Executive
Summary
The evaluation of the New Century High Schools (NCHS) initiative examined operations
and student outcomes in 75 schools from 2002-03 through 2005-06. This report, the final in a
series of annual evaluation reports, presents data collected over those years, with a focus on
school year 2005-06.
The NCHS initiative grew out of a program theory
that emphasized small school enrollments, instructional
rigor and focus, youth development and positive
relationships, and the mobilization of supplementary
educational resources. The initiative's central
method for promoting these school features was through
frameworks and supports for disciplined innovation,
which relies on informed problem-solving to address
student needs within broad, agreed-upon boundaries
and which emphasizes continuous data-driven feedback
and tailored assistance.
The evaluation used the percent of students in
the Class of 2006 who graduated on time as its prime
indicator of success. The study's central finding
is that NCHS schools graduated more students on
time than did larger New York City schools with
comparable youngsters, by 18 percentage points (78.2
percent versus 60.6 percent), and more students
than did New York City high schools generally, by
20 percentage points (78.2 percent versus 58.2 percent).
NCHS effects were notable with regard to drop-out prevention and on-time graduation.
About 17 percent of students in comparison-group schools dropped out and about 22 percent
remained enrolled in high school for a fifth year, compared to 3 percent and 19 percent,
respectively, in NCHS schools. Examination of the Class of 2006 graduates in the two groups of
schools indicates that graduates of comparison-group schools were more likely to earn a Regents
diploma or Advanced Regents diploma, however, than were NCHS graduates (67 percent versus
46 percent). When the unit of comparison is students rather than graduates, however, the
difference is less stark, with 41 percent of comparison-group students and 36 percent of NCHS
students earning a Regents or Advanced Regents diploma. NCHS students were slightly more
likely to earn a Regents or Advanced Regents diploma than were New York city students in the
class of 2005 (36 percent, compared to 35 percent).
Compared to New York City high schools generally,
NCHS schools enrolled students from backgrounds
characterized by higher rates of poverty and lower
eighth-grade test scores. While in high school,
however, NCHS students surpassed citywide averages
in school attendance and grade promotion, although
their suspension rates were higher. The average
daily attendance of NCHS students in 2005-06 was
84 percent, compared to 81 percent for New York
City high school students overall (including students
in ungraded special education). Median NCHS student
attendance was 91 percent. NCHS ninth-graders were
promoted to the next grade at a rate of 80 percent,
compared to 72 percent citywide (based on 2004-05
data for the city). NCHS students were suspended
from school at a rate of almost 8 percent, however,
compared to a citywide high school rate of 6.5 percent
in 2006. (NCHS suspension rates may be the result
of the schools' adoption of strict standards and
not necessarily a reflection of relatively poorer
student behavior.)
NCHS classes following the Class of 2006 differ from their 2006 predecessors in lower
rates of high school attendance and credit accrual, higher rates of school suspension, and higher
Regents passing rates. This pattern is consistent with the eighth-grade profile of these
subsequent classes. As eighth-graders, later NCHS entrants had poorer attendance and higher
suspension rates, comparable reading scores, and higher math scores.
Evaluators used both hierarchical multivariate
statistical methods and qualitative approaches to
identify school features associated with student
outcomes. Using the statistical methods available
to the evaluation, the most important school-level
influence on student performance, as measured by
credit accrual, was a construct evaluators labeled
"the quality of instructional systems."
The index defining this construct included measures
of the perceived alignment of instruction with Regents
standards, agreement on educational focus, the effectiveness
of principal leadership, the quality and amount
of professional development, teacher influence,
and professional collaboration on instruction. Evaluators
measured the effects on credit accumulation of higher
scores on the index of instructional systems quality.
The maximum hypothetical effect was found to be
seven credits over a two-year period, although no
NCHS school matched the characteristics of the extreme
conditions at either end of this spectrum. Practically
speaking, a typical student's credit accumulation
was 1.4 credits higher in a school with a better
score on the index (by one standard deviation),
compared to 1.4 credits lower in a school with a
worse score on the index (by one standard deviation).
Case studies in the 2005-06 school year and earlier evaluation findings illuminated the
influence on student outcomes of conditions that were fairly uniform across NCHS schools.
Influential factors included small enrollments, close student-teacher relationships and adult
mentoring of youth, the extension of student learning outside the regular school setting and
school day, and the use of data to track student performance.
Using surveys of teachers, principals, and students to assess educational conditions in
each successive wave of new NCHS schools, evaluators found that perceptions of most measured
conditions remained stable over the four years of the evaluation. The perceived alignment of
instruction with Regents requirements, however, rose over time, according to surveys of
teachers. And perceptions of the quality of student discipline and teacher influence on policy
and curriculum declined, according to teacher survey responses.
Perceptions of school conditions that were both
positive and stable included the following: teachers'
expectations for students, teacher-student relationships,
agreement on the schools' educational focus, the
effectiveness of principal leadership, professional
collaboration, quality of teacher-made tests, and
availability of supplementary learning opportunities
and of instructional materials. Perceptions of school
conditions that were both somewhat negative and
stable included the following: the adequacy of school
facilities, the quality and amount of professional
development, and parental involvement.
Previous Policy Studies Associates reports on New
Century High Schools:
