Student Achievement, School Structure, and the Effects of Small Learning Community Implementation in Los Angeles

A Network Approach

Richard Bowman

ResearchPublished Oct 11, 2010

The division of Los Angeles' large urban comprehensive high schools into groups of Small Learning Communities (SLCs) within the school campus was proposed as a way to improve academic outcomes. While the effects of school size on students have been explored in detail and converting school structure "in-place" is less costly than constructing several new small schools, little research has been completed regarding the structural or academic effects of dividing large schools into whole-school or "wall-to-wall" SLCs on the same campus. With this policy and research backdrop, this dissertation defines and identifies communities of students, evaluates the level of sorting and segregation in schools and communities in schools, explores correlations between school structure and academic outcomes, and evaluates the effects of SLC implementation on school structure and academic outcomes.

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Bowman, Richard, Student Achievement, School Structure, and the Effects of Small Learning Community Implementation in Los Angeles: A Network Approach. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2010. https://www.rand.org/pubs/rgs_dissertations/RGSD273.html.
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This document was submitted as a dissertation in September 2010 in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the doctoral degree in public policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. The faculty committee that supervised and approved the dissertation consisted of Paul Dreyer (Chair), Harold Green, and Francisco Martorell.

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