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.
Large schools can broken up into small schools with little or no capital investment.
It does, however, take shared motivation, outside expertise, community engagement, and time and resources to make the difficult conversion. Small size is necessary but not sufficient to create a great school. Staff has high expectations for all students and a shared vision of good teaching. Staff has time to collaborate to improve instruction and meet shared challenges. Instruction and promotion are based on demonstrated learning.