Big-City School Districts Face a Big Job

There are nearly 17,000 public school districts in the U.S. in all, but administrators in the 100 largest - less than one-tenth of one percent of that total - contend with disproportionately large challenges. Schools in their systems educate nearly a quarter of all students in the nation, including many who are disadvantaged. Throughout the U.S., forty percent of all minority students and nearly one student in three who receives a free or reduced-price lunch attend big city schools.

Working in collaboration with the Council of the Great City Schools, MDRC researchers found that some of the nation's fastest improving urban school systems are raising overall academic performance while reducing achievement gaps among students of different racial groups. They are tackling education reform on a districtwide basis, and key to their success, the new study found, are stable leadership, centrally coordinated changes in curriculum and instruction, and data-driven accountability. The findings provide new evidence that big-city school districts can boost student achievement in ways that help realize the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

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