Small High School Research Articles

Do Small Rural High Schools Differ from Larger Schools in Relation to Absentee Rates in Physical Education

The aims of the study were twofold: (a) to investigate how school size affects absentee rates in physical education (PE) and (b) to examine the experiences of students and teachers at a small rural high school in relation to attendance in PE at their school. The absentee rates in PE among all students (N = 6928 students) in a county in Norway were collected, and interviews with 15 students and two teachers at a small rural high school in the county were conducted. The results showed that the absentee rates in PE were significantly lower in small high schools (<200 students) located in rural areas, compared with larger-sized schools located in communities with more people. Small high schools also produced a lower percentage of students with an absentee rate above 10%. Furthermore, in contrast to small high schools, the absentee rate among girls was significantly higher than among boys in large high schools. Finally, the follow-up study showed that both students and teachers in a small rural high school reported a high level of relatedness, and both teachers and students claimed that this relatedness deterred absenteeism in PE. This finding may help explain the low absentee rates among students at small high schools. Key words: Absentee rate, physical education, high school size, small schools, large schools, relatedness.

The Relative Costs of New York City's New Small Public High Schools of Choice

Building on prior research by two of the present authors, which uses lottery-like features in New York City’s high school admissions process to rigorously demonstrate that new small public high schools in the district are markedly improving graduation prospects for disadvantaged students, the present paper demonstrates that these graduation benefits do not come at the cost of higher expenditures per graduate. The basis for these findings are two cost comparisons: (1) a comparison of per-pupil operating costs for the new small high schools with those for all other district high schools, and (2) an comparison of per-pupil operating costs for the new small high schools with those attended by their control group counterparts. The descriptive comparison demonstrates that the new small schools spend a little more per pupil than the average district high school and a lot more than the largest of these other schools. By contrast, results of the experimental comparisons together with previous findings of two of the present authors about the substantial positive effects of the new small schools on high school graduation rates indicate that the cost per high school graduate is substantially lower for the small-school enrollees than for their control group counterparts. This seemingly counterintuitive result occurs because control group counterparts (1) attend high schools with annual per-pupil costs that are about the same as those for the new small schools, (2) are more likely to attend a fifth year of high school because they do not graduate in four years, and (3) are less likely to graduate from high school at all.

Does Small High School Reform Lift Urban Districts? Evidence From New York City

Research finds that small high schools deliver better outcomes than large high schools for urban students. An important outstanding question is whether this better performance is gained at the expense of losses elsewhere: Does small school reform lift the whole district? We explore New York City’s small high school reform in which hundreds of new small high schools were built in less than a decade. We use rich individual student data on four cohorts of New York City high school students and estimate effects of schools on student outcomes. Our results suggest that the introduction of small schools improved outcomes for students in all types of schools: large, small, continuously operating, and new. Small school reform lifted all boats.

The impact of Chicago’s small high school initiative

This project examines the effects of the introduction of new small high schools on student performance in the Chicago Public School (CPS) district. Specifically, we investigate whether students attending small high schools have better graduation/enrollment rates and achievement than similar students who attend regular CPS high schools. We show that students who choose to attend a small school are more disadvantaged on average, including having prior test scores that are about 0.2 standard deviations lower than their elementary school classmates. To address the selection problem, we use an instrumental variables strategy and compare students who live in the same neighborhoods but differ in their residential proximity to a small school. In this approach, one student is more likely to sign up for a small school than another statistically identical student because the small school is located closer to the student’s house and therefore the “cost” of attending the school is lower. The distance-to-small-school variable has strong predictive power to identify who attends a small school. We find that small schools students are substantially more likely to persist in school and eventually graduate. Nonetheless, there is no positive impact on student achievement as measured by test scores.

Design, Development, and Characterization of an Inexpensive Portable Cyclic Voltammeter

The teaching of instrumental analysis for many small colleges and high schools continues to be stymied by high-cost, complicated maintenance, high power requirements, and often the sheer bulk of the instrumentation. Such issues have led us to develop inexpensive instruments as part of a SMILE initiative (small, mobile instruments for laboratory enhancement). This lab-based pedagogy, primarily aimed at engaging science and engineering students, has shown to significantly enhance the confidence and achievement of students in our technology-based courses. One instrument that has been designed, constructed, and characterized is the cyclic voltammeter (CV). CV is a versatile electroanalytical technique that monitors the redox behavior of chemical and biochemical species in solution. The CV instrument and technique readily lends itself to miniaturization and facilitates the practical application of CV analysis within standard undergraduate and advanced high school laboratory courses. The entire instrument was c...

Can Small High Schools of Choice Improve Educational Prospects for Disadvantaged Students?

