From an article in The Oregonian:
Armed with $25 million from billionaire Bill Gates and other education reformers, backers of small schools heralded the academies as the best way to curb high dropout rates, forge connections to keep teenagers on track and prepare every graduate for college.
But it did not work out that way.
Instead, their statistics look a lot like results from the lumbering, impersonal high schools they are supposed to replace. Lots of students quit, and most of the graduates aren’t ready for the rigors of college.
North Carolina’s Redesigned High Schools program, which also received millions in Gates money, is very similar to Oregon’s small schools initiative. Governor Easley touted Redesigned High Schools (and the Learn and Earn program) as a way to raise North Carolina’s low graduation rate, but we have yet to see empirical evidence that high school redesign has had any positive effect on the graduation rate.
