Video: Dr. James Kemple Presents The Condition of NYC High Schools
On March 27, at an event sponsored and hosted by CUNY’s Institute for Education Policy at the Roosevelt House, Dr. James Kemple presented the The Condition of NYC High Schools: Examining Trends and Looking Toward the Future, the Research Alliance's new, independent analysis of how the high school landscape changed in New York City between 1999 and 2011 and, importantly, the extent to which key student outcomes improved during that time.
Following the presentation, Dr. Kemple participated in a panel discussion with Jeffrey Henig, Chair of the Department of Education Policy & Social Analysis at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Shael Polakow-Suransky, Chief Academic Officer & Senior Deputy Chancellor for Performance and Accountability, NYC Department of Education. The panel was moderated by David M. Steiner, Founding Director of the CUNY Institute for Education Policy at Roosevelt House and the Klara & Larry Silverstein Dean, Hunter College School of Education.
Watch the presentation and discussion here.
Posted 4/30/13
ESI and High School Choice Presentations at the AERA Annual Meeting
New work from the Research Alliance will be presented at the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting from April 27-May 1 surrounding the theme “Education and Poverty: Theory, Research, Policy and Praxis.”
Adriana Villavicencio and Sarah Klevan have organized a symposium on “Educational Achievement and Attainment for Black and Latino Males: Strategies and Supports for Success,” which brings together researchers studying different aspects of improving opportunities and outcomes for Black and Latino males. The symposium will feature the Research Alliance’s ongoing evaluation of NYC’s Expanded Success Initiative. ESI funds programming designed to increase graduation and college enrollment in 40 schools with a high population of black and Latino males. The current presentation provides a snapshot of how participating schools were already supporting these young men toward graduation, and how ESI has helped them expand existing programs or create new programs for young men of color. The symposium will be held on May 1 from 12:55-1:55 in the Hilton Union Square, Ballroom Level - Continental 7.
Sean Corcoran (NYU) will present work completed with the Research Alliance’s Lori Nathanson about the high school choice process in New York City. This research asks whether students who are admitted to one of their most preferred schools ultimately become more engaged students.
Posted 4/23/13
Video: Dr. James Kemple Talks About Career Academies
On February 13, Dr. Kemple delivered a presentation on “Career Academies: An Evidence-Based Approach to Preparing Youth for Adult Success” at the Wisconsin Family Impact Seminar, a program that allows state policymakers and researchers to share knowledge. Career Academy programs combine work-based learning opportunities with small, personalized learning environments in high schools and a career-themed academic and technical curriculum. While at MDRC, Dr. Kemple headed this rigorous study, which found that Career Academies produced sustained positive impacts on post-high school employment opportunities, earnings, and family formation. Based on these findings, the Career Academy model is seen as a model for offering high school students a clear pathway to successful careers while creating opportunities for higher education.
Watch Dr. Kemple's presentation here.
Download the brief and powerpoint presentation here.
For more information on the Career Academies evaluation, visit the MDRC website.
Posted 4/1/13
High School Choice Process Findings Presented at Annual AEFP Conference
Two papers based on the Research Alliance’s ongoing examination of the high school choice process in New York City were presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Education Finance and Policy in New Orleans (March 14-16).
Christine Baker-Smith presented a paper co-authored with Sean Corcoran (NYU), Pathways to the Elite: Application, Admission, and Matriculation to New York City’s Specialized High Schools. Because of the popularity and high perceived value of attending one of these schools, their admissions practices are highly scrutinized. For example, many have argued that the use of a single entrance exam rewards test preparation and inhibits diversity. This paper examines the entire pipeline from middle school to matriculation, identifying factors associated with application, admission, and enrollment in these schools.
Lori Nathanson presented How Low-Achieving Students Fare in the NYC High School Choice Process, also co-authored with Sean Corcoran. The current analysis provides a descriptive profile of the most-preferred schools and placements of the city’s lowest-achieving students, and describes how these schools compare to those chosen and ultimately attended by their higher-achieving peers.
Posted 3/21/13
Adriana Villavicencio and Nathan Alexander Present Research Alliance Studies to NYC Principals at CCNY
Adriana Villavicencio and Nathan Alexander spoke to a group of NYC principals and education faculty on February 26th as part of the City College of New York’s Education Alumni & School of Education Principals' Breakfast Series. The event provided an opportunity for educators to offer feedback about the implications of various Research Alliance findings. The presentation focused on three Research Alliance projects that are particularly relevant to principals: a study of successful turnaround strategies for NYC Middle Grade Schools; first-year findings from the evaluation of the Expanded Success Initiative; and the ongoing evaluation of the iMentor program.
Posted 3/15/13
Research Alliance Presenters at the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Conference (March 7-9)
Research Alliance team members will present new work at the SREE Conference in Washington, D.C. Lori Nathanson, Research Associate, has organized a symposium entitled “Parts of the Whole: Using Parent, Student, and Teacher Voices to Understand School Climate.” A growing body of research has identified a consistent, positive relationship between school climate and a range of academic, socio-emotional, and behavioral student outcomes. Yet, there is little agreement on how to define measures of school climate. The three papers included in the symposium examine data from the NYC School Survey, each highlighting different facets and interpretations of school climate.
As part of the symposium, Christine Baker-Smith will present Perceptions of Safety: Parent, Teacher & Student Responses to Questions about School Safety in the New York City School Survey, an initial exploration of perceptions of safety within and across NYC schools.
Meghan McCormick will present work completed with Lori Nathanson, Assessing Teacher Survey Validity Across Elementary, Middle, and High Schools: Evidence from New York City. The study examines the results of the 2012 New York City teacher survey and describes the extent to which new survey constructs – principal instructional leadership, teacher-principal trust, accountability, psychological safety, teacher-teacher trust, and school commitment – reliably capture differences between schools. Equally importantly, the study addresses implications for future survey development, measurement, and policy.
