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Beating the Odds
BEATING THE ODDS:
How Thirteen NYC Schools Bring Low-Performing Ninth-Graders to Timely Graduation and College Enrollment
By Carol Ascher and Cindy Maguire
[December 2007]
Description
While urban school districts around the country struggle to raise often abysmally low high school graduation rates, some high schools succeed beyond expectations in bringing students with low academic skills and high needs to graduation in four years, followed by enrollment in college.
This report describes a qualitative study, conducted in 2006 by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, of a small group of New York City high schools that were “beating the odds” by producing higher than predicted graduation and college-going rates for ninth-graders who entered with far below-average eighth-grade reading and math scores.
Institute staff identified four key strategies that helped these students beat the odds: academic rigor, networks of timely supports, college expectations and access, and effective use of data. The report concludes with recommendations for maintaining and scaling up the success of these schools through better distribution of resources, greater school control over enrollment, a stronger system of support and accountability, and a district office of postsecondary education.
Background
The study was inspired by students in the Urban Youth Collaborative, a citywide high school organizing group that works to improve college-going rates in their schools and communities. The thirteen schools were identified from a 2001 study based on NYC Department of Education data showing that they were succeeding with students whose peers often do poorly in high school. The group included two long-established technical-vocational schools, nine small high schools created between 1993 and 1998, and two high schools created in the reconstitution of large, failing high schools.
Funder
Time Warner Foundation
Contact Person
Cindy Maguire
Research Associate, Community Involvement Program
Cindy_Maguire@brown.edu
BEATING THE ODDS:
How Thirteen NYC Schools Bring Low-Performing Ninth-Graders to Timely Graduation and College Enrollment
By Carol Ascher and Cindy Maguire
[December 2007]
Description
While urban school districts around the country struggle to raise often abysmally low high school graduation rates, some high schools succeed beyond expectations in bringing students with low academic skills and high needs to graduation in four years, followed by enrollment in college.
This report describes a qualitative study, conducted in 2006 by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, of a small group of New York City high schools that were “beating the odds” by producing higher than predicted graduation and college-going rates for ninth-graders who entered with far below-average eighth-grade reading and math scores.
Institute staff identified four key strategies that helped these students beat the odds: academic rigor, networks of timely supports, college expectations and access, and effective use of data. The report concludes with recommendations for maintaining and scaling up the success of these schools through better distribution of resources, greater school control over enrollment, a stronger system of support and accountability, and a district office of postsecondary education.
Background
The study was inspired by students in the Urban Youth Collaborative, a citywide high school organizing group that works to improve college-going rates in their schools and communities. The thirteen schools were identified from a 2001 study based on NYC Department of Education data showing that they were succeeding with students whose peers often do poorly in high school. The group included two long-established technical-vocational schools, nine small high schools created between 1993 and 1998, and two high schools created in the reconstitution of large, failing high schools.
Funder
Time Warner Foundation
Contact Person
Cindy Maguire
Research Associate, Community Involvement Program
Cindy_Maguire@brown.edu
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