Recent Publications by Shani Aida Evans
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Selecting a High School: Not a Level Playing Field
With the recent creation of many new, themed high schools and the continuing growth of the charter school movement, students in Philadelphia have more public high school options than ever.But more options haven’t meant that…
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Getting On Track: Lessons from Éxito’s First Year
Congreso de Latinos Unidos has partnered with Edison High School on the Éxito™ initiative since 2008-09 with the goal of reducing the school’s high dropout rate and increasing graduation rates. The program has received support…
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Blueprint for Secondary Education in Philadelphia: The Planning Process, 2006-2008
Between fall 2006 and spring 2008, the Philadelphia Education Fund (the Ed Fund) and the School District of Philadelphia (the District) co-convened a planning process for secondary education reform. The planning process brought together partners…
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Teacher Perceptions of Small High Schools
This research brief uses data from the School District of Philadelphia teacher survey to assess teacher perceptions of small and large neighborhood high schools.
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Going Small: Progress and Challenges of Philadelphia’s Small High Schools
Between 2003 and 2007, and without significant outside funding, the School District of Philadelphia created 25 new small high schools. This study, begun by Research for Action in 2006, follows the start-up and early implementation…
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Bringing a Public Voice to the School Governance Debate: The Campaign for Better Schools and Mayoral Control in New York City (Executive Summary)
In this two-year study, Research for Action (RFA), working in collaboration with Jeffrey Henig of Teachers College, assessed the formation and development of a coalition of organizing and advocacy groups, funded by the Donors’ Education…
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Bringing a Public Voice to the School Governance Debate: The Campaign for Better Schools and Mayoral Control in New York City (Year One Report)
In this two-year study, Research for Action (RFA), working in collaboration with Jeffrey Henig of Teachers College, assessed the formation and development of a coalition of organizing and advocacy groups, funded by the Donors’ Education…
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Challenges to Freshman Year Interventions in Philadelphia
Philadelphia made early investments in reforms designed to address the challenges of large neighborhood high schools, including supports for the critical ninth grade transition year. Well over a decade later, our research shows that freshman…
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Context, Conditions, and Consequences: Freshman Year Transition in Philadelphia
This policy brief focuses on the School District of Philadelphia’s high school selection process and the ways in which it reinforces and compounds inequities that already exist among the District’s tiered system of selective, non-selective,…
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Transition to High School: School ‘Choice’ and Freshman Year in Philadelphia
The School District of Philadelphia’s tiered system of selective, nonselective, and charter high schools, and the process for high school choice, has created real variation in the degree to which high schools can successfully meet…
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Uneven Playing Field: Demographic Differences and High School ‘Choice’ in Philadelphia
Every fall, eighth graders participate in the School District of Philadelphia’s high school application and admissions process, vying for spots in a tiered system of public high schools across the city. This policy brief looks…