A major reform, recommended by both researchers and policy makers, is to develop smaller and more intimate learning communities within large high schools. One major impetus for this reform is to increase the human dimensions of schooling for America's adolescents. A second impetus is to provide more common academic experiences for students.
Social capital is the productive capacity inherent in relationships between people.
Inside schools, the study focuses on social capital that increases adolescents' academic development. The study develops these themes through a multi-site case study, which includes case studies of a small number of schools in which students' intellectual and social experiences occur in small learning communities. The study investigates how social capital is generated and sustained in schools of this type.