When you hear responsible adults saying they had no clue there was a Trench Coat Mafia or plans to bomb a building . . . One reason is impersonal big schools.
Many educators say the evidence in favor of smallness is ample and compelling.
Research shows that students, particularly inner-city children, learn more and better in small schools. Small schools also report better attendance and more participation in extracurricular activities. Yet schools keep getting bigger. New York City and Los Angeles, the nation's two largest school districts, have many schools with enrollments of close to 5,000. Under construction in downtown Los Angeles is the Belmont Learning Complex, with an overall planned enrollment of about 4,800.