Study: NYC's Small High Schools Boost College Enrollment Rates

Findings from a long-term study suggest two new positive effects of the small schools movement that inspired the breakup of New York City's large, mostly failing, high schools over the last two decades. The supportive settings of these particular small schools, which also benefit from outside funding, may not only boost a student's chances of enrolling in college but they may also cost less per child. 

According to the research group MDRC, the percentage of students who graduated from high school in four years and enrolled the next year in a post-secondary institution rose by 8.4 percentage points to 49 percent. In particular, the schools boosted enrollment for black males by 11.3 percentage points, a 36 percent increase relative to their control group counterparts.

The small high schools included in the multi-year study also cost less per graduate when compared to the high schools attended by students who had applied to these schools but were randomly assigned elsewhere. Costs were roughly 14 percent to 16 percent lower largely because students graduated in four years rather than staying for a fifth year of high school.

“What is truly remarkable about these results is that a high school reform has had a measurable effect on college-going and it has done so at scale — across scores of public high schools,” said Gordon Berlin, president of MDRC.

Researchers have been monitoring the small high schools since 2002 when the Department of Education rolled out a district-wide high school lottery system for admission. At the same time, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg started opening academically non-selective high schools that enrolled about 100 students per grade.Some of the key characteristics the schools share: academic rigor, personalized relationships with teachers and real-world relevance to the classroom lessons.

MDRC’s study compares over time the academic outcomes of students who won their first lottery and enrolled in the small schools with those who sought admission, lost a lottery, and enrolled in other New York City high schools.

They were created through a competitive process that included city education officials as well as the College Board and the Urban Assembly and New Visions for Public Schools. Outside funders include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Open Society Foundations.

For a pointedly different take on the small schools experiment than MDRC, whose study is funded by the Gates Foundation, take a look at Bob Herbert's assessment in Politico.