Students do better in smaller schools because they don't get lost in the system, according to the New York Times.

A $3.5 million study financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and carried out by MDRC, a non-proft group that studies education, followed 21,000 students entering high school between 2005 and 2008. Controlling for other factors, schools with no more than about 100 students per grade were nearly 8.6 percent more likely to graduate on time. They were also 6.6 percent more likely to get Regents diploma rather than just getting the less rigorous local diploma.

The study supports the Bloomberg administration's push to replace big, failing schools with smaller ones.