History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
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Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Small schools, big difference
- 09-29-2010
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Commentary by Michele Cahill & Robert L. Hughes/Education Week Michele Cahill is the vice president for national programs and director of urban education at the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Robert L. Hughes is the president of New Visions, which has created 96 public schools in New York City over the past decade.
A recent study by the policy-research group MDRC brings encouraging news for those seeking to produce rapid progress at scale in high school reform. In June, the group published an analysis of New York City's small-high-schools initiative, which has been led by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel I. Klein. The initiative closed long-failing large high schools, typically graduating only one in three students, and replaced them with hundreds of new academically themed small high schools educating no more than 450 students. MDRC found that students in these new small schools, which have no achievement screens, performed better and had higher graduation rates than did their peers in other schools across New York City. Small schools boosted the performance for all students, particularly students of color and underprepared students, immediately and consistently. (more…)
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