David Broder highlights a small program in Oregon geared towards high school dropouts. Small classes and high standards seem to help motivate these students to complete the program and then go on to community college. Once again, students show that demanding standards will inspire them to better work.

And here they were in a voluntary program, run by the Portland Community College, where a single breach of discipline -- an unexcused absence, an unfinished assignment, a blown test -- would mean automatic expulsion, but where the curriculum was stiff enough to challenge an undergraduate at any of Portland's