Small schools gain, but test scores don't show it

August 3, 2006

BY KATE N. GROSSMAN Education Reporter

Students at Chicago's new small high schools show up more and drop out less, but they aren't producing better test scores, according to a University of Chicago study of the city's ambitious effort to break up its large, low-performing schools.

Since 2002, Chicago has created 23 small high schools, with two more starts likely in 2007, paid for with $25 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and local foundations.

'A long way to go': Duncan

The U. of C.'s Consortium on Chicago School Research studied the first 16 -- 12 of which opened within three formerly large schools: South Shore, Orr and Bowen. Nine had students old enough to take junior year standardized tests.

"We still have a long way to go, but this is a fairly dramatic shift," Schools CEO Arne Duncan said. Improved attendance and dropout rates "means they're getting the culture right, and that's hugely important. I'm confident the academic gains will follow."

The researchers surveyed teachers and kids at small schools and at comparable large Chicago schools. They also compared dropout, attendance and test score data.

Freshmen from small schools missed school less, 20 days versus 26 days for comparable large-school freshmen. The dropout rate of 20 percent for juniors at small schools bested the 27 percent rate at larger schools.

"In a big school, you have all these people tearing you down, and principals have other problems," said Michael Durham, a sophomore at the School of Entrepreneurship at South Shore. "At our school, we can come to our principal, counselor, teachers anytime and they'll tell us what to do."

Juniors at small schools felt more challenged and reported more teacher and peer support than juniors at large schools. Their teachers cited more collegial relationships, a greater sense of collective responsibility and a commitment to innovation.

But those changes did not produce instructional reform and better tests scores, said Susan Sporte, a study author.

More special ed students

The reasons are many, principals and teachers at small schools say. They work with struggling students -- on average, they are two years below level in reading, and nearly 26 percent are special education students, compared with 17 percent at all other high schools.

Principals and teachers also were distracted by the struggles of starting a new school and working within a public school bureaucracy that did not know how to support small schools, they say.

But since 2004, the climate for small schools has changed. Chicago is no longer converting large high schools into smaller units -- a task with more bureaucratic hurdles and challenges than many imagined. Instead Chicago, with Gates Foundation support, is opening small schools from scratch or phasing out large schools before reopening them as small schools.

The focus is also turning to improving instruction. A year ago, CPS gave the small schools a team of experts to help mold instruction, as did a group set up by the foundations to help these schools.

The small schools also will benefit from a $21 million Gates-funded initiative to create new math, science and English curricula for most Chicago high schools.

kgrossman@suntimes.com