Research has shown that students who matriculate through a small school system, especially a K-8 school, receive benefits that far exceed their counterparts in larger districts. Here are some of those benefits and how they relate to our school:

Small Class Size - Ideally, class sizes in the lower elementary grades are most efficient/effective when the average numbers are around twenty. The best average class size for the intermediate and middle levels is approximately twenty-two. Our school falls within both of these averages with twenty in the lower grades and twenty-one in the intermediate and middle grade levels.

Personalized Attention - Smaller schools pay more attention to the individual needs of their students. They spend more time with concepts such as fairness, character and interpersonal skills. In addition, there is a spirit of togetherness that translates into not letting students fail or actively participate in student centered activities. Our school has been doing this for years because both the staff and the community recognize the long-range benefits to our students as they prepare for high school and adulthood.

Attention to Students With Special Needs - The best way to treat students with special needs is not to exclude but rather include them in the regular classroom. This is our fourth year of the full inclusion for our students with special needs in all of our classrooms. We now educate and assist over 99% of our special education students at Gardner-Dickinson and the success of this approach is obvious when you review their performance on the Grade 4 and 8 Regents Tests.

Positive Test Results - Small schools have done a better job with producing higher scores on standardized and state tests. This holds true for our district when you take a close look at our results on the most recent State Tests in Math. On our Grade 4 Math Tests our school placed first in our BOCES District (Rensselaer-Columbia-Greene Counties have 21 schools) and fourth in the Greater Capital District Region (out of 56 schools)! Our Math 8 results were also good. We placed fifth in our BOCES District and twelfth in the Capital Region. Our results on the Grade 8 English Test, while not as spectacular, were strong. We had no students having serious academic difficulties, including our special education students!

Schools like ours can and do make a difference in the lives of our children now and into adulthood. They are worth keeping and supporting.

Printer     Friendly