Quote Originally Posted by Nickels View Post
Exactly. I went to a 3a & 4a high school in Texas and once I got to college I realized how poor the education I received actually was compared to the bigger schools. My classmates and I were totally unprepared for college compared to our big school counterparts. I have also seen mentioned that "with such a big school most kids wont get a chance for extra circulars", that couldn't be farther from the truth. Sure the average football player in a 5a school probably doesn't get as much playing time as the same player in 3a school but their are sustainably more extra circulars at these larger schools. Lacrosse, Swimming, Bowling, Wrestling, Hockey, ROTC programs etc.are usually offered at these huge schools. Besides football, baseball, basketball & track their usually isn't much else to participate in these small schools. What other programs are offered are usually coached by a teacher and the athletes don't get the coaching & scholarship opportunities the athletes at the bigger schools do.

Just because a high school has 5k+ students doesn't mean the teacher to pupil ratio is 200 to 1. Where are you getting this from? or are you completely talking out of your ***? These schools can probably put more towards education because the administrator/janitors/nurses/etc to pupil ratio would be lower. If you split 1 school into 2, I guarantee you it would cost more to operate.

Stop cock envying because I'm sure you've never stepped foot in a Texas 5a high school, so you have no clue what you're talking about.

I know you are referring to the other poster, but since I share his position I will say that I came from a 5A HS Texas, in fact the 8th largest HS at the time and I graduated with 954 other seniors that year.

I am also currently an educator in the Texas school system and I have had this conversation many times with my mother who was a former superintendent in one of the largest schools districts in our area, and is know a consultant with of the TEA regions in the state. We had this discussion when I had graduated HS and the graduating class had grown to over 1000+ students and an over 5,000 student enrollment. Me as a football diehard was upset with her because she was pushing a radical idea on the school board about splitting up the HS into 3 separate high schools, all at the 4A level. We were a football crazy town in South Texas and a recent powerhouse and no body wanted to split up that football team even if that campus was overflowing with students. "Just put in more portables," they said.

Bottom line, they eventually had to do it, and she presented data and numbers that showed smaller schools are better. You ask where he is getting this from? I can't cite the study but I do know they are out there and the data shows that small schools provide a better learning opportunity for the students as well as a chance for them to become more involved in extra curricular activities. Like I said Leander ISD here in Central Texas is proof to that fact:


But yes, in the end as another poster mentioned the most important factor of all is having good teachers. And that is a a major issue in our public school systems right now.