Economics and Public Policy Research Seminar

Howard Bloom

Monday, October 22nd, 12-1PM, 

Public Policy 367

The present paper uses the unusually successful experience of 68 new small non-selective high schools in New York City (which we refer as small schools of choice or SSCs) to address two related questions: (1) what high-school features promote graduation for disadvantaged students? and (2) what high-school features helped to produce SSCs’ large positive effects on graduation?  Our findings suggest that high-quality school leadership, teacher empowerment, teacher mutual support, teacher evaluation and feedback, teacher professional development, data-driven instruction, academic rigor and a personalized learning environment are promising levers for increasing graduation rates for disadvantaged students. Our findings also suggest that high-quality school leadership, teacher empowerment, academic rigor and a personalized learning environment helped to produce SSCs’ positive graduation effects, although these school features explain less than two fifths of those effects. In addition, our findings also indicate striking differences between SSCs and their counterfactual counterparts with respect to school features emphasized by SSC funders and founders.

Thank you to the Office of the Dean of CAHSS, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and the Center for Social Science Scholarship for their support of the seminar series.

Be on the lookout for these upcoming talks in the Economics and Public Policy Research Seminar:

Exposure to International Trade and Mortality

Alexander F. McQuoid, U.S. Naval Academy

November 1^st, 12-1PM, Public Policy 451

HIV Treatment as Economic Stimulus: Community Spillover Effects of Mass ART Provision in Rural South Africa 
Zoe McLaren, UMBC School of Public Policy

November 5^th, 12-1PM, Public Policy 451

Using the National Intimate and Sexual Violence Survey to Explore Intimate Partner Violence Experienced by Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Individuals 
Lynn Addington, American University
November 29^th, 12-1PM, Public Policy 451