Major Study Finds Community Organizing Strengthens Schools
A six-year study – recently completed by Annenberg Institute researchers Kavitha Mediratta, Seema Shah, and Sara McAlister – documents the positive impact of local community organizing on school capacity and student learning. Four of seven case studies on education organizing efforts have been released, detailing campaigns in Oakland, Austin, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

The remaining studies – on Miami, Philadelphia, and the Bronx – are scheduled for release by October 1. The cross-study findings from this Mott Foundation-supported work form the basis for Community Organizing for Stronger Schools: Strategies and Successes (Harvard Education Press, October 2009), which analyzes strategies and characteristics of successful community engagement for education reform.

> Study Series
> Forthcoming Book (Harvard Education Press)

Exploring Education Challenges Facing New York City
To help New Yorkers examine key issues that will shape the future of education for the city’s public school students, the Annenberg Institute is hosting a series of six public conversations and research studies.

NEW – Study on College Readiness: A research analysis of NYC’s college readiness efforts, by John Garvey, former associate dean at CUNY, and members of the Institute research staff, is now available. The study outlines what a coherent and comprehensive system must offer and makes recommendations to strengthen success in college admission and completion for all the city’s high school students.
> Full Report [60 pages]
> Executive summary [12 pages]
> Commentary

NEXT – Conversation on the Impact of Small Schools: On Tuesday, September 22, Jennifer Jennings of Harvard University and Aaron Pallas of Teachers College offered perspectives on the impact of the small schools movement on all NYC students and explore who's benefiting and who's not.
> More on the conversation series

Ed Stats Now
The Annenberg Institute’s “Ed Stats Now” statistics highlight the disparity in Advanced Placement course offerings between high and low performing high schools in New York City. Advanced Placement, or AP, courses provide high school students with the opportunity to earn college credit or to simply take a more challenging course. An analysis of the 2006 available data found that low-poverty high schools, on average, offered seven AP courses, while high-poverty schools offered only three AP course

> Ed Stats Now

The Evolving Federal Role
Washington has become a hotbed of education-policy activity, and the federal education budget is at record levels. Yet precisely what the federal role ought to be and how federal funds ought to be used remains a topic of heated debate. The Summer 2009 issue of Voices in Urban Education examines the evolving federal role in education from a variety of perspectives. With this issue, we are posting the full texts of all the articles: this issue's authors are Robert Rothman; Gail L. Sunderman; Linda Darling-Hammond; Susan B. Neuman; Heather B. Weiss, Priscilla M. D. Little, Suzanne M. Bouffard, Sarah N. Deschenes, and Helen Janc Malone; and Warren Simmons.

> VUE #24 articles, resource, author bios

Making Schools Safe without Harsh Discipline
Researchers from the Annenberg Institute, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and Make the Road New York collaborated on a one-year, quantitative and qualitative study of six NYC public schools that have improved safety and discipline with positive rather than punitive school safety and discipline practices. The culminating report – Safety with Dignity: Alternatives to the Over-Policing of Schools, released in July 2009 – examines the methods employed by these schools and the factors that have contributed to their success. It concludes with practical recommendations for replicating these nurturing approaches to discipline and security.

> About the study
> Full Report [56 pages]
> Recommendations Summary [4 pages]
> Commentary