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Topic Started: Dec 31 2005, 04:08 PM (1,825 Views)
fyi
Principal
Where was the school? How many kids were in each school?
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Rex
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1st Grade
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The South Lyon school district. I'm not sure if that's still the configuration out there or not, but I haven't heard otherwise.
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fyi
Principal
How big were the schools?
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Rex
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1st Grade
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Sorry I overlooked the second part of the question about how many were in the schools. I really don't remember. It's obviously a smaller district in general but I know we were packed in pretty tight. It's difficult to compare Livonia to more rural districts with numbers, because its all relative.
It's ideal for one community to have no more than 300-500 kids in a building, but those numbers could be based on a smaller town size.
Livonia schools is the 5th or 6th largest in the state and those small town levels can't be maintained. But in comparison, 700-900 kids may not be ideal...but it's just a bigger town. Much of the school size ratio research will end with a notation that each school district is different and its particular demographics and factors need to be taken into an account.
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parentsw/power
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NFarquharson
Jan 2 2006, 09:26 PM
If we're going for funny, I got a classic...

The avatars are hilarious! Thanks for the bright smile everyone!
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Elisa
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Principal
Rex,
I think that this excerpt from "School Size, School Climate and Student Performance" by Kathleen Cotton at NWREL states the problem concisely. I would respectfully disagree that the size of a town is a factor that would eliminate the creation of small schools.. The "small school" research is being embraced even in very large cities. Chicago is in the midst of a "small schools initiative." Districts can and do take demographics information into account but they make a conscious decision to choose to follow the research or bow to other factors.


"Despite this persuasive support for small schools, a gap remains—indeed grows—between research and practice regarding school size. "The preponderance of professional literature in the past decade," writes Williams,

indicates that educational researchers support the concept of small school effectiveness. It appears, however, that the determinants of school size are seldom the result of research.... More often, school size is the result of other factors—political, economic, social, demographic...(12).
We who have become convinced of the superiority of small schools have, as our next challenge, the task of communicating our findings to those who have the power to influence decisions about the size of our schools."

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fyi
Principal
I just don't think you can compare a smaller, rural district to Livonia. Maybe this configuration works in smaller districts because there are less students in each building. Just because it works in South Lyon or Novi (much smaller than Livonia),
doesn't mean that it will work here.
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Elisa
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Principal
South Lyon also incorporates teaming. An organizational structure that can help make a large school feel smaller. LPS took it out of the middle schools several years ago and I do not think that there are plans to implement it in the 5/6 buildings. So much for doing what is beneficial for kids.
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Administrator
Administrator
South Lyon has a k-5 configuration. If they had a 5-6 school in the past, I would be very interested to hear why they went away from that set up. http://www.southlyon.k12.mi.us/Home.html
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makennaean
1st Grade
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My experience from this forum is if you don't agree or give a contrary opinion you get jumped all over and yes even attacked for your opinion. The only reason that I would give my opinion is that maybe, just maybe someone might actually read it and possibly think about it. Besides this is a forum of thoughts and ideas and information.

I am a new member and I have stated that I am not opposed to this Legacy Initiative for my own reasons, whether you find merit in them or not, that is your choice, but I have not been an antagonist.

I have not been disrespectful until I have been disrespected.

There are a few of you constant bloggers who are very guilty of that.

If you believe that anyone with a different opinion from your own is an antagonist then you really don't see the big picture because we are not all antagonists.

To date I have been called a 12 year old child with no logic.
And told that if I was someone's neighbor they would tell me to shut the hell up....now you tell me who the cyper bullies are?
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ktmom
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Principal
makennaean
Jan 6 2006, 08:38 PM
My experience from this forum is if you don't agree or give a contrary opinion you get jumped all over and yes even attacked for your opinion. The only reason that I would give my opinion is that maybe, just maybe someone might actually read it and possibly think about it. Besides this is a forum of thoughts and ideas and information.

I am a new member and I have stated that I am not opposed to this Legacy Initiative for my own reasons, whether you find merit in them or not, that is your choice, but I have not been an antagonist.

I have not been disrespectful until I have been disrespected.

There are a few of you constant bloggers who are very guilty of that.

If you believe that anyone with a different opinion from your own is an antagonist then you really don't see the big picture because we are not all antagonists.

To date I have been called a 12 year old child with no logic.
And told that if I was someone's neighbor they would tell me to shut the hell up....now you tell me who the cyper bullies are?

You are certainly entitled to your opinion. I am curious what it is you like about the LI? What grades are your children in?
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