Developing Indicators of Equity for NYC Schools

In 2019, the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) published recommendations for monitoring equity in American schools. The NAS report outlined 16 indicators that could be used to track differences in students’ educational opportunities and outcomes—and “differences in the conditions and structures in the education system” that shape students’ odds of success. The report argued that “a carefully chosen set of equity indicators can highlight disparities, provide a way to explore potential causes, and point toward possible improvements. Enacting change can be challenging, but it is nearly impossible if there is no information about existing problems.” 

Efforts to understand, measure and advance equity in education are central to the Research Alliance’s mission. This work grapples with the very real legacy of racial and socioeconomic segregation and unequal opportunities in schools that date back to the country’s founding. Measuring equity provides information we can use to ensure that all students have access to a high-quality education that nurtures their growth and development and prepares them to be successful, engaged citizens.

Through the Research Alliance’s longstanding partnership with NYC Public Schools, and with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, we have been working to develop a comprehensive set of equity indicators for NYC’s education system, building on the 2019 NAS recommendations. We are pleased to share two new sets of analyses focused on equity at the high school level.

How Do High School Outcomes Vary by Race/Ethnicity and Neighborhood Income?

This post presents an analysis of equity in NYC students’ high school outcomes. Arguably, on-time high school graduation and preparation for the transition to postsecondary education and careers are the most important outcomes of public education—both because they predict success later in life and because they signal something about students’ cumulative experiences in school. The analysis examines attendance, on-track rates, graduation rates, and college enrollment for NYC’s class of 2023, focusing on differences by race/ethnicity and neighborhood income. Read more and explore our interactive “equity in high school outcomes” graphics. 

How Do High School Opportunities Vary by Race/Ethnicity and Neighborhood Income?

This post begins by describing our framework for measuring equity in educational opportunity. While information about student outcomes is often publicly reported, this is not the case for many of the opportunity indicators proposed by NAS. Over the course of the last year, the Research Alliance team has had extensive conversations with school, community, and district leaders, and with students, parents, and educators, which have underscored both the importance and the complexity of measuring educational opportunities. Informed by these conversations, as well as the NAS recommendations, we developed a framework for assessing equity in opportunity in NYC schools.

The post focuses on three school-level measures of opportunity, related to academic rigor, school discipline, and school climate. In each case, we explore differences across schools, to understand how the experiences and resources available to students vary based on the characteristics of the schools they attend. The analysis highlights substantial disparities associated with race/ethnicity and neighborhood income. Future work will explore the experiences of English learners and students with disabilities. Read more and explore our interactive “equity in high school opportunity” graphics.