To get a sense of school differences between the treatment and
control groups, Table 2 presents school-level characteristics (based
on 9th grade students) for small high schools as well as for the high
schools attended by the former classmates of small high school
students. School-level mean characteristics are calculated by 9th
grade cohort, and in Table 2 we present averages of the schoollevel
means weighted by 9th grade enrollment for all 9th grade
students enrolling in small high schools and their former classmates.
We also present average school characteristics separately
for Black and Hispanic students. As expected, the 9th grade cohort
size is substantially smaller for small school students compared
with their former classmates who attend regular high schools.
Small schools’ average cohort enrolled 154 students, compared
with 519 for the large high schools attended by their former classmates.
There are some differences across demographic characteristics,
with small schools enrolling a higher share of learning
disabled students (16.0% vs. 13.6%), a higher share of Black students
(79% vs. 64%), and a lower share of Hispanic students (19%
vs. 29%). The 8th grade achievement level of students in small
schools is also markedly lower. Small schools students scored an
average 0.25 standard deviations lower in math, and 0.18 standard
deviations lower in reading, and substantially fewer students had
test scores above the district average (i.e., z-score greater than
zero). Panels B and C break out the school characteristics separately
by student race. The patterns between small schools and
regular schools are relatively similar across these panels, with
small-school students attending schools with higher percentages
of Black students, fewer percentages of Hispanic students, and
lower baseline test scores. Notably, Black students attend small
schools with higher enrollment levels, but the control group
attends regular schools with lower enrollment levels, so the difference
in enrollment between small and regular schools is smaller
for Black students than for Hispanic students