This condition report focuses on how principal turnover at new high schools affects school culture and student performance and how principals manage the transition to new leadership to minimize this impact. Using both quantitative and qualitative data on high schools in New York City, we examine...

Urban Advantage (UA) is a comprehensive program, designed to improve scientific learning and investigation in middle schools in New York City. It provides professional development to teachers, school administrators, and parent coordinators along with resources to schools, students, and families....

With the financial support of several large foundations and the federal government, creating small schools has become a prominent high school reform strategy in many large American cities. While some research supports this strategy, little research assesses the relative costs of these smaller...

We evaluate the effectiveness of small high school reform in the country’s largest school district, New York City. Using a rich administrative data-set for multiple cohorts of students and distance between student residence and school to instrument for endogenous school selection, we find...

In this paper, we review policy levers that could potentially help close the achievement gap between African-American and white high school students, and draw on the literature to glean recommendations for superintendents, principals and education policy makers. We address, in turn: Policies to...

New York suffers from a persistent shortage of principals. The Leadership Academy - an independent, not-for-profit organization - represents the centerpiece of New York City’s attempts to expand its principal labor pool while at the same time increasing the autonomy and day-to-day...

This study examines the role of school sub-city districts in determining the performance/efficiency of their member schools. The study identifies low and high performing schools and sub-city districts using a three- year panel of data on New York City elementary and middle schools. The results...

There is increasing concern about risky behaviors and poor mental health among school-aged youth. A critical factor in youth well-being is school attendance. This study evaluates how school organization and structure affect health outcomes by examining the impacts of a popular urban high school...

Although rearranging school organizational features is a perennially popular method of school reform, no consensus exists regarding the best organizational structure for educating students. Instead, there is wide variation in school organization across the United States and even within school...

Students with disabilities (SWDs) educated in traditional public schools alongside general education students (GENs) typically move to middle school in sixth grade, rather than continuing in a K-8/12. The documented negative effects of this move on GEN academic outcomes suggests similar...