There are many ways to use the strategies in this report; the text and appendices provide some, the cd and web site others. To make information even more accessible, we offer this tool kit of ideas and resources.

How might one use the findings in this study to create an ideal school? Given the great variety among the good small schools in the report, the first lesson is probably that there is no such thing as a perfect school and that one model cannot serve as a guide for different settings with their distinct histories, student populations, and economic bases. But there are useful lessons to extract in creating a good, cost-effective, small school.

Size: It costs no more to build a smaller school than it does to build a school that serves a much larger though reasonably sized school of 1000 students. So the first lesson is that school districts can afford truly smaller schools.

Autonomy: It is critically important that the small school be autonomous and control as much of its destiny as possible. As Michael Goldstein at MATCH points out, good people do not need an inflexible structure. Rigid structures are only necessary when schools get large and people do not know each other well.

Separation: The school must be enough of an island unto itself physically that people form relationships within its boundaries. Students, teachers, advisors must have the opportunity to spend time with each other and know each other well. Of course, no school can function independently and must therefore establish connections to its community, and perhaps even to other schools.

Clear Mission: A school must have a well-defined mission. A school cannot be all things to all people, and small schools must work hard at being good at what they do.

Course of Study: No school can offer everything to everyone, nor should it try. Instead, a small school, whether rural and urban, can teach love of learning and habits of thinking that are the core of education. A school must define its program-be it in the arts, technology, program or delivery (internships, and projects) - so that it does what it does really well.

Time Spent Learning: The time most students spend in school is too short; extending it can help students overcome deficits in skills. MATCH proves the efficacy of this strategy, as do Camino Nuevo and the four small schools at Morris High. These schools require that their students spend more time learning than other schools in their districts. One measure of students' success is test scores; the other, perhaps more important, is the gratitude students, even very young ones, express about the opportunity to be in a school that cares enough about their success to require they spend more time learning.

"Seat-time" is not a relevant measure of the time students spend learning. Too many students sit in their seats in schools tuned out to what is going on around them because it seems irrelevant and boring. Time spent learning can be inside the walls of the school, or outside in the community, but it must be time in which students feel engaged in learning, and well-trained caring adults are available to support them.

Partnerships: Using facilities and people in other organizations simultaneously reduces the amount of space that must be built to house the school, and increases connections among students, faculty, and the community. The school needs a community liaison whose primary responsibility is to build these connections. A strength of all the schools in this study is their ability to form partnerships, while still being small enough that people within the school know each other well.

Parents: The school must recognize the role of parents in educating their children, as well as the possibilities the school and community have to educate each other. A written agreement, such as that used at Camino Nuevo, defines expectations for parents and helps them fulfill specific goals. Camino does everything it can to assure that parents give and get the support necessary to support their children.

Teachers: Good teachers are precious and attracting, retaining, and supporting them should be a priority for any good small school. Offering incentives as Laurel-Concord does, and practical ways to save teachers time and money helps them feel valued and want to stay at the school. Using adjuncts, as SOTA does, is a powerful way to expand course offerings to meet the needs of current students or the parameters of a specific program, while not over-burdening core teachers. Hiring young teachers but giving them significant support, as Camino Nuevo does, is a way to ground them in the principles and practice of their newly chosen profession and keep them in the field, even if some inevitably move to other schools.

Mentors: Hiring college students as mentors is also a cost-effective way to reduce the burden on teachers and to increase students' time spent learning basic skills, as MATCH has shown.