Comparison of Student Achievement of Modern Red SchoolHouse Schools and
“Other” District Schools
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Author: Dr. Willie Johnson, Executive Director of Planning and Evaluation, Jackson Public Schools, Jackson, Mississippi

Relation of author to model: implementer – Director of Research for district where MRSH design is being implemented

Date evaluation report completed: November, 2000

Months/years covered by evaluation: Fall, 1998 through Spring, 2000

Number of schools involved: Total Number of Elementary Schools = 37; Total Number of MRSH Elementary Schools = 3

Demographics of sample population: District consists of 32, 235 students 9% White, 90% African American, <1% Asian, Native American, and Hispanic 69% of the students in the district are economically disadvantaged; at the 3 MRSH schools, 95% of the students are economically disadvantaged and all 3 MRSH schools are Title I

Purpose of study: The Department of Planning and Evaluation at Jackson Public Schools in Mississippi recently completed a two-year study of comprehensive school reform (CSR) design implementation in their district. Three elementary schools in their district began implementing the MRSH design in the fall of 1998 and 23 other schools in the district began work with three other CSR designs.

Methodology: District researchers compared average gains in Normal Curve Equivalents (NCE's) between those two test administrations for schools implementing a CSR design against those schools in the district not implementing such a design. (Those schools not implementing a design were generally performing at or above district levels.)

Measures/indicators used to assess effectiveness: Baseline achievement data was collected throughout the district in the fall of 1998 with the administration of the ITBS reading and mathematics exams to third, fourth, and fifth grade students. In the spring of 2000, the district administered the Terra Nova assessments to students at those same grade levels.

Figure 5 Jackson Public Schools, Jackson, Mississippi: Gains in Normal Curve Equivalents (NCE's) for MRSH versus Non-CSR Schools on state assessments for reading, language arts and mathematics, grades 3, 4, and 5, Fall 1998 and Spring 2000

Reading    Language    Mathematics

Findings: NCE gains for students at MRSH schools were greater than all other comparison groups. Figure 5 shows the comparison of MRSH students versus students enrolled in schools not implementing a CSR design.

For grades three and five in language arts and mathematics, students at the three MRSH schools in Jackson gained substantially more NCE units than students at schools not implementing a CSR design, notably closing the gap between MRSH schools and non-CSR schools.

Fourth grade gains were not as strong for the MRSH schools. In fact, students at non-implementing sites gained—on average—more NCE's (mathematics and reading) than or the same (language arts) as students at MRSH sites.