In a symposium titled “Pathways to Increasing Postsecondary Attainment,” Vanessa Coca will present Mapping Pathways to College: An In-Depth Examination of College Readiness in New York City, which examines whether certain high school academic characteristics of New York City high school graduates successfully predict college enrollment and persistence. Authored with Michael Segeritz and Dyuti Bhattacharya, this project is a crucial extension of past work that has explored on-track indicators for high school graduation.
Posted 3/5/13
"Building On-Track Indicators for High School Graduation and College Readiness" published in JESPAR
Students’ engagement and performance in their first year of high school offer strong signals about their prospects for earning a diploma four years later. Authored by Executive Director Dr. James Kemple, with Micha Segeritz and Nickisha Stephenson, this article published in the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk undertakes a systematic analysis of several possible early indicators to determine whether they successfully predict the likelihood of graduating with a New York State Regents diploma in New York City. The new analysis shows that earning 10 or more course credits and passing at least one Regents exam in the 9th grade offers a highly reliable prediction of graduation, identifies students who are at risk of dropping out, and is a strong leading indicator of school-wide performance and progress. The paper documents the steady improvement in on-track rates over the past 10 years in New York City, which has foreshadowed subsequent improvements in graduation rates.
Read the paper here >>>.
Posted 3/1/13
New William T. Grant Foundation Paper Highlights the Research Alliance's Partnership with the DOE
This working paper examines research-practice partnerships around the country that aim to improve local school district outcomes. The Research Alliance’s collaboration with the NYC Department of Education is one of four partnerships that are profiled. Read the paper here >>>.
Posted 2/28/13
Lori Nathanson Presents School Choice Findings at CIEP
Lori Nathanson, Research Associate, presented initial findings on school choice at the CUNY Institute for Education Policy (CIEP) at Roosevelt House. Read article here >>>.
Posted 11/29/2012
Research Alliance Releases New Study of ARIS Data System
States and school districts across the country have invested millions of dollars in data systems designed to put student information within easy reach of school administrators and teachers, but to date little has been known about how these systems are actually being used. Today the Research Alliance released the results of a new study of New York City’s Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS), which was launched in 2008 in an effort to make schools more data-driven and accountable for results. While ARIS has been the subject of intense debate, this study represents the first independent examination of actual ARIS usage.
Posted 10/22/12
WSJ Article Cites Research Alliance's ARIS Study
Wall Street Journal Article: Report Tracks Student-Data System Usage by Lisa Fleisher
Posted 10/21/12
New Article by Dr. James Kemple on Schoolbook.org
SchoolBook.org publishes Dr. James Kemple's article, "Math Innovation Requires Patience", about the Department of Education's School of One program.
Posted 9/19/12
"Beating the Odds: Lessons from Turnaround Middle Schools" by Adriana Villavicencio
Adriana Villavicencio, Research Associate at the Research Alliance for New York City Schools has been published on the Education Update Online website. She authored the article, "Beating the Odds: Lesson from Turnaround Middle Schools", highlighting the recent study on Middle School Turnaround conducted at the Research Alliance.
This article presents a study focused on two sets of initially low-performing NYC middle schools. The first group ("turnaround schools") exhibited significant growth in academic performance between 2006 and 2010, while the other group saw minimal growth or remained stagnant during the same period. The article presents the conditions and strategies that enabled the turnaround schools to boost student achievement.
Posted 6/13/12
Background Materials for the Research Alliance's Middle School Colloquium
2012 Colloquium: Informing New York City's Middle Grades Initiative : Background Materials
Posted 4/11/12
Announcing the Research Alliance's 2012 Colloquium on Middle Schools
2012 Colloquium on Middle Schools: The Research Alliance for New York City Schools is hosting a colloquium on middle schools on Tuesday, April 3, 2012 from 8:30am to 2:30pm at New York University. The impetus for the colloquium is to help inform Chancellor Walcott's new middle school initiative, which he proposed in his policy address at NYU last fall. The colloquium will convene a diverse group of stakeholders, including researchers, funders, policymakers, practitioners and advocates to identify what we know, and what we need to know, about various aspects of improving middle schools. Panel sessions during the colloquium will focus on some of the key issues in middle grades education, including:
- How do you create an effective learning environment that fosters positive behaviors and academic routines in the middle grades?
- What are the contexts that support effective teaching in the middle grades?
- What does effective leadership in the middle grades look like?
- What are the challenges and opportunities in the middle grades curriculum?
We hope you will join us at NYU's Kimmel Center for this timely and important conversation.
* Middle School Colluqium Agenda.
Posted 2/23/12
Welcome to two new IES PIRT Fellows!
The Research Alliance welcomes two new IES PIRT fellows to our team: Vanessa Coca and Christine Baker-Smith.
Posted 10/25/11
New Grant from the New York Community Trust to Study High School Choice in NYC
The Research Alliance, in collaboration with Professor Sean Corcoran (NYU), recently received a grant from the New York Community Trust to study the high school choice process in New York City. The study, High School Choice in New York City: A Report on the School Choices and Placements of Academically At-Risk Students, examines the high school choices and placements of the city’s most academically challenged students as they leave middle school and transition to high school. The study focuses on students who have not met or partially met state standards in math and English, as well as English language learners and students receiving special education services, who represent a disproportionate share of the lowest-performing students. The project will culminate in a report to be published in 2012 that will seek to reach a broad array of stakeholders, including parents, policymakers, community groups, and the New York City Department of Education. For more information about the New York Community Trust you can visit their website at: www.nycommunitytrust.org. Go here for more on our work on high schools. For more information about this project click here.
Posted 10/25/11
