Smaller is Better

That appears to be the lesson learned from a McKinsey analysis of high school education in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The study is written up in the new McKinsey newsletter, which is free but requires registration. (The link is now fixed, he said hopefully.) Here's a quick summary:

Today's public high schools are the legacy of an era when economies of scale and prevailing educational philosophies suggested that bigger was better. Evidence continues to mount, however, that breaking up large, anonymous high schools into small learning communities can dramatically improve outcomes for students. Schools that have tried this approach have raised their test scores and graduation rates and minimized the behavioral problems that plague larger institutions.