Impact Of School Reform On Dropout Rates And Test Scores In An Urban High School

Abstract

The primary focus of the study was to explore the effect of School Within a School reform on two components in the Adequate Yearly Progress Report by which Texas schools are measured - dropout rates and scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test. The demographics of the particular study sample included 11th grade students considered economically disadvantaged, English language learners, and regular, as well as special education students, attending an urban Texas high school. Data were acquired from the Texas Education Agency and hypotheses were tested with a non-parametric test of statistical significance, chi-square. Results indicated that the reform made a positive impact on dropout rates and on math and English Language Arts scores.