Research and Policy Studies

Our research and policy studies:

  • Identify educational policies and practices that redress resource inequities and improve outcomes for students whom public schools have traditionally underserved.
  • Investigate organizing and engagement strategies and their contributions to effective schools and improved student outcomes.
  • Explore how organizing and engagement efforts to improve urban public schools build democratic participation and social capital.

We engage school and community constituencies in defining critical policy and research issues and analyzing research findings. Our research integrates qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and draws upon national and local databases to address issues central to educational improvement. We disseminate our work to a range of audiences, including schools, community-based organizations, educational policy makers, foundations, and the scholarly community.

Our work focuses on three critical questions:

  • Which educational policies and practices promote greater educational opportunity and improved educational outcomes for low-income urban students of color?
  • How is capacity for successful student learning developed within schools, districts, and communities, and which strategies and processes are critical to this development?
  • How does the engagement and organizing of youth, parents, and community members increase community social capital, and which developmental processes and organizational practices are critical to this development?

Below we list current and recent studies, with links to data presentations where available. For published papers and reports on these studies, please visit our publications page.

Current Studies:

Educational Policies & Practices:

  • College Pathways

    Systemic Reform of College Preparation in New York City
    Carol Ascher, principal investigator
    Cindy Maguire

    This qualitative study examines the practices of thirteen schools that have developed effective pathways to college, particularly for low-income students of color in New York City. Funded by Time-Warner, Inc.

    Pathways to College: Schools that Beat the Odds
    Carol Ascher, principal investigator
    Cindy Maguire

    This quantitative analysis follows a study of New York City high schools by New York University’s Institute for Education and Social Policy that identified high schools that produced higher than predicted graduation and college-going rates for entering ninth graders who entered with far below-average eighth grade reading and math scores.

    Related Materials: paper

  • Resource Distribution

    Geographic Distribution of Educational Success and Failure in New York City
    Deinya Phenix, principal investigator

    This quantitative analysis examines intra-district disparity between schools and the relationship between school performance and geographic location in New York City.

    Related Materials paper presentation

  • School Governance and Accountability

    Outcomes of Mayoral Control of Schooling in New York City
    Norm Fruchter, principal investigator
    Sara McAlister

  • School Safety and Discipline

    Impacts of New York City's School-Based Crime Prevention and Discipline Strategies
    Deinya Phenix, principal investigator
    Norm Fruchter

    This analysis examines the results of New York City's Impact School Safety initiative, an extensive collaboration between the Department of Education, New York City Police Department, and the juvenile court system.

Community organizing & engagement

  • Community Engagement in Providence
    Carol Ascher, principal investigator
    Richard Gray & Lamson Lam

    This case history documents the work of the Providence Educational Excellence Coalition (PEEC) and its involvement in the redesign of Hope High School. Funded by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

  • Organizing Impact Study
    Kavitha Mediratta & Seema Shah, principal investigators
    Sara McAlister, Christina Mokhtar, Norm Fruchter, Barbara Gross,
    Cate Swinburn, Anna Reeve, Angelica Crane & Nadine Dechausay

    Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, this six-year study examines the school reform campaigns of eight community and youth organizing groups to assess the impact of their work on school capacity and student achievement. Funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

Past Studies:

Educational policies & practices

  • Charter Schools

    Compensation and Community in Charter Schools and Traditional Public Schools
    Carol Ascher, principal investigator
    Deinya Phenix & Michael Luekens

    Using the US Department of Education´s Schools and Staffing Survey, this analysis examines how traditional public school and charter school teachers view compensation and community factors in their schools.

    Related Materials: paper

    Documenting the History of the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence
    Carol Ascher, principal investigator

  • Educating Homeless Students in New York City

    Strategies to Improve Data Collection on New York's Homeless Students
    Carol Ascher, principal investigator
    Christina Mokhtar & Carolyn Jarvis

    This study aims to strengthen New York State's data-collection system on homeless students in order to provide a more accurate understanding of the extent and range of student homelessness across New York. Funded by the New York State Department of Education.

    Related Materials: paper

    Homeless Student Services in New York State
    Carol Ascher, principal investigator
    Deinya Phenix & Dorothy Siegel

    As part of Advocates for Children's Technical Assistance Center on serving homeless children throughout New York State, we designed and conducted surveys of homeless liaisons and other school staff involved in serving homeless students. Funded by Advocates for Children.

    Related Materials: paper presentation

  • Resource Distribution

    Supplemental Educational Services (SES)/After School Programs
    Carol Ascher, principal investigator

    This pilot case study investigates the implementation of Supplemental Educational Services (SES) in one New York City public school to understand implementation issues and identify available data that could be used to evaluate the success of SES programs in improving student achievement.