How well do education reforms work? For the past decade, IESP has evaluated important interventions in schools and districts, including Performance-Driven Budgeting (for the NYC Department of Education) and the Annenberg-funded New York Networks for School Renewal.

Small Schools Effectiveness and Stability in Teachers and Students

Robin Jacobowitz and Meryle G. Weinstein

A two-year mixed methods study to explore the process and outcomes of small high school development in New York City across the past decades. We examine how school-level student and teacher populations change over time in small New York City public high schools, the organizational and instructional practices that contribute to positive small school learning environments and how changes in these populations over time may influence school practices. Funded by New Visions for Public Schools, the project produced two reports in 2006: one focusing on how student and teacher populations at the NYC small high schools change from year to year as they develop during the first ten years of their existence; the second examines student and teacher demographic characteristics over time, student outcomes over time, and organizational and instructional practices that contribute to positive learning environments in small schools. We anticipate that our findings will have important implications for how new small high schools are established and supported, as more and more small high schools are created throughout New York City.

Cornerstone Literacy Initiative

Principal Investigator: Amy Ellen Schwartz
co-Project Directors: Hella Bel Hadj Amor and Christine Donis-Keller

A comprehensive mixed methods evaluation of the Cornerstone Initiative which seeks to reform schools through effective early grade literacy instruction coupled with professional coaching and leadership development. The evaluation examines the effects of Cornerstone on student achievement in literacy, and identifies best literacy practices and challenges to effective implementation. Eighteen schools in seven districts, located in the Northeast and the South, participate in the initiative. The evaluation is funded by the New York Institute for Special Education.