New Findings About the Effectiveness and Operation of Small Public High Schools

Posted by on September 09, 2013

Actually, small high schools work

New findings from a multi-year study by MDRC show that small high schools in New York City, which serve mostly disadvantaged students of color, continue to produce sustained positive effects, raising graduation rates by 9.5 percentage points — nearly 10 more graduates for every 100 entering ninth-grade students. These effects are seen in virtually every subgroup, including male and female students of color, students with below-grade-level eighth-grade proficiency in math and reading, and low-income students. In addition, there is evidence that small high schools may increase graduation rates for two new subgroups for which findings were previously unavailable: special education students and English language learners. The schools also raise by 6.8 percentage points the proportion of students scoring 75 or more on the English Regents exam, a critical measure of college readiness used by the City University of New York. Two prior reports by MDRC in 2010 and 2012 showed marked increases in progress toward graduation and in graduation rates for cohorts of students who entered these small high schools in 2005 and 2006. This report updates those findings with results from a third cohort, who entered ninth grade in fall of 2007. For the first time, it also includes a look inside these schools through the eyes of principals and teachers, as reported in interviews and focus groups.

http://www.mdrc.org/publication/sustained-progress