Use small school creation as a lever for raising attendance and graduation among at-risk students¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The report's findings support small school reform as a strategy for improving attendance and graduation among at-risk high school students, even though test scores did not improve. The authors state that CHSRI schools "have gotten at least part of the equation: their students persist in school and they graduate," and urge that "This foundation should be recognized and built upon—and not forgotten—as schools continue to find ways to accelerate academic achievement for their students."

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Schools must be genuinely small and autonomous units with their own administration and budget, as CHSRI schools were, not schools-within-schools

Constraints¶

• Small school reform alone did not raise test scores; the report links this to the absence of instructional change and notes the Gates Foundation shifted emphasis to curriculum and instruction

Target Learners¶

• Low-performing high school students in under-served urban neighborhoods

Target Learning Goals¶

• School attendance and persistence
• Four-year graduation

Affordances¶

• Chsri Small Schools Theory Of Action

Related Strategies¶

• Small school reformers should intentionally build professional community, principal leadership, and teacher influence rather than relying on size reduction

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Susan Sporte, Marisa de la Torre. (2010). Chicago High School Redesign Initiative: Schools, Students, and Outcomes. Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago, Urban Education Institute. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/chicago-high-school-redesign-initiative-schools-students-and-outcomes