Denver Public School's announcement
in February, 2006
that they would be closing down the small schools
at the Manual Educational Complex
and reopening one Manual High School in 2007-2008
created quite a stir.

The conversion of Manual
into three small schools in August 2001
was the first
large-to-small high school conversion in the country
funded by the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
and the closing of the three schools
has caused many
within the high school reform community
around the country
to wonder,
"What happened?"

The purpose of this site
is to assemble in one place
some of the data that had been collected
during the initiative
as well as reports and links to reports about the initiative
so that those who are interested
might more deeply reflect on possible causes
and lessons learned.