The review explored 57 post-1990 empirical studies of school size effects on a variety of student and organizational outcomes. The weight of evidence provided by this research clearly favors smaller schools. Students who traditionally struggle at school and students from disadvantaged social and economic backgrounds are the major benefactors of smaller schools. Furthermore, most contemporary studies have concluded that small schools are more efficient or cost-effective. Small secondary schools manage to graduate a significantly larger proportion of their students than do large secondary schools.