Charting a Path to Graduation. The Effect of Project GRAD on Elementary School Student Outcomes in Four Urban School Districts

In the past decade, school districts around the country have sought to improve struggling urban high schools, where high dropout rates, poor student achievement, and low rates of graduation and college-going remain all too prevalent. In a field crowded with reform initiatives, Project Graduation Really Achieves Dreams (GRAD) stands out as particularly ambitious, focusing as it does on improving conditions for high school students "before" they even reach high school. Manpower Development Research Corporation (MDRC) has conducted an evaluation of Project GRAD in Houston and several expansion districts. This report focuses on student achievement at elementary schools in six feeder patterns, encompassing a total of 52 schools across four districts: Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; and Newark, New Jersey. A companion report offers findings on high school student achievement in Houston, Atlanta, and Columbus. Taken together, the findings from both reports highlight the challenges that urban school districts face in significantly improving the academic performance of high school students. While Project GRAD schools made some significant gains in elementary test scores and for students at the flagship high school in Houston, in other areas they did not outpace the comparison schools, many of which were also engaged in local and districtwide reforms. Appended are: (1) Impact Effect Sizes; (2) Selecting Comparison Schools; (3) The Cumulative Effects of Project GRAD on Elementary Student Achievement; (4) The Impacts of Project GRAD on Elementary Student Promotion Rates. (Contains 22 tables and 21 figures.) [Partial funding for this report provided by Lucent Technologies Foundation and Project GRAD USA.]