Come next fall, Chicago's DuSable High School, one of the city's most historic - and lowest performing - schools on the South Side, will be reborn as several small schools.

Douglas, Austin, and a handful of other elementary and high schools, some of which have already been closed, will also get a major makeover.

Those new schools, however, are just the beginning of one of the most ambitious school reform projects ever undertaken. Cities across the United States will be watching closely as - over the next six years - Chicago shuts some 60 schools and creates 100 new ones.

Beyond just closing and opening schools, the plan is one of the broadest endorsements yet of the "small schools" philosophy that has taken root over the past decade. Almost all the new schools will have a small number of students - less than 500 - and will emphasize personalized learning and greater staff and student interaction.

In some respects, however, the plan is also the district's way of admitting that it doesn't have all the answers when it comes to bolstering some of its lowest-performing schools. That's why the doors are being thrown open to outside experts who will be invited in to share their expertise.

Only about a third of the new schools will be run by the district. The rest will be charters or contract schools run by independent organizations, and all will be subject to five-year reviews. Those that don't make the grade can expect to be reformed anew.

It's a bold and risky plan that is creating a fair amount of controversy here in the city and has been called by turns visionary or foolhardy.

Parents worry their kids will be guinea pigs, facing a different school and educational philosophy every few years, and some experts question the advisability of putting so much faith in structures - like small schools or charters - for which little long-term data are available.

Others say that given the dire straits of public education in big cities like Chicago, a plan like this is the only thing that could work - a large-scale project that doesn't just shuffle people around but drastically reenvisions the landscape of urban education.

"It's loaded with incredible opportunity but also with significant challenges," says Timothy Knowles, director of the Center for Urban School Improvement at the University of Chicago. He, like others who cautiously endorse the plan, says the real test is in details, such as finding and training talented staff. "It's going to require people and institutions to stretch further than they have if it's going to be successful. But if you're gazing into the eyes of a class of kindergarten students and asking yourself, is this the right thing, I think the answer is: compared to the status quo, absolutely."

Parents and education activists don't necessarily agree.

Last week, the district released a draft policy for Renaissance 2010, as the plan is formally known, and over the next few months officials and community members will be hashing out the details of just what the first new schools will look like. But even before the written plan came out, some groups, particularly in the areas most affected, have been airing their doubts.

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