"Students in small schools outperform students in large schools on standardised achievement tests, significantly (Raywid, 1997/8, p. 34; Bryuk & Driscoll, 1998). In Matthews’s 2014 study of the nation’s most academically “challenging” schools, 40% of them were schools of less than 350 students, an extremely disproportional distribution in favor of small schools.

Also according to the research, small schools are safer, reporting fewer fights and no incidents of serious violence (National Center for Education Statistics, 1998). A 1999 U.S. Department of Education study found that schools with more than 1000 students had far higher rates of violent student behaviour than schools with fewer than 300 students, and teachers and students in small schools were far less likely to be victims of crime (McRobbie, J., (2001, October). But students are not only physically safer in schools of less than 400, they feel emotionally safer and more connected with adults—which positively impacts learning."

An excerpt from the article: 60 Years of Research on Small Schools.

You can read the full article HERE.