School of Education

Public School/University Partnership mini-symposium offers latest research to school leaders

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Think consolidating Indiana's small rural school districts would save money? Probably not, Indiana University education policy experts told an audience of school administrators last week.

Indiana underwent a wave of school consolidations in the 1960s, and there are only a handful of truly small school districts left -- just 48 with fewer than 1,000 students. The average size of a school district in Indiana is in line with the median size across the nation.

"Indiana is not out of line with the national average," said Terry Spradlin, associate director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at IU School of Education.

In a presentation titled "The Research Behind the Rhetoric of School Consolidation," Spradlin dispelled myths that have been used to argue for eliminating small school districts. It was one of several presentations in which he and Jonathan Plucker, director of CEEP, explained research from the center to shine light on issues facing Indiana schools and education policymakers.

The setting was an Indiana Public School/University Partnership Mini-Symposium, in which superintendents and other school leaders from across Indiana traveled to Bloomington to hear research-based information from IU experts. Additional meetings are planned this school year at the Kelley School of Business on educational leadership and at the School of Education on the psychology of learning.

School consolidation was discussed because of the 2007 Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform, which called for reorganizing school districts so each would have at least 2,000 students. The issue could be on the table for the 2011 session of the Indiana General Assembly, officials said.

But Spradlin said savings from merging districts would be minimal at best, and they could be offset by increased costs of transportation and other services. Studies have found that students in small districts did as well as or better academically than counterparts in large districts, he said.
  
"There is some evidence that suggests breaking up mega-districts," both for improved efficiency and better academic performance, Spradlin said.

In other presentations:

• Plucker reported on a CEEP study of the "excellence gap" in U.S. education, which found that it's likely to take decades to close the gap between high-achieving white and minority students. He recommended making the issue a state and national priority, setting realistic goals, and emphasizing that it's possible to address the excellence gap at the same time as working to address the needs of all students, high-achieving or not.
• Spradlin reported on CEEP research on recent school funding referendums in Indiana. The project found that a majority of referendums have failed to pass since 2008, when the current law on school-funding elections took effect. Odds have been especially long for districts trying to win voter approval of school construction projects. 
• A session on likely "hot topics" in the 2011 state legislative session addressed changes in Indiana's teacher collective bargaining law, expansion of charter schools and online schools, and a desire by some legislators to delay the start of the school year until Labor Day. Another issue: whether school employees should be required to join the state employee benefit plan.

Underlying most other issues was concern about what Spradlin called a "tsunami" involving school funding in Indiana. With state tax revenues dropping precipitously the past two years, Gov. Mitch Daniels has cut spending -- including a $300 million reduction in school funding this year.

School officials have been poised for another cut, possibly after the November election. But the U.S. Congress recently voted for an education jobs bill that gives Indiana $207 million over the next two years. And a newspaper quoted Daniels saying that more school funding cuts may not be needed.

"That was a surprise to me," Spradlin said. "We'll see if it remains true."

(Note:  this article appears in the latest edition of "Perspectives on Policy" from IU:  http://newsinfo.iu.edu/issue/page/normal/288.html.)