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Visible Learning™
Visible Learning MetaX
Version 1.4 – Updated February 2026

School size

Overview

  • Influence: School size
  • Domain: School
  • Sub-Domain: School compositional effects
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Likely to have positive impact
  • Influence Definition: The effect of the total number of students in a school on student achievement. Most of the research is at the high school level.

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 2
  • Number of studies: 30
  • Number of students: NA
  • Number of effects: 129
  • Weighted mean effect size: 0.33
  • Robustness index: 1

Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analyses
Journal Title Author Article Name Year Published Variable Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Effect Size
Dissertation Stekelenburg The effects of public high school size on student achievement: a meta-analysis 1991 High school size on achievement 21 NA 120 0.43
Book Luyten Quantitative summary of research findings 2014 School size 9 NA 9 0.10
TOTAL/AVERAGE 30 NA 129 0.27
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