Students: Small Schools Challenging

By Lynn Olson

A Nation at Risk 's recommendations never mentioned school size. But since the release of the influential report in 1983, a growing body of evidence has suggested that small schools offer a number of advantages, particularly for minority students and those from low-income families.

Studies conducted over the past 10 to 15 years have found that in smaller schools, students come to class more often, drop out less, earn better grades, take part more often in extracurricular activities, feel safer, and show fewer behavior problems.

The latest salvo in that research comes from a survey of nearly 4,000 students in large and small, urban and suburban high schools in the New York metro area, conducted by Michelle M. Fine, a professor of social psychology and urban education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New...