Then they decided to break it down and start all over again. Perhaps too much has been made of class size, but there's no doubt that when kids are lumped together in large numbers, learning problems multiply. Nearly 60 percent of America's public high school students go to school with 1,000 or more teens, and some urban behemoths are four times that size. Students often shuttle between lectures given by teachers who barely know the kids' names, much less their dreams and problems. But merely breaking a school into smaller parts isn't enough.
Kids clearly benefit from strong bonds with caring advisers.
So most of the schools whose stories follow make sure that all students have a close relationship with a teacher or counselor. Every student at Sir Francis Drake High School near San Francisco meets twice a week with a faculty adviser to talk about everything from grades to future plans. It makes you want to do well. At places like the progressive new Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center in Providence, R.I., for example, parents work with teachers to develop individualized learning plans for their children. Nothing turns kids off more than studies that seem dull and irrelevant, so curriculum reform is crucial, too.