High Schools Nationwide Paring Down.

SECONDARY education; SCHOOL districts; SCHOOL dropouts; ACADEMIC achievement; HIGH schools

As a strategy for reforming secondary education in the U.S., small schools have gotten big. Prodded by an outpouring of philanthropic and federal largess, school districts and even some states are downsizing public high schools to combat high dropout rates and low levels of student achievement, especially in big-city school systems. Despite the concept's unprecedented popularity, however, evidence is mounting that "scaling up" scaled-down schooling is extraordinarily complex. Whether that platform becomes a springboard to higher student achievement on a broad scale and for a sustained period remains an open question. INSETS: Major Gates Foundation Grants to Support Small High Schools;Network, Replication, and Early-College Grants.