What We Are Reading: NYC Small Public High Schools, Digital Learning, Quality Counts

Looking for new high school-related resources?  Here are some pieces that other organizations have recently released:*

Sustained Positive Effects on Graduation Rates Produced by New York City’s Small Public High Schools of Choice (MDRC, January 2012) A new MDRC study finds that new, small, New York City public high schools that are open to students of all academic backgrounds have substantial impacts on rates of graduation with Regents diplomas for every disadvantaged subgroup of students that was examined. It also found a positive effect on a measure relating to college readiness and a five-year graduation rate measure.

The Digital Learning Imperative: How Technology and Teaching Meet Today’s Education Challenges (Alliance for Excellent Education, January 2012). Digital learning can connect middle and high school students with better teaching and learning experiences while also addressing three major challenges facing the nation‘s education system—access to good teaching, tight budgets, and boosting student achievement—according to a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Quality Counts 2012: The Global Challenge (Education Week, January 12, 2012). Quality Counts 2012, the 16th edition of Education Week's annual examination of issues and challenges facing America's public schools, takes aim at topics high on the policy agenda, from the White House and Congress down to the level of local school boards and chambers of commerce: the nation's international standing in education, and lessons to be drawn from high-performing countries.

Charter-School Management Organizations: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts (Mathematica Policy Research, January 2012). A new analysis from the National Study of Charter Management Organization (CMO) Effectiveness provides the first systematic evidence available on the effects of CMOs on the critical long-term outcomes of high school graduation and college entry.

*Resource descriptions provided by the sponsoring organization.

Note: This blog post was originally authored under the auspices of the National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The National High School Center’s blog, High School Matters, which ran until March 2013, provided an objective perspective on the latest research, issues, and events that affected high school improvement. The CCRS Center plans to continue relevant work originally developed under the National High School Center grant. National High School Center blog posts that pertain to CCRS Center issues are included on this website as a resource to our stakeholders.