Too many schools are just too big. 1 Today over 60 percent of this country's high school students attend schools with more than 1000 students. 2 Large comprehensive high schools have two fatal flaws they are large and comprehensive. Large factory schools render teachers and students anonymous and anonymity is the enemy of community and learning. Students in large schools are less likely to connect with a teacher or with a content area in which they can deeply explore a subject.
Comprehensive schools attempt to be everything to everyone.
Students, with little adult contact, are expected to have the insight and perseverance to navigate a complex course catalog toward a desired future. Most take the path of least resistance, accumulating points and credits toward graduation with little sense of where they are headed or how anything they learn will apply to life after high school. The benefits of a more intimate environment are most significant for economically disadvantaged students. It's no accident that elite private schools limit their enrollment to 400 students. If we are serious about helping all students achieve, it is time that we provide the benefits enjoyed by private schools students to our neediest young people.