The policy of replacing big, comprehensive high schools with smaller schools is showing promising results, according to a new study. NY1's Lindsey Christ filed the following report.

Students who get into one of the city's new small high schools have a significantly better chance of walking out with a diploma, according to a major study.

The second-year report in a five-year study by the respected research firm MDRC compares students accepted to one of 105 new small high schools by random lottery to students who applied to the same schools but did not get a spot.

"We were able to compare kids who went to these schools with kids who didn't, who in all other ways, expect the schools they went to, are the same. A study this large with that rigorous a methodology is almost unprecedented," said MDRC Study Author Howard Bloom.