Keeping that personal touch becomes a challenge. So both principals try to make the schools as inviting as possible. Every nine weeks, Summerfield Principal Bill Farkas sends a letter to each child who makes honor roll. At Colfax, York adds a smiley face sticker or a comment to every report card. The experience at these schools is not unique.
Some research shows that large schools work.
Two years ago, Professor Kenneth Stevenson found that seven South Carolina elementary schools that won a state incentive award 10 straight years housed an average of 818 students. The 66 schools that never won averaged 525 students per school, or 12 above the state average. It is not a really big component of what's going on. A case for small schools Small schools work, too. Take Wiley Elementary, in one of Greensboro's poorest neighborhoods.