# Presentation: 212085

## High School Reform: Learning From Rigorous Evaluations

- Prepared for the U.S. Department of Education
- High School Initiative
- Regional High School Summit
- Boston, Massachusetts – May 21-22, 2004
- Contact: Corinne Herlihy at corinne.herlihy@mdrc.org

- Archived Information

## How Evaluations Can Help You

- They can clarify the problem and help you focus on key points to intervene.
- They can identify promising approaches to address the problems you face.
- They can help you figure out whether what you’re doing is making a difference.
- In this presentation,
- Zero in on a key point for intervention- 9th grade
- Discuss some program design principles emerging from existing studies

## Transitions From 9th Grade to 12th Grade

**Dropped**

**Out**

**20**

**Promoted**

**On Time**

**56**

**Retained**

**in Grade**

**24**

**Promoted**

**On Time**

**36**

**9th Grade Entrants**

**10th Grade Year  Status**

**Summary After Three Years**

**Transitions**** ****From**** 9th Grade to 12th Grade**

**In Four Large ****Urban**** ****School**** Districts**

**9th-Grade Students in Comprehensive High ****Schools****, 1999**

**Dropped**

**Out**

**20**

**Three Years Later**

**Retained**

**in Grade**

**19**

**Dropped**

**Out**

**45**

**Retained in Grade  7**

**Promoted on Time**

**36**

**Dropped Out 13**

**Retained in Grade**

**12**

**Dropped Out**

**12**

**All 9th Grade**

**Students**

**100**

## Ninth Grade: A Critical Transition Point

- Therefore:
- High school reforms should address the problems of ninth-graders.
- Successful completion of ninth grade is an early marker of a reform’s success.

## Evaluation Insights on What to Do

- Some kinds of evaluations offer more convincing findings about program *effectiveness* than others
- Highlight the current discussion on standards of evidence
- Examples of “gold standard” studies and their lessons
- Insights on design principles from other research

## The “Gold Standard”:Experimental Studies Using Random Assignment

- Provide the most solid evidence about whether an intervention *caused* the outcomes observed
- Are feasible when there are more students/schools that need or want the intervention than can be served
- Require close coordination between evaluators and district/school administrators

## The Career Academies Concept

- Schools within schools -- small groups of students and teachers who remain together
- Organized around a career-related theme, with students taking both academic and career-oriented classes
- Employer partnerships

## The Career Academies Evaluation

- Involved 9 schools
- 1,764 students randomly assigned to program and control groups
- Follow-up for eight years

## Career Academies’ Effects on Students In-School Experiences

- Those in the program group
- Reported more support from teachers
- Participated in more vocational classes but didn’t reduce their academic course load
- Got more work experience

## Career Academies’ Effects on Educational and Labor Market Outcomes

- Higher post-high school earnings for young men, especially those at high risk of dropping out
- No impacts on high school graduation
- No effects on college enrollment
- BUT rates for controls were already high.

## Other Random Assignment Studies: Upward Bound and Career Beginnings

- Reduced dropout rates/increased college enrollment among low-income students
- Offered program enrollees academic counseling, tutoring in high school subjects, enrichment activities

## “Silver-Standard Studies”

- Expeditionary Learning, High Schools That Work, Talent Development High School
- Rigorous curriculum requirements
- Professional development to strengthen instruction
- Expeditionary Learning: project-based
- HSTW: college prep + vocational courses, workplace learning
- TD: “Success Academy” for 9th Graders, Career Academies for grades 10-12

## Small Schools

- Important for enabling, facilitating other changes: more personalization, more challenging instruction, more accountability, a safer environment

## What’s Important – A Summary

- Strong student-teacher ties
- Special attention to the needs of ninth-graders
- Demanding curricula and high teacher expectations
- Tutoring and other opportunities for students who are behind to catch up
- Individual counseling around academic as well as personal matters
- High-quality work-based learning
- Professional development to support teachers’ efforts to deliver rigorous, engaging instruction
- EVALUATE what you are doing