This year's Newsweek list of the top 100 high schools shows that today those with fewer students are rising. Ten years ago, when the first Newsweek Top School List based on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating classes smaller than 100 students. This year there are 22. Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational reform: big, modern high schools outside the cities with thousands of students. Big schools meant economic efficiency, a greater choice of courses, and better football teams. But only years later did we understand that it involved the difficulty of strengthening personal connections between teachers and students. SAT scores began dropping; on average, 30% of students did not complete high school in four years, a figure that rose to 50% in poor city neighborhoods. High schools for a variety of reasons seemed to have made little progress. Size isn't everything, but it does matter, and the past decade has seen a noticeable trend toward smaller schools. This has been partly due to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $1.8 billion in American high schools, helping to open about 1,000 small schools -- most of them with about 400 kids, each with an average enrollment of only 150 students per grade. About 500 more are on the drawing board. Districts all over the country are taking notice, along with mayors in cities like New York, Chicago and San Diego. And most noticeable of all, there is the phenomenon of large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundred. Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, California, is one of those ranking No.423 -- among the top 2% in the country. In 2003, Hillsdale remade itself into three "houses". 300 students arriving ninth graders are randomly assigned to one of the houses, where they will keep the same four core subject teachers for two years before moving on to another for 11th and 12th grades. Teachers meet with students in groups of 25, five mornings a week, for open-ended discussions of everything from homework problems to bad Saturday-night dates. The advisers also meet with students privately and stay in touch with parents. Along with the new structure came the percentage of freshmen taking biology jumped from 17 to 95."It was rough for some. But by senior year, two-thirds have moved up to physics," says Jeff Gilbert. "Our kids are coming to school in part because they know there are adults here who know them and care for them." But not all schools show advances after downsizing, and it remains to be seen whether smaller schools will be a cure-all solution. Ranking schools is always controversial. Over the years this system has been criticized for its simplicity -- list of top U.S. high schools was made merely according to the proportion of students taking college-level exams. This year a group of 38 superintendents   from five states wrote to ask that their schools should be excluded from the calculation. "It is impossible to know which high schools are 'the best' in the nation," their letter read. "Determining whether different schools do or don't offer a high quality of education requires a look at many different measures, including students' overall academic accomplishments, their later performance in college, and taking into consideration the unique needs of their communities." What can we learn about the schools sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?
They are often located in poor neighborhoods. They are popular with high-achieving students. They are mostly small in size. Another 150 schools invested by the Foundation are planned to be set up.