Charter schools are the exception, beacons of success which attract many parents with the promise of low student-teacher ratios, alternative programs and proven results.

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States would have to meet certain conditions, such as hiring "well-trained teachers" paid comparably to those in K-12, adopting rigorous curricula, keeping student-teacher ratios low and assessing youngsters.

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By law, student-teacher ratios can't exceed 10 to 1, lead teachers must have a bachelor's degree and an early-childhood certificate, and they must be paid on the same salary scale as K-12 teachers.

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Comprising the bulk of the top 10 list are small liberal arts schools like Sarah Lawrence College in New York, Kenyon College in Ohio and Bennington College in Vermont--all high on prestige and low on student-teacher ratios.

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About 10 percent of the students attend regular classes at those schools, with an aide to help them, but 90 percent are in special classes, with student-teacher ratios as small as 1-to-1 and as large as eight students with two aides and one teacher.

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In addition, the study further revealed that the quality of education in Arua district, as in other rural districts, is adversely affected by a severe lack of resources and professional teachers, as well as high student-to-teacher ratios and large class sizes.

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And in any case, education researchers have been unable to produce any consistent evidence that low pupil- teacher ratios actually do improve student performance.

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