New Report: New York City’s Changing High School Landscape

Posted by on March 22, 2010

More analysis of the broad reforms in NYC

A new report from MDRC looks at the historical backdrop to New York City’s effort to transform its public high schools from 2002 to 2008. At the start of the decade, the city routinely assigned students to zoned high schools, which often had thousands of students and were overcrowded and low performing. By the 2007-2008 school year, 23 large and midsize schools with graduation rates below 45 percent had closed or were on their way to closing, and almost 200 new small schools for high school-aged kids had opened. Under new procedures, all eighth-graders submit up to 12 schools that they wish to attend, ranked in order of preference, and the New York City Department of Education (DOE) use a computerized process for assigning students. The sweeping reforms affected all public high school students, but were directly intended to benefit academically and socioeconomically disadvantaged students, especially those living in low-income, largely nonwhite areas of Brooklyn and the Bronx. MDRC’s report rests primarily on quantitative data from large databases maintained by the DOE, the New York State Education Department, and the U.S. Department of Education, but includes other sources.

See the report: http://www.mdrc.org/publications/543/overview.html