(2005-02-23) Sprawl Schools Small Schools

Interesting article on Small Schools. "There is a bit of a conflict between small schools and integration," acknowledges JonathanWeiss, a former Clinton Administration official and author of "Public Schools and Economic Development: What the Research Shows", a report for the KnowledgeWorks Foundation. "Because we tend to live in neighborhoods that are segregated by race and income you often need to draw from a larger area to get a diverse population."... Recognizing the reality that the Decaturs of the world have faced, some small-schools advocates suggest breaking up larger campuses into several schools-within-a-school. One frequently cited success story in this regard is New York City's Julia Richman Education Complex (Educating Kids In Nyc). Once a failing, violence-plagued school of thousands, the sprawling compound has been divided into six schools, each with a different theme and identity.