Mayor Bill de Blasio has been critical of the signature education strategy of his predecessor, Mike Bloomberg, a strategy that involved closing large, failing high schools and replacing them with smaller specialized schools that offer a more rigorous curriculum and a more personal brand of instruction. But over the last few years, the Bloomberg approach has been vindicated by an innovative, multiyear study showing that the poor, minority students who attend small specialized schools do better academically than students in a control group who attend traditional high schools.
The latest installment of the study, released this week by the nonprofit research group MDRC, contains even more impressive news: The disadvantaged students who make up a vast majority of the small-school enrollment are also more likely than those in the control group to enroll in college.
The challenge facing Mr. de Blasio and his advisers is how to build on this impressive foundation.
New York City started talking about small schools in the 1990s, but it did not begin translating this into actual policy until the early 2000s, when Mr. Bloomberg began aggressively closing down large, factory-style high schools. Some of these big schools had enrollments of 3,000 or more students and graduation rates of less than 40 percent.
By contrast, the new smaller high schools, typically in black or Hispanic neighborhoods, serve about 100 students per grade. More than 90 percent of the students attending these schools are black or Hispanic. Nearly 85 percent qualify for free or reduced price lunches. Three-fourths of them began their high school careers performing below grade level in reading or math. These smaller schools have several other things in common. They have a rigorous curriculum. They offer a personalized approach to education, with teachers responsible for keeping close tabs on the performance of their students. They are organized around themes — social justice, law or science. They get valuable support from community partners — colleges, cultural organizations or social service groups — that sometimes assist with funding, the hiring of new staff members or providing ways for students to connect their schoolwork with the world of work.