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NEW YORK, NY June 01, 2007 —A comprehensive new study finds smaller schools often do perform better than large ones, but they also have their own drawbacks. WNYC's Beth Fertig reports.

Small schools are increasingly seen as the antidote to large, low performing high schools and New York City has opened about 200 more of them in recent years. But some scholars aren't entirely convinced they're the silver bullet.

New York University's Institute for Education and Social Policy looked at the 10 year track record of more than 60 small and medium-sized schools that opened in the 1990s, during an earlier wave of school reform. Researchers found schools with no more than 500 students do, in fact, have higher graduation rates and lower drop out rates than the citywide average. But so do schools with up to 1500 students - suggesting that the limit of 500 embraced by many reformers isn't necessarily optimal.

The report also found new small and medium-sized schools both have significant challenges in attracting and retaining experienced teachers, possibly because of the intense demands on their time and energy in the start-up phase. For WNYC, I'm Beth Fertig.