This paper provides rigorous evidence (for 12,130 participants in a series of naturally occurring randomized lotteries) that a large-scale high school reform initiative (New York City’s creation of 100+ small high schools of choice between 2002 and 2008) can markedly and consistently increase high school graduation rates (by 9.5 percentage points overall and for many different student subgroups) for a large population of educationally and economically disadvantaged students of color without increasing annual school operating costs. These findings are directly relevant to current debates by policymakers and practitioners about how to improve the educational prospects of disadvantaged students in the United States. C � 2014 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

The Impact of Chicago's Small High School Initiative

This project examines the effects of the introduction of new small high schools on student performance in the Chicago Public School (CPS) district. Specifically, we investigate whether students attending small high schools have better graduation/enrollment rates and achievement than similar students who attend regular CPS high schools. We show that students who choose to attend a small school are more disadvantaged on average, including having prior test scores that are about 0.2 standard deviations lower than their elementary school classmates. To address the selection problem, we use an instrumental variables strategy and compare students who live in the same neighborhoods but differ in their residential proximity to a small school. In this approach, one student is more likely to sign up for a small school than another statistically identical student because the small school is located closer to the student’s house and therefore the “cost” of attending the school is lower. The distance-to-small-school variable has strong predictive power to identify who attends a small school. We find that small schools students are substantially more likely to persist in school and eventually graduate. Nonetheless, there is no positive impact on student achievement as measured by test scores.

A Comparison Of Mission Statements Of National Blue Ribbon Schools And Unacceptable Texas High Schools

This study was conducted to determine the themes present in the context of high schools, to determine any significant differences in themes for high and low performing high schools, and to determine if significant differences were present for the same sample of high schools based on school size. An analysis of the content of mission statements identified 31 dominant themes: Students, Providing, All, Community, Learning, Academics, Developing, Responsible, Education, Environment, Preparing, Productive, Success, Lifelong Learning, Individual, Citizen, Excellence, Skills, Society, Committed, Promotes, Achievement, Diversity, Knowledge, Nature, Challenge, Future, Partnership, Quality, Potential, and Safe. Significant differences were found between the group of high and low performing high schools for the themes of Academics, Excellence, Challenge, Learning, Nurture, and Lifelong Learning (p ? .05). Analysis of mission statements grouped by size yielded a significant difference for the theme of Knowledge for large size high schools as compared to small and medium size high schools.

Leading for Democracy in Urban Schools

The article examines the enactment of culturally relevant progressivism on the part of the principal of the Social Justice School, a small urban public high school explicitly committed to democratic education. Drawing upon extensive interviews and field observations conducted over the course of an academic year by a teacher-researcher within the school, the article constructs an ethnographic portrait of a school leader who adopts a culturally relevant leadership style, particularly in the area of student discipline, for the explicit purpose of fostering democratic education among a student body composed of primarily young people of color living near the poverty line in a city marked by racial segregation. Written by a white, middle-class, liberal educator trained in the progressive tradition, the article firmly places the researcher’s own subjectivity within the context of the study and, in doing so, more deeply explores the strengths and shortcomings of existing progressive approaches. A central implication of the research is that the boundaries of progressive education must be expanded if it is to fulfill more broadly its democratic promise in urban public schools in the context of a racially stratified education system and society.

Action research: professional development to help support and retain early career teachers

This article analyzes how participation in teacher-led, semester-long, action research projects influences early career teacher (fewer than three years of teaching experience) perceptions of support and learning. All teachers at an urban, newly developed, small high school participated in action research projects as a result of the administrations’ attempts to modify the school’s approach to professional development to better meet the teachers’ needs. Two cycles of action research projects were implemented and teachers provided feedback through an end-of-project evaluation. Data were also collected through participant observation and informal interviews. Results show that teacher-led action research projects as a professional development structure contribute to the development of a supportive professional culture, feelings of context-specific support, and feelings of empowerment and being overwhelmed in an urban school staffed primarily with early career teachers.

Do small schools improve performance in large, urban districts? Causal evidence from New York City

We evaluate the effectiveness of small high school reform in the country’s largest school district, New York City. Using a rich administrative dataset for multiple cohorts of students and distance between student residence and school to instrument for endogenous school selection, we find substantial heterogeneity in school effects: newly created small schools have positive effects on graduation and some other education outcomes while older small schools do not. Importantly, we show that ignoring this source of treatment effect heterogeneity by assuming a common small school effect yields a misleading zero effect of small school attendance.

Small School Reform

This qualitative ethnographic case study explored the evolution of a public urban high school in its 3rd year of small school reform. The study focused on how the high school proceeded from its initial concept, moving to a small school program, and emerging as a new small high school. Data collection included interviews, observations, and document review to develop a case study of one small high school sharing a multiplex building. The first key finding, “Too Many Pieces, Not Enough Glue,” revealed that the school had too many new programs starting at once and they lacked a clear understanding of their concept and vision for their new small school, training on the Montessori philosophies, teaching and learning in small schools, and how to operate within a teacher-cooperative model. The second key finding, “A Continuous Struggle,” revealed that the shared building space presented problems for teachers and students. District policies remain unchanged, resulting in staff and students resorting to activist approaches to get things done. These findings offer small school reform leaders suggestions for developing and sustaining a small school culture and cohesion despite the pressures to revert back to top-down, comprehensive high school norms.

