real social networks grow from real social interactions

An example of a social network diagram.
By User: Wykis, public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

Changing schools from the current compulsory, factory format to open-source learning centers could help create and sustain vital social networks that would help empower and change communities in many ways, from increasing economic activity to allowing broader relationships among people who are free to choose their interactions.  Underestimating the limitations of the factory model, especially now that they are confining kids for 16+ years, is routine since most adults were raised within the schools and accept the status quo without questioning it.

The ranking and grading once thought necessary has been proven in the 20/21st century to be unnecessary and an impediment to a more positive social climate that would do wonders for all schools and communities.  Real social networks have a long history and hierarchical ones are a blip on the radar screen of history: our school factories are dumbing us down in many ways.
 
From Harvard's Complexity and Social Networks Blog:

Prehistoric Social Networks 

Contemporary humans exhibit spectacular biological success derived from cumulative culture and cooperation. The origins of these traits may be related to our ancestral group structure. Because humans lived as foragers for 95% of our species' history, we analyzed co-residence patterns among 32 present-day foraging societies (total n = 5067 individuals, mean experienced band size = 28.2 adults). We found that hunter-gatherers display a unique social structure where (i) either sex may disperse or remain in their natal group, (ii) adult brothers and sisters often co-reside, and (iii) most individuals in residential groups are genetically unrelated. These patterns produce large interaction networks of unrelated adults and suggest that inclusive fitness cannot explain extensive cooperation in hunter-gatherer bands. However, large social networks may help to explain why humans evolved capacities for social learning that resulted in cumulative culture.

This change in social climate alone could boost intelligence and ability.
Socialising led to bigger brains in some mammals:

For the first time researchers have attempted to chart the evolutionary history of the brain across different groups of mammals over 60 million years. They have discovered that there are huge variations in how the brains of different groups of mammals have evolved over that time. They also suggest that there is a link between the sociality of mammals and the size of their brains relative to body size, according to a study published in the PNAS journal. [Encephalization is not a universal macroevolutionary phenomenon in mammals but is associated with sociality PNAS 2010 ; published ahead of print November 22, 2010]

Schools create an artificial and increasingly harmful social atmosphere that could be completely transformed by allowing families and kids to be human beings, who naturally learn and grow in social networks. Voluntary, open-source learning centers providing choices for families and kids could be transformative institutions.

more
voluntary attendance
Ouchi on decentralization
attendance laws are limiting our ability to change schools
update on williams-bolar 
 
related 
Human Nature May Not Be So Warlike After All (wired.com)