Schwartz paper on whether small high school reform lifts urban districts published in Edu Researcher

Feb 1, 2012

Does Small High School Reform Lift Urban Districts? Evidence from NYC

Leanna Stiefel, Matthew Wiswall, Amy Ellen Schwartz & Elizabeth Debraggio

Educational Researcher, February 2012

Amy Ellen Schwartz

Economics Department

Public Administration & International Affairs Department

Center for Policy Research

Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs

Education

Educational Researcher

Amy Ellen Schwartz

The authors evaluate the effectiveness of small school reform as systemic reform in the nation’s largest school district, New York City. Using rich administrative data for four cohorts of students, the authors examine the extent to which graduation and testing outcomes improved for all students, not only those in small schools. Their findings show that high school outcomes improved overall, that these improvements were not driven solely by the positive effects observed in small schools, and that the results are robust to student characteristics and selection. Importantly, this paper provides insight into how the introduction of new small schools improves outcomes district-wide.