Are individuals' familiarity judgments diagnostic of prior contact?

The extensive eyewitness memory research literature has been restricted to memory for strangers. Although it is often assumed that eyewitnesses are more accurate identifying familiar than unfamiliar individuals, little is known about whether individuals' familiarity judgments are diagnostic of prior contact. Caucasian and Asian sophomores (N=139) in two small private high schools viewed yearbook pictures of (a) graduated students from their school who were seniors (fourth year) when participants were freshmen (first year) (familiar) and (b) unfamiliar individuals, and responded whether each was ‘familiar’. The design was completely crossed; familiar faces at each school served as unfamiliar faces at the other school. Based on d′ data, the cross-race effect resulted for familiarity judgments. Also, although individuals' familiarity judgments were diagnostic of prior contact, accuracy was low (mean hit rate=0.42; mean false alarm rate=0.23), rendering an eyewitness's report of having seen a perpetrator casually in the past of limited forensic value.

Learning together: Teaching, relationships, and teachers' work

AbstractTeachers find that having close personal relationships with students is deeply rewarding in their work and that they contribute to more effective classrooms. The relationships, which many consider to be part and parcel of good teaching, afford teachers the opportunity to reach students intellectually and emotionally. Still, the relationships can be overwhelming and confusing for teachers. In interviews, teachers at a large and a small high school discuss how the relationships offer them both rewards and challenges in their work, their personal lives, and their efforts to humanize their classrooms.

Gender integration of a core content area teacher/athletic coach in the rural southeastern United States

Research on the occupational socialization of teachers and coaches has largely centered on physical education teachers and rarely on teachers from core content areas (i.e. English, foreign language, mathematics, science and social studies) who also coach athletics. The primary purpose of this single-case study was to explore the socialization of a first-year, core content area teacher/athletic coach at a small high school in the rural southeastern United States. Various qualitative techniques were utilized during data collection, while data analysis consisted of a system of open, axial and selective coding. Four themes emerged and were viewed through the lens of teacher identity. Themes include gender and opportunity; interactions within the school culture; teaching and coaching expectations; and interrole conflict and complementarity. Findings from this study hope to shed light on the need for further research on core content area teacher-coaches, while adding to the existing literature on females in the coaching profession and the roles of academics and athletics in rural areas.

No Need to Wait for Superman

Based on a theoretical model developed by Schlechty, this case study focuses on a small high school, located on a college campus and designed to address the educational needs of gifted 9th- through 12th-grade students. Eight teachers who taught 9th- and 12th-grade classes and their 60 students were observed. Each teacher was observed during six unannounced observational visits focusing on the characteristics of the learning environments in these unique classroom settings. The authors share insights gained from this case study that can help teachers as they develop learning environments in more traditional classroom settings.

Choosing a life one has reason to value: the role of the arts in fostering capability development in four small urban high schools

A holistic education linked to creativity, innovation, critical thinking and local/global citizenship is increasingly marginalized in the United States as schools continue to struggle with the impact of high-stakes testing regimes. In particular, urban youths’ access to an education that furthers their ability to choose lives they have reason to value, are circumscribed. Current discussions around the skills and capabilities necessary for youth to graduate and be equipped for meaningful lives beyond high school are aligned with research on the benefits of arts education. This mixed-methods exploratory study uses aspects of Sen and Nussbaum’s capability approach to frame and examine a range of capabilities fostered through student engagement with arts education opportunities, what we refer to as arts pathways, inside of five small arts-focused high schools in New York City, US.

When the Leader Leaves

This case study asks readers to consider what leadership actions might help to sustain success for immigrant students in a small urban high school when the leader leaves. Principal Michael Perez, the founding principal of Romero High School, has been recruited to become the superintendent of a first-ring suburban district with rapidly changing demographics. Describing himself as a hands-on “humanistic” leader, Perez established innovative curriculum and organizational structures at Romero High School to meet the language learning needs of the school’s teenage immigrant students. His impending departure requires Principal Perez, school district leaders, and his successor to determine what knowledge and skills are needed to sustain school improvements and navigate the leadership succession process.

From the Margins to the Mainstream: Potential Impact of Early Colleges on Traditional High Schools

Early colleges are one alternative to the traditional comprehensive high school. This article describes the establishment of an early college in partnership with a university, including the experiences for students, the challenges for teachers, and the difficulties in bridging higher and kindergarten through Grade-12 educations. The article considers the potential for these new, small high schools to impact the traditional high school.

An Alternative Research and Science Teacher Preparation Agenda for Urban Science Education: An Insider’s Call for a Focus on Success

There are some small urban high schools that have high levels of student engagement in science. However, much of the science education research and student teacher placement in urban areas is done in large, somewhat dysfunctional schools. Those who have created these effective environments for science show that it is only in the whole school context in which these effective science classrooms exist and the matrix of interactions organized by the teachers outside the science classroom that leads to this success. The theory and research behind the success of this matrix of interactions that differentiates these effective classrooms from traditional inner city science classrooms is presented. Implications for science teacher educators are also presented.