Who Attends New York City’s

New Small Schools?

Jennifer L. Jennings
New York University and Harvard
University

Aaron M. Pallas
Teachers College, Columbia University
 “Keep It Going New York City”
 The Evander Childs Turnaround
 “The building may be the same, but the
school is very different.”
 Were the students the same?
 Our Questions
 Are the students who attend new small schools
similar to students attending other New York City
high schools?

 Are the students attending small schools sited in

large high school buildings similar to the students
who attended the schools they replaced?

 Does the composition of students attending new

small high schools change over time? Do small
high schools founded earlier differ from those
founded later?
 Large Comprehensive High
Schools Closing or Downsizing
 2001-2002  Park West (M)
 John Jay (K)  Seward Park (M)
 Martin Luther King (M)
 2003-2004
 Morris (X)
 Harry Van Arsdale (K)
 South Bronx (X)
 Thomas Jefferson (K)
 2002-2003  Springfield Gardens (Q)
 Bushwick (K)
 2004-2005
 George Wingate (K)
 Evander Childs (X)
 Prospect Heights (K)
 Walton (X)
 Theodore Roosevelt (X)
 William Howard Taft (X)
 Large Comprehensive High
Schools Closing or Downsizing
 2005-2006  2007-2008
 Adlai Stevenson (X)  Canarsie (K)
 Far Rockaway (Q)
 2006-2007
 Lafayette (K)  2008-2009
 South Shore (K)  Bayard Rustin (M)
 Samuel J. Tilden (K) 
Louis Brandeis (M)∗
 Franklin K. Lane (K)

 ∗No new small schools had

opened at Brandeis campus by
Fall, 2008
 High School Admissions in NYC
 Students choose schools
 Rank-ordering up to 12 choices from the more than 400
high schools in NYC
 And schools choose students
 Competing in a market with other schools for students
who will enable the school to meet accountability targets
and be successful
 Mostly unscreened: Admission contingent on a school’s
assessment that a student is making an “informed choice”
to attend the school
 Computer algorithm offers a student admission to a
single school
 Characteristics of Entering 9th
Graders
 % proficient in  % free lunch eligible
reading
 % Limited English
 % proficient in math Proficient (LEP)
 8th grade attendance  % sum of full-time +
part-time special
 % overage for grade education
 % male
 First Set of Questions
 Overall, do new small schools enroll 9th-graders
with different characteristics than the 9th-graders
attending existing schools?

 Is there a difference between new small schools

founded early and those founded later?

 Are the differences between new small schools

and existing schools growing, shrinking, or
staying the same over time?
 First Set of Answers
 Overall, do new small schools enroll 9th-graders
with different characteristics than the 9th-graders
attending existing schools? Yes, but only for
some characteristics

 Is there a difference between new small schools

founded early and those founded later? Yes, for a
few characteristics

 Are the differences between new small schools

and existing schools growing, shrinking, or staying
the same over time? No clear pattern over time
 Second Set of Questions
 Overall, do new small schools on large
campuses enroll 9th-grade students similar to the
students who attended the large comprehensive
high schools they replaced?

 Is there a difference between new small schools

founded early and those founded later?

 Are the differences between new small schools

and the large comprehensive schools they
replaced growing, shrinking, or staying the same
over time?
Fewer in
Small
Schools
 Second Set of Answers
 Overall, do new small schools on large campuses
enroll 9th-grade students similar to the students who
attended the large comprehensive high schools they
replaced? No, not at all. They are much better off
academically.

 Is there a difference between new small schools

founded early and those founded later? No.
 Are the differences between new small schools and
the large comprehensive schools they replaced
growing, shrinking, or staying the same over time? In
most cases they are holding steady or shrinking
slightly.
 A Big Unanswered Question
 What is the effect of closing a large
comprehensive high school on other high
schools?
 A concrete example: The effects of
closings on Walton and JFK HS in the
Bronx
2001-2002
2002-2003
2004-2005
2005-2006
 Some Questions to Think About
 Last year, 76% of NYC eighth-graders got into one of
their top three high school choices. If students are
making an informed choice, should we worry about the
distribution of students across schools?

 The closed large high schools previously housed high

concentrations of low-performing students. Has the
closing of these schools aided in the deconcentration
of educational disadvantage, or simply reconcentrated
disadvantage in other large high schools?
 And More
 Over time, some schools have lost ground, and
others gained ground. Is this just students and
their families "voting with their feet" in an open
market? What's wrong with that?

 What, if anything, is lost in closing large

comprehensive high schools and replacing them
with new, smaller schools? If there are losses,
what might the DOE do to address them?