The relationship of high school size, student achievement, and per-pupil expenditures in South Carolina

The purpose of this study was threefold. First, the study sought to determine the relationship between the size of South Carolina's public high schools and student achievement in reading, mathematics, and written language as measured by the eleventh grade 1998 Metropolitan Achievement Test-Seventh Edition (MAT-7) while controlling for the effects of socioeconomic status (SES). Second, this study sought to examine the relationship between school size and per pupil expenditure while controlling for socioeconomic status. Third, the relationship among school size, per pupil expenditure, and academic achievement while controlling for SES was examined. This study investigated patterns of achievement and spending, and sought to identify school sizes that held the greatest promise for academic success and cost effectiveness.; The study population for the research consisted of all eleventh graders in 192 South Carolina public high schools that took the MAT-7 in the spring of 1998. School size groupings were defined by quartile with sample size the critical determinant in this decision.; This study affirmed that socioeconomic status is a large factor in student achievement, regardless of school size or per pupil expenditure. Controlling for SES, there was a positive relationship between school size and student achievement, and a negative relationship between school size and per pupil expenditure. Detailed analysis revealed that the differences were most pronounced between the smallest 50% of the schools (17–174 eleventh grade student cohort range) and the largest 25% of the schools (254–629 eleventh grade cohort range). Controlling for SES, per pupil expenditure was not related to academic achievement.; It can be concluded, with this study's sample, that interrelationships existed among school size, academic achievement, and per pupil expenditure when controlling for SES that led to the identification of an optimal school size range. The optimal school size range established from this study's sample, the one which produced higher academic achievement and lower per pupil expenditure when controlling for SES, was that comprising the top 25% of schools housing an eleventh grade. Specifically, this study identified the optimal school size as large (grouping 4), those with a 254 to 629 eleventh grade student cohort range. This translates to an optimal high school size of 1,431–2,019 students based on the actual sizes of schools studied, that is, their total school population in all grades served. Further supporting the large optimal school size for this study's sample was the finding that the higher per pupil expenditure found in the very small and small schools was not associated with increased achievement scores when controlling for SES.