Transforming the High School Experience: How New York City’s New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates — Overview

Transforming the High School Experience: How New York City’s New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates — Overview

Transforming the High School Experience How New York City’s New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates Howard S. Bloom, Saskia Levy Thompson, and Rebecca Unterman with Corinne Herlihy and Collin F. Payne

Related Publications New York City’s Changing High School Landscape: High Schools and Their Characteristics, 2002-2008 Relationships, Rigor, and Readiness: Strategies for Improving High Schools Meeting Five Critical Challenges of High School Reform: Lessons from Research on Three Reform Models Since 2002, New York City has closed more than 20 underperforming public high schools, opened more than 200 new secondary schools, and introduced a centralized high school admissions process in which approximately 80,000 students a year indicate their school preferences from a wide-ranging choice of programs. At the heart of these reforms lie 123 new “small schools of choice” (SSCs) — small, academically nonselective, four-year public high schools for students in grades 9 through 12. Open to students at all levels of academic achievement and located in historically disadvantaged communities, SSCs were intended to be viable alternatives to the neighborhood high schools that were closing. SSCs are more than just small. They were authorized through a demanding competitive proposal process designed to stimulate innovative ideas for new schools by a range of stakeholders and institutions, from educators to school reform intermediary organizations. The resulting schools emphasize strong, sustained relationships between students and faculty. Each SSC also received start-up funding as well as assistance and policy protections from the district and other key players to facilitate leadership development, hiring, and implementation.