Small High Schools and Student Achievement: Lottery-Based Evidence from New York City
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Small Schools: Public School Reform Meets the Ownership Society (Positions: Education, Politics, and Culture) |
One of the most wide-ranging reforms in public education in the last decade has been the reorganization of large comprehensive high schools into small schools with roughly 100 students per grade.
This study uses assignment lotteries embedded in New York City's high school match to estimate the effects of attendance at a new small high school on student achievement. More than 150 unselective small high schools created between 2002 and 2008 have enhanced autonomy, but operate within-district with traditional public school teachers, principals, and collectively-bargained work rules.
Lottery estimates show positive score gains in Mathematics, English, Science, and History, more credit accumulation, and higher graduation rates. Small school attendance causes a substantial increase in college enrollment, with a marked shift to CUNY institutions. Students are also less likely to require remediation in reading and writing when at college. Detailed school surveys indicate that students at small schools are more engaged and closely monitored, despite fewer course offerings and activities. Teachers report greater feedback, increased safety, and improved collaboration.
The results show that school size is an important factor in education production and highlight the potential for within-district reform strategies to substantially improve student achievement.
Researching College- and Career-Ready Standards to Improve Student Outcomes
In August, IES worked with the National Science Foundation and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to convene a technical working group to discuss research objectives related to college- and career-ready standards in English language arts and mathematics. Forty people were invited to attend (including researchers, practitioners, and federal and found
The Medium-Term Impacts of High-Achieving Charter Schools on Non-Test Score Outcomes
High-performing charter schools can significantly increase the test scores of poor urban students. It is unclear whether these test score gains translate into improved outcomes later in life. This study estimates the effects of high-performing charter schools on human capital, risky behaviors, and health outcomes using survey data from the Promise Academy in the Harlem Children's Zone. Six years a
Evaluation of the College Possible Program
This paper reports the results of a randomized trial of the CollegePossible program, which provides two years of college preparatorywork for high school juniors and seniors in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The trial involved 238 students, including 134 who wererandomly selected for admission to the program. The results indicatethat the College Possible program significantly increased bothapplications
This Week's Education Research Report 10-26-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2
Education Research ReportTHIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORTPreschoolers’ emotion knowledge indirectly contributes to early school successDifferences in emotion knowledge by children’s age, gender, and socioeconomic risk status, as well as associations of emotion knowledge with executive control, social competence, and early classroom adjustment, were investigated in this study. On emotion knowl
