Students Schooling Students: Gaining Professional Benefits While Helping Urban High School Students Achieve Success

This article looks at the educational plight of urban low income children and explores the opportunities for success that small urban high schools provide. It then distills commonalities among successful small schools to demonstrate three central points: 1) that small is essential but not sufficient; 2) that small schools offer an opportunity for urban school districts to help improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged students by providing a fertile environment where individualized instruction, more class time, better-trained teachers, and a curriculum that prepares students psychologically and emotionally, as well as intellectually can help them overcome the adverse effects of poverty; and 3) that law students can benefit from supporting educational reform by partnering with small schools in urban communities