4,100 Students Prove ‘Small Is Better’ Rule Wrong

By SAM DILLON

New York Times, Published: September 27, 2010

BROCKTON, Mass. — A decade ago, Brockton High School was a case study in failure. Teachers and administrators often voiced the unofficial school motto in hallway chitchat: students have a right to fail if they want. And many of them did — only a quarter of the students passed statewide exams. One in three dropped out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/education/28school.html?hp

Here’s a link to the Harvard University report referenced in the article above:

"How High Schools Become Exemplary: Ways That Leadership Raises Achievement and Narrows Gaps by Improving Instruction in 15 Public High Schools"

This report features 15 outstanding public high schools from Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, Texas and Washington, DC. All were featured at the Fifth Annual Conference of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University in June of 2009.

http://www.agi.harvard.edu/events/2009Conference/2009AGIReport.php

http://www.agi.harvard.edu/events/2009Conference/2009AGIConferenceReport6-30-2010web.pdf