There's nothing small about Cleveland Heights High School. Built in the 1920s, it's an imposing brick structure, with long hallways, and dozens of classrooms. But inside, there are actually five high schools, with names like Renaissance, PRIDE, and MOSAIC.
Each has its own principal, and a teacher leader. That's a position Jeanne Lee had for the past three years at the Legacy school. A long time French and German teacher, Lee backed the conversion to small schools because she saw Cleveland Heights changing.
Jeanne Lee: We still had our national merit scholars, we still had kids going to Ivy League schools. We just had fewer numbers of kids who were successfully getting through the four year program.
As teacher leader, she says she saw positive results from the small schools almost immediately.
Jeanne Lee: They made a face possible. For kids to know who to come to. Because before it was such a big high school, they got lost in the cracks. They didn't know where to turn.
For a small school to have profound effects, experts say it needs to be about more than just size. The culture needs to change. The schools at Heights High are still trying to get their teachers to collaborate more, and try new things. One school has introduced the Socratic method into its classrooms. Three years into the conversion, that's more than many schools can claim.
Rick Lear, who runs the Small Schools Project at the University of Washington, concedes schools like Heights that are starting to see gains are in the minority.
Rick Lear: There are schools that are able to do it, and are successful at it. Right now, there seem to be many more that are not. And that seems to be true in most places.
The three Cleveland high schools abandoning small schools this year underscore how hard it is to convert existing high schools.
So, what's Cleveland Heights doing right? For one, it's made sure teachers buy-in to the idea. Tom Schmida, who heads the Cleveland Heights teachers union, says having a teacher leader, who represents each school's faculty has helped ease the transition.
Tom Schmida: It has to be designed in such a way that teachers feel empowered, that there's leadership roles, decision making, so they stay focused and supportive of the program.
Heights High is not without its problems. Schmida and others say many students don't strongly identify with their small schools yet. There's some racial self-segregation in the small schools-as students choose which one they want to go to. But Heights, remarkably, has no discernable achievement gap in its test scores. There have also been issues of scheduling, and making sure each student has the option to take desirable electives.
Former teacher leader Jeanne Lee has no doubt, though, that small schools are here to stay at Heights.
Jeanne Lee: Change is always rough. Is it worth it? I think so.
This year's seniors at Heights High are the first to experience all four years in small schools. Once they graduate, officials will likely take a hard look at what kind results small schools are really having.