Examining Incoming Credit Differences Between First-Year and Transfer Students

In this study, the difference in the number of initial credits between incoming transfer and first-year students entering a land grant university in a professional education program was examined (N = 488). A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that transfer students transferred significantly more total credits and more credits that counted toward degree programs than did first-year students. Undergraduates who had graduated from small high schools transferred more credits and more credits that counted than did those from large high schools. However, first-year students transferred a significantly higher percentage of total credits that counted toward the degree programs than did transfer students. Implications for advisors, institutions, and policy makers are discussed.

Exploring the Effects of Creating Small High Schools on Daily Attendance: A Statistical Case Study

Does creating small high schools have a beneficial impact on daily attendance? This question was addressed using time series analysis to examine the case of one urban transfer high school that serves students who previously dropped out of school. This analytical approach is uniquely suitable to examine the dynamical processes characterizing stability and transformation in the system. This school reduced its size from enrolling approximately 900 students up to and through the 2009-2010 school year to about 250 students afterward. We looked at whether attendance was higher after the intervention and whether it was more stable. It turns out that the attendance trajectories over a seven-year period show high volatility prior to the reduction in school size but are more stable afterward. The initial increase in daily attendance at the onset of the intervention is not maintained, but increases are observed later. The study illustrates the relevance of time series analysis for educational policy research as well as the use of complexity theory to fully appreciate the nature of the post intervention changes.

Estimating Perturbation and Meta-Stability in the Daily Attendance Rates of Six Small High Schools

This paper discusses the daily attendance rates in six small high schools over a ten-year period and evaluates how stable those rates are. “Stability” is approached from two vantage points: pulse models are fitted to estimate the impact of sudden perturbations and their reverberation through the series, and Autoregressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average (ARFIMA) techniques are used to detect dependencies over the long range of the series. The analyses are meant to (1) exemplify the utility of time series approaches in educational research, which lacks a time series tradition, (2) discuss some time series features that seem to be particular to daily attendance rate trajectories such as the distinct downward pull coming from extreme observations, and (3) present an analytical approach to handle the important yet distinct patterns of variability that can be found in these data. The analysis also illustrates why the assumption of stability that underlies the habitual reporting of weekly, monthly and yearly averages in the educational literature is questionable, as it reveals dynamical processes (perturbation, meta-stability) that remain hidden in such summaries.

A Study of School Size among Alabama’s Public High Schools

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the size of Alabama’s public high schools, selected school quality and financial indicators, and their students’ performance on standardized exams. When the socioeconomic level of the student bodies is held constant, the size of high schools in Alabama has relatively little relationship with 11th grade student (both regular and special education) performance on the reading and math portions of the AHSGE. High schools’ average daily attendance rates and pupil-to-computer (and computer with Internet connections) ratios do not vary in accordance with school size. Higher percentages of highly qualified teachers are found in Alabama’s largest high schools. There was very little difference in the percentage of teachers with a master’s degree or above across school size categories. Very little difference exists across size categories in regard to mean expenditures per pupil (range = $7,322 to $7,829). However, districts of the large high schools exert over twice the effort of those with small high schools (3.2 mills to 1.5 mills) and approximately 50 percent greater local effort than the districts of the medium-size high schools.

A Four-Step Process to Reposition Small Schools as Sites Within Teaching and Learning Networks

The international problem facing small high schools in rural communities of providing access to educational and vocational opportunities that approximate those available to urban students has been addressed by repositioning these institutions as sites within teaching and learning networks in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Four inter-connected dimensions of change are outlined (technological, pedagogical, organizational, and conceptual) whereby small rural schools in this Canadian province were repositioned as sites in teaching and learning networks thereby enhancing educational and vocational opportunities for senior students. There are implications in these changes for the professional education of high school teachers who are increasingly likely to be required to teach in networked classes as well as in traditional classrooms.

A Critical Look at Choice Options as Solutions to Milwaukee's Schooling Inequities

Background/Context The lack of court-ordered support for race-based policies that maintain and create integrated schools has forced communities of color to seek other avenues to obtain equitable education, such as school choice. Individual states and the federal government, as seen in grant provisions through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, are encouraging the expansion of choice at the very time that options for increasing student diversity, particularly racial diversity, are being narrowed by the courts. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The article uses critical race theory to examine the outcomes of specific school reforms, based on market theory models of school choice, that were designed to alleviate schooling inequities in urban districts. Setting The context of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, serves as a microcosm of urban districts that have embraced school choice to create more equitable schooling options. Milwaukee, like most metropolitan areas, has a history of court-ordered desegregation that served as a temporary solution to racially segregated schools. Given the federal and district court turn from supporting race-based desegregation policies in schools, Milwaukee and other metropolitan districts are looking for new models to serve students of color in their districts and cities. Research Design This article is a conceptual paper that incorporates data from a variety of sources to support the authors’ conclusions. Data Collection and Analysis Data for this project were taken from the U.S. Census Bureau, documents from newly created small high schools, such as Web sites and curriculum designs; current newspaper articles discussing issues of small high schools; archival newspaper articles documenting the creation of the 1990 choice and charter programs; professional experiences as a member of the Bill and Melinda Gates institutional selection and small-school team support system; and an empirical study that documents teachers’ attempts to provide curriculum and instruction in newly created small schools. Conclusions/Recommendations In combination, these data sources tell the story of market theory reforms that will continue to struggle to meet reformists’ goals to serve all Milwaukee populations so long as policy makers and the courts continue to deny the irrefutable power that race and class exercise in parental choice in U.S. urban schools.

Can school structures improve teacher-student relationships? The relationship between advisory programs, personalization and students’ academic achievement

In this paper, we present findings from a three-year study of students' perceptions of personalization and, specifically, advisory as a reform strategy and its relationship to students' academic progress at 14 recently converted small high schools in a large, urban school district in California. This study examined the degree to which students' sense of personalization (connections to the school and to adults at the school) interacted with students' academic achievement, as measured by standardized test scores and weighted grade-point averages. In particular, we examined the relationship between students' perceptions of formal structures to enhance personalization -- such as advisory periods -- and students' academic achievement.