On the Road Again: NYKids visits Malverne Senior High School
by Fang (Lisa) Yu and Aaron Leo
The Culture and Climate Connection
Many educators and policymakers have realized that student achievement is highly affected by school culture and climate. Malverne Senior High School in the NYKids Phase I College and Career Readiness study bore this out. As described in the NYKids’ Malverne case study:
Malverne Senior High School, which serves a more ethnically diverse student population than the average school in New York state, has achieved a pattern of better-than-predicted student graduation outcomes. Its “no failure” and “dream big” mantras, accompanied by a data-driven and collegial spirit, are evident in the way educators approach preparing the youth of Malverne for college or career. Positive and productive relationships across schools and among students and between students and adults are highly valued and supported by visionary leaders and staff who collaborate to help students to meet high expectations. Educators hired for their love of children provide timely interventions, offer cutting-edge curricula, and connect with parents, outside organizations, and agencies to maintain and continue to improve their “odds-beating” school.
Beating Predictions
Malverne Senior High School was selected to participate in the NYKids’ College and Career Readiness Study because (1) it serves a more diverse student population than the average school in New York State, and (2) it has achieved a pattern of better-than-predicted student graduation outcomes over several years. In the scatter plot, generated using the NYKids Performance Tracker, Malverne (identified in red) sits above the predicted line for graduation rates taking into consideration the percent of students living in low income households.
And this is no anomaly: In the last two decades, Malverne Senior High School has met annual yearly progress targets and has been categorized as a school in “good standing” by the state. Meanwhile, its graduation rates have risen dramatically from only 77% in 2005 to 96% in 2018, and this upward trend extends to a number of subgroups of students.
Failure: Not an Option
In NYKids’ College and Career Readiness Phase 1 study, we found that educators reported having a supportive school culture and clear vision of success as key to their upward student performance trajectory. In particular, educators at Malverne shared a mantra of “failure is not an option” and endeavored to exceed the minimum graduation requirements while celebrating a variety of non-academic successes that are also highly valued.
How students understand this mantra and what kinds of supports they report receiving are on the radar for data collection in the Phase 2 Student Study currently underway.
In the coming weeks and months, the NYKids research team will visit Malverne Senior High School again, as well as other odds-beating schools, to hear students’ perspectives about their high school experiences and post-high school plans.
Stay tuned for ongoing updates about the NYKids Phase 2 study in our blogs and on NYKids Facebook and Twitter, and visit our Performance Tracker to get quick visual displays of school performance like the one highlighted in this blog.
