Issizeofschoolapredictorofstudents'

2.Whatattributesofsmallandlargeschoolscontributetoqualityofschoollife?

Literaturereview

Qualityofschoollifehasbeenaccordedspecialsignificancebyeducatorsbecauseitisviewedasimportantinitsownrightandalsobecauseoftherelationshipbetweenstudents'

qualityofschoollifeandtheiracademicachievement（Bourke,1993;

Mok&

Flynn,1997b）.Thus,thereisextensiveresearchonstudents'

reportsoftheirwell-beingatschool（see,forexample,reviewinSmith,1997）.

Whereasnumerousresearchstudiesundertakeninthepastdecadehaveexaminedqualityofschoollife,onlysomehaveinvestigatedtheconceptinrelationtoschoolenrolment.Theseexceptionshavesuggestedthattheclaimthatconstructschoolsizeisasignificantdeterminantofschoollifequalityishighlycontestable.Itseemsthatschoolsizeinfluencesqualityofschoollifeinacomplexfashionandatleasttwoopposingsetsofforcesareatwork,oneofwhichiseconomicandtheothersocial.Whetherornotstudentsenjoylifeatschoolislikelytodependontheneteffectofthesecountervailingforces.

Thefirstsetofforcesinvolveseconomiesofscale（Conant,1959;

1967）,whichisrealisedinlargerschools.Inthisregard,theeffectofschoolsizeonqualityofschoollifeismediatedthroughstudents'

satisfactionwiththebreadthanddepthoftheformalschoolcurriculum.Severalpiecesofindependentresearchconfirmedthathumanandfiscalconstraintsassociatedwithsmallsizeveryoftenprecludedsmallschoolsofferingavariedacademicprogram（Barker,1985;

Bryk,1996;

Bryk,Lee,andHolland,1993;

Haller,Monk,Spotted-Bear,Griffith,&

Moss,1990;

Poole1987）.Thelimitedchoiceofsubjectofferinginverysmallschoolscouldleadtostudentdissatisfaction.

Nevertheless,itisdangerouslysimplistictoconcludethattheeffectofschoolsizeoncurriculumcomprehensivenessisinvariantacrossallschooltypesandsocialcontexts.Inreality,schoolsizeisonlyaglobalmeasurethatisrelatedtoahostofotherschoolstructuralcharacteristicsandmayitselfbedependentondistrictsize（Williams,1990）.Contemporaryresearchontheschoolsizeeffectthathasincludedotherstructuralfeaturesindicatesthatschoolsizehasdifferentcurriculumimplicationsdependingonthesocialclassoftheschool（BrykandFrank,1991;

FriedkinandNecochea;

1988）,schoolgovernance（publicsectorversusCatholicsystem;

Bryk,Lee,&

Holland;

1993）,subjectarea,courselevel（advancedversusremedial）,schoollocation（rural,suburban,urban）andunionisation（presenceorabsenceofateachers'

unionwithintheschool）（Monk&

Haller,1993）.Bryk（1996）alsoobservedthatalthoughschoolsizecouldfacilitateinstructionaldifferentiation,sizeitselfmightnotbeadirectcause.

Anotheradvantageoflargerschoolsoversmalleronesingeneratingeconomiesofscaleisthattheformeraremoreabletorecruitbetterqualifiedteachersandhavesuperiorschoolphysicalenvironmentandfacilities（e.g.Haller,Monk,Spotted-Bear,Griffith&

Moss,1990）.Althoughthereisnoexplicitattributionintheschooleffectivenessliteratureofthequalityofschoollifetotheschool'

sphysicalenvironment,severalenvironmentalfeatureshavebeenhighlightedascontributingfactorstoschooleffectiveness.Thesefeaturesincludedecorationofbuildings（Rutter,1980）,lownoiselevel（Reynolds,1992）andaquietandorderlyatmosphere（Creemers,1992）.Inaddition,theeasyavailabilityofabundant,appropriateinstructionalmaterialsandresources（Levine,1992）hasalsobeenshowntocontributetoeffectiveschooling.

Thesecondsetofforcesoperatingbetweenschoolsizeandqualityofschoollifeconcernstheaffectiveaspectsofschooling.Theadvantagesofeconomiesofscaleofferedbylargeschoolsmaybecounter-balancedbythisopposingsetofforceswhichcanhaveadverseeffectsontheschool'

scommunity.Attheadministrativelevel,largerschoolsarefoundtohavemorecentralizeddecisionmaking,lowerlevelsofstaffcooperation（Rowan,Raudenbush&

Kang,1991）,moreformalmodesofcommunication,moreextensivebureaucratizationandahigherlevelofworkspecialisation（Bryk,1996）.Incontrast,asmallschoolsizetendstofacilitatepersonalinteractionandsocialintimacy（Bryk,1996）.Teachersinsmallerschoolsaremorelikelytofeelsatisfiedabouttheirworkthantheircounterpartsinlargerschools（Bryk,Lee&

Holland,1993）.

Onthestudent-benefitdimension,smallerschoolsarefoundtobeassociatedwithhigherparticipationratesinextracurricularactivities（Oxley,1994;

Stevens&

Peltier,1994）,higherandmoresociallyequitableengagement（Lee&

Smith,1995）,moreopportunitiesfordevelopingleadershippotential（Bryk,Lee&

Holland,1993）,betterschooldiscipline（Haller,1992;

Rowan,Raudenbush&

Kang,1991）,betterschoolclimate（Gregory,1992;

Lindsay,1984;

Oxley,1994）,betterstudentattitudes（Fowler,1992）andlowerschooldropoutrates（Kleinfeld,McDiarmid&

Hagstrom,1989;

Toenjes,1989;

Fetler,1989）.However,theeffectofschoolsizeisnotinvariantacrossallschooltypes.Forexample,Brykandhisassociatesnotedthat,withintheCatholicsector,schoolsizehaslittleinfluenceonstudentoutcomesandreportedspecificexamplesofpositiveeffectsforlargeschools（Bryk,Lee&

Holland,1993）.TheirfindingsweresupportedbyBerkey（1996）whomaintainedthatifstudentservices,staffdevelopmentandcurriculaareproperlymanaged,largeschoolscanbeasefficientandeffectiveinestablishingagoodlearningatmosphereassmallschools.

Thecurrentstudydistinguishesitselffromearlierstudiesintworegards.First,thisstudyisundertakeninthecontextofAustralianschoolsandsecond,itcombinesqualitativeandquantitativeapproachestocollectingdatafromstudents'

perspectives.Thus,thisstudyaddstoextantliteratureandisthefirstofitskindtoprovideaninsider'

sviewpointonhowAustralianYear12students'

well-beingisrelatedtosizeofschoolenrolment.

Method

Thestudydesign

Twoindependentinvestigationssharingthesamethemecontributeddatatothisstudy.ThefirstwasalargescalelongitudinalsurveyofthecultureofCatholicschools（Flynn,1993）andwasundertakenbetweenMay1990andMarch1991.Thesecond,aseparatesurveyundertakenin1993,wasconcernedwiththecultureofNewSouthWales（NSW）schools（Mok,1994）.

TheCatholicschoolculturestudyisacomponentofalargerinvestigation（Flynn,1993）inwhichYear12studentsenrolledinsam