Greetings!
Last month's Policy Update was a recap of the 2010 Legislative Session and the education policy progress that has been made at the State Capitol over the last year. But many innovative policy changes take place outside of the Capitol as well.
This month we are highlighting the work of the Oregon Small School Initiative, a pilot project sponsored by Employers for Education Excellence (E3). In its final year of sponsorship, E3 recently released a report on the progress of the initiative. Read below to learn about the program and its progress.
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The Oregon Small Schools Initiative
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More than 25,000 students
since 2004 have attended schools that are part of the Oregon Small Schools
Initiative, the largest high school reform demonstration project in Oregon's
history. Funded by Meyer Memorial Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, the Initiative aimed to address graduation rates and student
achievement by creating small high schools characterized by:
rigor in classroom instruction,
coursework with a high degree of relevance, and
meaningful relationships.
High schools throughout the
state applied to participate, either as a new start school or as a conversion
from a comprehensive high school to multiple schools on a single campus. The
subsequent opening of 42 small schools was staggered between 2004 and 2008. The
Initiative now has sufficient years' worth of data to indicate promising
results, with marked improvements in graduation rates and student achievement.
ECONorthwest, an
Oregon-based economics firm, has assessed results of the Initiative. In its
March 2010 report, "Statewide overview of
academic achievement and high school completion at Initiative schools 2004-05
through 2008-09," ECONorthwest
concluded that students attending high schools in the Initiative, "generally
perform as well as or better than non-Initiative students for each outcome
analyzed."
In addition, "Initiative
outcomes are relatively stronger for economically disadvantaged (ED)
students-essentially those students who are eligible for the free- and
reduced-price lunch program. Most notably, 10th grade Oregon
Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS) math and reading meet/exceed rates
for ED students at the first wave of Initiative schools have more than doubled
since 2004-05.
In this final year of the
Initiative, partnership schools are actively designing their future for
sustainability, even in an environment of reduced funding for public education.
Documentation about the Initiative, including tools and resources, are being
made available online as open source materials. Ongoing longitudinal analysis
of student achievement data, graduation rates and college-readiness will expand
the collective understanding of how small schools advance learning and prepare
all students for college and career success.
Learn more about the Oregon Small Schools Initiative and ECONorthwest's March
2010 report on results at: http://www.e3smallschools.org
What do you think? Have you had any experience with the Oregon Small Schools Initiative? To what degree do you think school size and focused curriculum influences student learning? Share your perspective on the Mentoring Educators bulletin board.
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Visit
www.chalkboardproject.org
for information on all of our initiatives
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