Research: Smaller Is Better

By Debra Viadero

Seventeen-year-old Marika Malkerson figures she was one among 500 freshmen when she started high school three years ago in North Carolina. When she began failing classes a few months later, Malkerson recalls, no one besides her own family even noticed.

Her academic fortunes improved, though, when she moved to Chicago and enrolled in Perspectives, an intimate, 150-student public charter school in the heart of downtown. With no grade lower than a B now, Malkerson doesn't need to be convinced that, when it comes to learning, school size matters. She knows from experience.

"I know everyone in my classes really well now, and I like that a lot," she says. "And we all get help from our teachers...